I have a 2001 Maxima. Used the jack for the very first time tonight in my garage. I took the front right wheel off (had to jack the front right end really high to get the tire off). After I got the tire off, I decided to lower the front end a little bit because I didn't like that front right end so high in the air. As I'm lowering the car, the jack bends and gives out. Anybody else have any problems like this? I did get two nice scraches in my rear bumber because of this however.

Any other experiences with these jacks bending and giving out?

Any suggestions for fixing two deep and wide scratches in my bumper?

I'm not happy.

 

i have never ever removed that jack from the trunk. its for emergency use only and obviously sucks

 

How did you get scratches on the rear when the front was jacked up?

I'm assuming you were using the factory jack. If it was not perpindicular to the garage floor it could 'bend' and give out. Is your garage floor level? Did you chock the wheels? Did you apply the parking brake?

I've never had a factory jack do that on any car.

 

that happened to me once.. I was changing the front brakes and the jack bent so bad.. that It almost hit me. My son was close to the car and I had to push him out of the way even though he wasn't in danger.... after that went ot Sears and bought a nice big jack... no more surprises........

 

hey dude what i usually do when i jack up a car and take the wheel off--turn the wheel upside down and put it under the chasis some where stable so if that type of thing happens it will not kill ur car or u

 

Man, that s*cks. I didn't realize the Max jack was that unsafe. (I've never used it, but have used other OEM jacks on my other cars for fixing flats) Never had a problem with those other ones. I've only used a floor jack for the Max so far. Hopefully I won't ever have to use the OEM Max jack.

 

Try to stay away fro those suckers.. I replaced mine with a Toyota one.. it looks stronger..... And NEVER EVER do what I did... It was stupid unsafe and STUPID from my part....

 

My wife has a 96 Camry and I've used that jack to fix a few flats. It worked well and didn't seem unsafe. Same goes for the jack in my old 93 Accord.

Hmm....maybe I should hit the salvage yards for a Toyota or Honda jack......

 

Ive seen those jacks bend when the car moves, as when you are removing or tightening the lugs...They are a POS...You can go to Wally World and spend $9 on a 2-ton jack, and can save yourself a heart attack, or even your life...

 

The stock emergency jack is pretty much the same style of jack no matter which car company you go with. I've had 2 fail on me from Dodge and 1 fail on me from Toyota. I've used 3 different Nissan/Infiniti emergency jacks, and they've always worked well.

That said, I have to admit that the 3 failures I experienced were my fault. I did them all in the same night when I was jacking up a Dodge Caravan. The front left tire went flat, so I used the jack to lift the front left side. Once I got the car up, it would move slightly backward, causing the jack to go off-center and collapse/bend. This happened because I forgot to set the parking brake and place chocks to keep the back wheels from rolling.

If you use the emergency jack on level ground and chock the wheels to prevent the car from shifting, the jack won't fail, and the car won't fall off the jack.

 

I was hoping no one would ask how I got the scratches on the rear bumber.... But like a village idiot, I pulled my car in my garage with about 8 inches of room between my car and the garage door. I then closed my garage door before jaking the car up. When the jack buckled/bent... the car slid back and hit a metal piece on my garage door. The garage door wasn't damage at all (luckily). If I would have pulled the car in 1 inch further... I wouldn't have the scratches.

My garage floor is level, parking brake on and wheels were not cocked. I had to then get the jack out of my wifes Camry and like a couple other posters have mentioned.... the Toyota jack is a lot stronger than the Nissan jack.

Any quick and in-expensive ideas how to fix these scratches in my rear bumper?

 

If you have pics of the bumper, start a thread in the Detailing Forum. It's hard to determine how to fix them without seeing them.

 

Quite the opposite happened.

The car rolled back because it wasn't properly held in place by the e-brake or a wheel chuck.

** Thats why your jack bent. **

 

My jack gave up on me when I had a flat one time. Lucky I had put the tire under the car when it gave. Called AAA and had them finish the job. The Nissan jack is a piece of sh__!

Pedro

 

Never tried the stock emergency jack, but I've always carried around a 2 1/4 ton garage jack with me....

 

used my jack plently of times..works great till this day

 

You're not the first that happen to you. This happened to me when I was jacking up my front and it did bend and gave out. I was pissed, yet, I had to buy a floor jack just to get the front back up to get my tire back on. Damn Nissan, they make the Maxima either too heavy or the jack wasn't strong. I complained to Nissan Affair office since the dealer won't give me a new one, they say "it must been used improperly". So they wanted 75 bucks for a new jack, hell with that. Instead I got a floor jack from Wally World for 16 bucks, least it works better.