Anytime I have to get under my car I say a prayer that it doesn't fall on me,
I just hate having the only thing between life and death are some Chinese mfg.
jack stands. I did recently purchased some new ones that have locking things that slide in
and make sure the jack doesn't go down for any reason. I also purchased some rubber bits that
go on the jackstand to fit into the Mercedes jack points. I worry about those a little. What if they come apart?

I find it difficult to get the car up high enough for me to get under it.
When my Mercedes ownership experience 1st started years ago, I was 23 years younger and
probably 100 lbs lighter.
So, I've recently purchased a like new 35k mile 2002 M111 powered C230 Kompressor sport coup.
Unfortunately it has the dreaded Valeo radiator. I've removed the radiator, and
am now under the car replacing the conductor plate, filter, gasket and 'pilot bushing' (as Mercedes calls it, the plastic piece with the
orings). I got the pan off last night. The car is jacked up as far as the jack will allow. I could barely move.
I have in the past used chunks of 2x4's and 4x4's to get it up higher but man, I really cringe when doing so.
Mostly recently the car fell off the jack while jacking up the front from the jack point on the front middle, but just fell down onto the jack stand, but still managed to break a tab off on the radiator fan prior to my removing it. I think it will be ok.

I need to get it up higher! What are my best options for doing so? I'm currently using a 1.5 ton
low profile jack like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/375679648399.
Looks like maybe it jacks a max of about 14". What are you guys using?
Are there blocks you can purchased that will safely increase the jacking height?
And how safe are jack stands anyway? Geez, I've been doing this stuff for years, but I really really hate being completely under a car with nothing
but crappy jacktands to determine if I live or die. Not the way I want to go. I need more room! And no, a rack isn't in my budget.
I did purchase some ramps with jacks in them, but I didnt use them this time as I needed to remove the wheels to get the bumper off and now I can't start the car, it's all torn apart in front, just trust me it's not possible.
I put the wheels back on, just well, because. If nothing else the car won't be on the ground with no wheels.
Thinking of trying to slide the jacking ramps in backwards but again that requires putting a wood block between the jack and the car to get it high enough. I just hate this sheet.

 

instead of using jack stands consider equal blocks under each wheels.
Like 2Ft section of 4x4 Lumber.
That's what I did to work on 722.9 ISM.

I live in "earthquake county" so jack stands are not my favorite go-to solution... to each his own: Everything can tumble.

 

I use Rhino Ramps any time I need to be under the car. They provide about 7" of lift which is enough for me. Like you, I don't trust jack stands or anything hydraulic to hold the vehicle up.

 

My previous vehicles were jeep grand Cherokees which I could easily get under, even had to buy an suv type floor jack that has an extension just to get it in the air. Now I have a W204 sport which is very low, I have to drive on wood planks just to fit my floor jacks under it.

I made ramps out of wood, basically 2x12's stacked on top of each other. When I was servicing the transmission I needed it a little higher so I drove the car up the 4 ramps then jacked it up more and put more wood planks under the wheels.

I have found it seems very dangerous jacking it up high and can see it sliding/falling down. I have 2 floor jacks, a scissor jack, 4 jack stands, 4 wood ramps, then a bunch of wood timbers like 8x8's ill shove under the car. Ive even slid the wheels under the car. Plus I have a gravel parking area so not the safest.

If the wheels dont have to come off I wont take them off. if I have to take the wheels off i'll leave it on the floor jack and shove blocks of wood under the arm of the jack so if it fails it shouldnt be able to lower, then ill have additional jack stands or wood timbers under next to the jacks. And I wont actually go under the car, thats for things like working on brakes.



Working on the exhaust with the car on my wooden ramps. Scissor jack handy for holding up the exhaust.




Front on ramps. Planks stacked 3 high.

 

One time exception -- I put my Jeep Wrangler up on 8"x10" oak blocks about 3 ft. long. I needed the extra clearance for the transmission jack when I did a clutch job. I chocked all 4 wheels front and behind. Getting it up that high did take 2 steps lifting one side up about halfway, then the other side. Then back to the first side with a 6x6 block on the trolley jack, and shoving the 8x10 under the wheel, then the other side.

 

IF you can swing it money wise and have ceiling height, get a lift.
Then you are safer and work on many cars/trucks for allsorts of jobs.

