brauhaus313

I searched the forum and the owners manual but can't find any info as to where to place jackstands on the W212.

There's two issues I'm seeing.

First, older MB's have centrally located jack points where you can lift the vehicle and then place jackstands on the sides of the car. AFAIK, the W212 has no such jacking points, and so if you jack from the sides, you can't place a jackstand in the correct side location.

Second, the side jacking points are shaped to accept the jacking saddle of the spare tire jack. However, no jackstand has this shape to fit the jacking point, and adapters I've seen online are only to facilitate the use of floor jacks, and not to fit jackstands.

So, even if I could get the front or the rear of the car up, there's no where to properly place jackstands and I don't want to take guesses as to where I can place jackstands on the bottom of the car.

Any help?

hyperion667

man, this would be an awesome idea for learning how to jack one of these cars up,
so you could jack it

BudC

I've had this problem starting with our 2004 E320. My old 300E has rubber bumpers where you can place jack stands. Nothing on the newer cars.

tjkaz

How about ramps?

BudC

I used to rotate my wheels and ramps wouldn't work for that.

tjkaz

Good example of what they wouldn't work for. Guess it depends upon what one wants to do.
I personally haven't rotated my tires....umm....like....ever. I have had staggered setups on my previous MBs going back 12 years starting w/my 2000 SL500.
Seems like a lot of work compared to driving to a local shop and have them do if for you; either at the dealer or where the tires were purchased, and generally for free.

BudC

I don't do it anymore but I have a 20 year old 300E that I did all the service on for most of it's life. The only time it went to a dealer was to have the transmission serviced.

As for having he dealer rotate the wheels, I've had that done twice and got charged $30 for it. Then they didn't even bother changing the tire pressures.

Since I buy my tires from Tire Rack, I don't get free tire rotations.

Anyway, there were a lot of cost cutting changes made since my '91 W124 was manufactured and the disappearance of the rubber bumpers was just one of them.

oggie

Someone actually sells jack pad for our cars and they fit perfectly. Speak to Fred to get yourself one.

http://www.ReverseLogic.us/

BudC

The advantage of the rubber pads on the older cars was that you could use both the car jack and a jack stand.

brauhaus313

I wish your suggestion were the magic bullet, unfortunately, as I mentioned in my OP, jackpads are useless to help place jackstands under the car.

I need a jackstand solution because I want to do some suspension work. I will have to get under the car, and don't want to do that with just floor jacks supporting the car.

oggie

But don't you need to jack up your car before you can get underneath it with a jack stand?

brauhaus313

Wait a minute....who's on first?

Did you read the entirety of my original post? I'm not trying to be a dick, but its all spelled out there, and I think other contributors are getting the issue.

Jacking the car from the subframe would probably be a bad idea right?

MCF

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs laying under a car???

JACK!!

steelgrey

You know this is really a valid question and I for one would appreciate a serious answer. I doubt if any of you have used the jack provided with the car but, it really is unusual as jacks go. I used it once and had the car fall off of it. Luckily I had not removed the wheel or I would have had a problem. Anybody have a valid answer?

Mbenz260e

Wow that is scary hopefully didn't damage your car at all. Even with your wheels on that jack could do some serious damage under the car or to the side of the car.

I really should learn how to jack up these cars appropriately as well. I prefer using ramps when possible and last MB I had to lift was a W124 which I really did like how the included jack worked, I am sorry they got away from that method I think after the W210 I think?

MBNUT1

I believe that on the W211's you could jack the car up by the front sub frame and differential thereby providing a location to place the jack stands. I would assume the same would be true for the W212. But don't take my word alone for it. I would suggest searching the W211 threads. In additions there were jack pads available to preclude damaging the undercarriage with the jack stand.