I was working on the brakes on the front driver side with the scissor jack stand from the trunk. BOOM! the car just fell right on the concrete. I was lucky I was not under there...but still got a bump on the head...whew!! Saw my life pass by and got really petrified since I often do work under the car as well.

 

 

Anyhow, when I am going slow I hear some "rubbing" sound coming from that front end. When I took a look, everything looks ok. The disc brakes seem to be a bit more tight on one spot as I rotate the wheel...but that is the extent.

 

Any suggestions what is causing this rubbing noise?

Jackstands are your friend.

 

Rubbing sound could be due to a mangled wheel bearing or a bent rotor.. possibly a bent backing plate.. For your sake I hope its a bent backing plate..

 

Scissor jacks are intended for side of the road tire changing.. nothing else.

Well, I won't punish you for your mistake, I've been there where it was an emergency and I did work on the Scissor Jack out of nessecity.

 

Anyhow, if it landed on the rotor then there is a good chance that it not only bent the backer in against the rotor, but it also probably damaged the rotor in more ways than one. You may want to keep an eye on it. Taking an impact like that might not show up immediately, but after a few heat cycles things may show up like cracks.

 

Keith

DUDE! Learn from that one...jack stands are CHEAP too!

 

I'm betting your rotor is out of round....probably rubbing on the back or has a nice warp in it now....cheap fix if it can be surfaced....any tire place should be able to tell you gratis...

I hate to beat a dead horse but please for the love of god get some jackstands. I do not want to go to a funeral for a fallen subaru lover. Find your nearest Harbour freight and get a set. They usually come with a nice hydraulic jack too....it's about $30.00 and it is in a nice case. Throw away your scissor jack and keep that in your trunk please. Hope your roo recovers just as fast and as well as you. Glad to see nobody was seriously hurt.

I hate to beat a dead horse but please for the love of god get some jackstands. I do not want to go to a funeral for a fallen subaru lover. Find your nearest Harbour freight and get a set. They usually come with a nice hydraulic jack too....it's about $30.00 and it is in a nice case. Throw away your scissor jack and keep that in your trunk please. Hope your roo recovers just as fast and as well as you. Glad to see nobody was seriously hurt.

 

Will do. Thanks people...these are small things that a lonely weekend fixer-upper neglects. I wonder if death/injury by falling jacks are common? From now on I am going to use tires, bricks, and wood to support the car EVEN with JACKS.

Bricks/wood are a bad idea also. They can crumble.

 

Just get some jackstands and use them. C'mon.

What people won't do to save a buck...

Well, I admit that I do use the scissor jack for my bi-annual wheel swap. Of course I don't get under the car, and the wheel that comes off the car goes under the corner I am lifting - just in case. Rather squash a wheel than a hub assembly.

 

Other work dictates jack stands - or renting a "booth" with a proper lift.

...I wonder if death/injury by falling jacks are common?

A kid in my Senior class died, when his project truck fell on him. And this the day after a friend of mine had warned him to use jack stands or something...Very sad...And my friend was crushed (no pun intended).

A kid in my Senior class died, when his project truck fell on him. And this the day after a friend of mine had warned him to use jack stands or something...Very sad...And my friend was crushed (no pun intended).

 

You know as a newbie I got so excited to work on my soobie with teachings from this board. Saved literally hundreds of dollars. However, I really never thought of safety issues. If it was not for you guys on this board, I would have bought myself a new scissor jack from the dealer.

I made a lift block that goes on the saddle of my 2-ton floor jack to allow lifting of the unibody just like the scissor jack does it. MUCH safer!!! Admittedly I only have two jackstands, and I think every shop needs at least four.

I use a hydraulic floor jack and still use the stands, with the jack as additional support.

 

My Beemer jack is a single leg peg that sticks into a slot under the car. I will only use that thing if I have to change a flat. They use this type of jack a lot on German vehicles.

I took my scissor jack out of the car and put my 2-ton hydro jack/2-jackstand combo in the molded case combo that I bought at harbor freight for

 

$30.00 There is no reason why someone should put their lives at risk just because you don't want to drop $30.00

on a jack and jackstands. I see ads in newspapers and fliers for the local parts store having the same combo for about $30.00.

 

I also have a set of ramps in the garage but thats for all the "wheels-on" stuff.

 

Sorry if I come off like an arse...safety is job 1.

Granted you have to take the wheels off to do brakes, so yes jackstands are necessary for that...

 

But has everyone forgotten the timeless beauty of ramps? I have a set of Blitz ramps that I use all the time, from doing exhaust work to doing shifter bushings. That's the absolute safest way to raise your car off the ground if you don't have to remove your wheels...

I use my old steel ramps for everything that doesn't require wheel removal.

One of the ways I got to be old is stopping working on cars with inadaquate safety precautions. I use ramps, blocking, jackstands, and then throw a wheel under the car. If all else fails the wheel will keep it off your chest an maybe save your life.

This writeup will be old news to most everyone here, but a while back I put this together and submitted it to Scoobymods. Since it's sometimes easier to comprehend photos and visual info, it may help someone out. The photos are specific to a bugeye generation Impreza, but the idea should be the same for most subies:

 

http://users.sisna.com/ignatius/subaru/mods/jack/

 

Please use jackstands, and a good floor jack. It's worth it.

 

Steve

This writeup will be old news to most everyone here, but a while back I put this together and submitted it to Scoobymods. Since it's sometimes easier to comprehend photos and visual info, it may help someone out. The photos are specific to a bugeye generation Impreza, but the idea should be the same for most subies:

 

http://users.sisna.com/ignatius/subaru/mods/jack/

 

Please use jackstands, and a good floor jack. It's worth it.

 

Steve

 

Thanks! That was helpful,,,didn;t know you used them at the same time.

I think you've got the idea now about being safe. A lot of people would still be be around if they stopped what they are doing, looked things over, and asked themselves "what if" before they started the activity. I'm glad you were shaken by this incident as you will probably think about this for the rest of your life in whatever you do that could cause an injury or worse. I think it is also a good idea to have someone else around when doing things like this just in case something does happen. Hopefully a rescue will get the person out of the situation without injury. Folks have died because there was nobody around to get them out of the situation.

 

A commom thing I hate to see is people trying to work on cars on the side of the road close to the traffic lane. Especially on a highway. I think most of us have seen videos of close calls with non-attentive drivers. The person who does this is risking their life. They are counting on all the drivers seeing and a avoiding them. Is it worth the risk?

Another thing to consider is where you support the car. Rust may have weakened the jacking points to the point of failure. I was jacking my olg GL and had the wheel clear of the ground just before CRUNCH thea car came back down and the jack dissapeared up inside the rockerpannel. Lucky it gave way then and didn't hold till I got under. Use SOLID structural points. Just my 2cents.

Thank God you're okay. I don't know how common death and injury is across the nation from people working on improperly supported cars. But there was a sobering story of a man (who was a husband and a dad) here in the local news not too long ago. He was crushed to death in his garage because he didn't use jack stands while working on the brakes. His wife was the one who discovered his body.

Yea, most of the time, wedding vows don't include having to put up with a finding a stupid husband's body under the car, let alone one of you kids!

 

The Air Force calls looking out for yourself and your equipment "Risk Assessment."