And since they are simple to use; more likely to do maintenance, rotate tires etc


TUXEDO Asymmetric 2 Post Car Lift Clear Floor 9,000 lbs. Capacity Heavy Duty in Black TP9KAC-TUX - The Home Depot

Dannmar - D2-10C -10,000-lbs. Capacity Two-Post Lift - Symmetric - Includes Stackable Pads and Adapters

GrandPrix GP-10C Two-Post Lift - 5175824 - 10,000-lbs Lifting Capacity

In my neighborhood I have counted 3 garages with 2 post lift.
1 guy with 4 post.

 

2-post lifts require certain minimum height/width clearances, and since they bolt to the concrete floor, certain minimum floor specifications too. Any idea what these installation requirements are?

There are hydraulic integrated ramps that might work for those needing more than 7" of normal ramp lift.

 

Find the two post lift that you like, then contact the manufacturer for the minimum concrete thickness, psi and anchor requirements.

When I was shopping for my lift I looked for months. I ended up buying a 4 post lift because I didn’t want to saw cut, dig and repour some of the concrete in my garage to anchor the 2 post lift to. Most garage floors are only 3 1/2” thick standard concrete which will not work for a 2 post lift.

There are jacks that fit onto 4 post lift ramps so you can lift the car and remove the wheels. I haven’t bought those yet.

 

What about losing 100lbs? No jack stand needed.

Have you considered that option? There would be benefits beyond car maintenance.

 

Thanks for the info. My outbuilding garage has a 6" floor, 10'x10' doors and a 12' ceiling. Think I'd go with the 4-post arrangement, if I was going to do the full lift.

 

True, but I need the work to be completed sooner rather than later. I should post a photo
with the front of my car all torn apart...but that part isn't the part that scares me so much.

It's the transmission work. In any case, I went out yesterday and bought a
3.5 ton jack from autozone that has a jack height of 22". I'm going to bring the front up a little more
and slide the jacking ramps under and put the weight on the front wheels.
And for the back, I'l continue to use the jack stands and also put a jack under the diff and throw a couple additional jackstands into the mix
just to be safe. Watched a pretty good video on jackstands here.
Amazingly though rated at 3tons each, (6 tons per pair) most exceeded
30,000 lbs of weight EACH before failing with one exception, one brand is complete garbage with pop
rivets holding the feet on. Amazon no longer sells them thankfully.
So it isn't the downward force it's side to side and front to back that can get you.
As someone said, I'm also in Earthquake country, right by the ocean in the PNW with that
major subduction zone in need of a serious correction and earthquake in the horizon at some point,
But just as with the San Adreas you never know when.
I like the wood blocks thing. Well hopefully finish this job and no more climbing under the car for a while.
I wanted a car I wouldn't have to work on all the time. LOL.
That Autozone jack is a beast, weighs over 100 lb and is rated pretty highly by purchasers.
It also has a nice jack point, quite wide and was on sale at $150, supposedly $200 off.
Yeah, right. Say a prayer for me.

 

I have an old Craftsman floor jack that still works great. It was leaking fluid at one point so i went ahead and took it apart to measure the o-rings to order new ones and oddly enough it stopped leaking, I think just removing the o-rings and reseating them solved the leaks. I still have new o-rings i ordered if needed. Then I have a Husky suv type floor jack that I got at Home Depot around 2004 that still works great, that just has an additional pipe adapter for height.

I use scrap pieces of azek composite trim to put between the jack and the car to act as a cushion, it compresses a little without cracking so I dont ruin the jacking pads on the car.

My local Lowes has a 50% damaged wood cart i'm always picking thru, sometimes they just tell me to take it for free because they want it gone.

 

I do like TimC posted, a wood ramp (pix below), but my ramp is simply bigger. I used 2x12 boards stacked 4 or maybe 5 high? They also have a ton of long screws bolting them together, so no chance of coming apart. I cut the leading edges at a 45 to make it easier to drive up. Also, like the picture, the steps need to spaced far apart or my cars front lip will hit before the tire. A store bought ramp would never work for me, the body would hit long before the tire does. But I would NEVER trust a store bought ramp anyway, especially a plastic one.
I don't really care for jack stands on cars like the benz because there aren't a lof of safe places to put them. I think the solid wood ramps or large wood blocks are the way to go. No cinder block bricks either! I've seen that, which is sketchy at best.

