"He yelled for help but those around were unable to get the car off of him and when paramedics arrived he was pronounced dead"

So much for my hope he at least died quickly. Terrible.

That's really nice.

BTW, it's "chock" the wheels...

Few other useful tips.

Don't start a second task until you finish the first (eg. if you change the oil, don't go changing brake pads until you've refilled the oil.)

Always double and triple check your jack stands. Bending over one more time to see their position is worth the effort.

If your gut feeling tells you something isn't right, trust it. Doing anything that's risky, even for a couple seconds, isn't worth it.

If you're using jack stands: after they take the car's load, just leave your floor jack in place under the car a hair below where it would be holding the car's weight. It's a simple second-line safety. If you put wheels under the car, you've got your third-line.

Dying while working on your car is a terrible and needless way to 'go'. Prevent it with diligence and being over-cautious.

Keep your cellphone in your pocket. There would be a strong chance that it could be reachable.

Damn, this is sad.

A sad day indeed - I honestly get incredibly nervous every single time I get under a car and I have one of those coming up soon to change my own oil. How safe is it to have one of these 370Z's up on 4 jack stands? I'd like the car to be as level as possible when draining but if its not worth the risk I could easily stick with just 2 stands and chocks.

i use a ramp for oil changes. as long as you chock the rear tire it's fine. im not as anal as some of you about leveling off the car while draining. cant get all of it out anyway.

How sturdy are jack stands usually? I'd be afraid of simply doing something like removing the lug's off the wheels and that forward/backwards motion causing the jack stands to tip over. Are their bases usually wide enough that this isn't a possibility?

thats terrible. as far as the jack points on our cars are concerned... should you place the jack on the jack point and then place the jack stand as close as possible to that point, or should you jack the car up from close to the jack point, then place the jack stand on the jack point.

I think we really need a good sort of DIY guide on jacking the car and using jack stands. This sort of question seems to come up quite a bit.

Always break the lugs loose while the car is on the ground. Same for re-torquing them when done.

When I was doing my spacers it kind of scared me how much force I had to apply to the caliper bolts while the front of the car was up in the air. You have to stick your head in the wheel well to get good leverage, so I just used a mallet to hit the wrench.

:o Oh yeah, I remember reading that, but I never connected the two. Makes sense! Sound's kind of scary though, I mean how gentle would you need to be while cranking on a bolt to say remove the exhaust?

yep, i do that sometimes too. just a closed wrench and a mallet and a few wacks instead of breaker bar and pulling at it. of course impact gun would be even more convenient. :icon17:

(modshack laughing at us right about now with his nifty lift and shop)...