Two stories: One, when I was ~16, a friend used a bottle jack to lift his camero up for a look-c. He jacked the frame up at the front center, then slid his skull under and BOOM! the jack slipped off the frame, and lucky for him the jack caught the radiator support, which it bent to Fk, but stopped the fame from popping his skull like a hammer to an egg. If I recall correctly, the frame pushed his nose leaving a black grime mark on it. Had it not caught the rad support, and "if" he survived, he would be hating life.
Years later I bought a fancy new aluminum racing floor jack. It was sweet, light, but made in china... I jacked up my Benz, from the front center, thought about sticking my skull under there, but Hmmm, better get some stands. I turn to get them and BAM!!!! It dropped the car. I don't mean lowered it fast, I mean dropped it like the jack instantly vanished. So now I'm exponentially more paranoid of getting under a car, hence the super wood ramps I made. I've had a few other jack fail stories too, like using a small floor jack to lift my current car up by the diff, only to watch the car slowly move to once side and fall. So don't think that's safe either. Plus misc similar stories with bottle and farm jacks.
When I work on my truck, I don't need to jack it up, but if I take a wheel off I'll stick it under the axle in case it falls, for whatever reason. When I do things like the brakes on my car, I'll use a floor jack, but at all times I position myself so if the jacks does that drop trick it won't get me. If I need to get under there for any reason, the wheel goes under first.
Somewhat unrelated story: I was guiding a 3200lb load to a truck bed, that was being lifted/moved via a rather large crane. 3200 was nothing for this puppy, like you holding a soda. When the load was pretty much over me, the cable snapped!!! No clue how that was possible, but it did. It broke at the spool and it had some sort of safety feature to grab the cable when this happens, which it did, and the load only dropped a couple feet. Fyi, sht happens.

 

These "US Jacks" jack stands seem pretty good. Wide, and of course the winner in the video I posted.
Yeah, $275 for 2. Yikes. Wow, $800 for the 10 ton ones.
Well like i said, I bought some ramps with jacks in them.
They are all steel, no plastic and supposedly good to 10 tons.
I only need what, maybe 1 ton per axle on a W203 C class?
Thats my short term plan, put the front on these ramps in backward with jackstand still in place as
backups. Finish the job t hand and long term get me
some "US Jacks". https://www.usjack.com/products/garage-jack-stands
Actually made in USA. Imagine that.

 

It's funny when I was younger I didn't really worry so much. I used whatever they had at the local auto parts store,
but with everything made in China these days and no accountablility, you get concerned.
Perhaps also just being older (and wiser)? It's harder than it was for me 'back in the day'. It's taking me a long while to complete this
project while life continues to go on, so I can't work on it constantly as I might like.
I slept a good portion of today resting up for the next round which is getting the
conductor plate out (722.6). I've read the bolts sometimes snap off? Yee gads.
I was thinking of using an electric iron to warm the bolts up. A torch is probably a bad idea, the
ATF would likely catch fire !!!!!!!
Already have the pan off. Whoever did a fluid change on this thing in the past WAAAY overtorqued the pan and drain plug.
Drain plug T30 stripped out. I guess I'll need to drill it out and use an EZ out and maybe use some heat.
I actually do know who did the work, it's on the Carfax. I hope they didn't mess with the conductor plate.
So, next steps are R&R conductor plate, reinstall pan with new filter and gasket as well as Oring thing (722.6)
then partially install radiator and flush all the fluid through trans coolant pipe. Then complete the reasembly, radiator, intercooler, bumper. Hopefully then I will reach Nirvana; no more rough 1 to 2 shifting issues and finally be able to drive my like new, 23 year old, 100% garage kept, 100% no rust California car. Also 2 owners with same owner since 2005. I think no one ever told them about the Valeo radiator, because the Carfax has 8 pages of careful maintenance but nothing about tossing that Sheety radiator! I'm gonna take it out in the woods and fill it full of lead!

 

I went with Harbor Freight's higher end jack and stands. I have zero complaints other than they're all quite heavy.

The Daytona 3 ton jack stands with circular pads are extremely well built and the circular feet on each leg create a very wide, stable base. The circular cup accepts the BMS motorsports aluminum jack point adapters perfectly. I have two sets so the car is completely in the air.

The Daytona long reach low profile 3 ton jack has a rectangular cup with a rubber cover that perfectly fits the W205 front jack point. It's a little bit of a chore to get the cup to the rear diff, and I use a section of 2x4 to get a little extra height.

Once it's up in the air on all four points it feels as stable as if it were on a 4 post.