dlearl

Looking for opinions on best location to place jack stands on a 1995 90 Quattro.

CRAZY_RUSSIAN

somewhere where they wont slip out? ;-)
same place where you put your jack!

Lago Blue

Good question, I struggle with this too. Most of the time I can use the 4-armed hoist and avoid the stands all together, and I use hockey pucks to cushion the car from hoist's metal pads. However sometimes stands are the only choice.

The third common problem I usually see with the jack-stands is the top contact surface area is often too small, often toothed and is again just bare metal.

When supporting the front of the car, some will fit into the OEM 'U' shaped lift(?) brackets behind each front wheel. On the rear, I prefer to lift on the horizontal skin of the inner rocker panel, just inboard of the vertical seams, and just aft of the large rubber plugs. Doing this without causing any damage requires that you have a soft cap for your stands such as:

Polyurethane 'JackPads' http://www.prothane.com/Editor/scripts/assets/14.jpg or something similar such as pieces cut from an old tire.

The second common problem I often see is jack stands extended; and unstable. I don't like to see them used above their lowest height. If you need more height, get bigger (wider) stands that are taller to begin with.

The most common problem: failure to recognize the limitations of what you may have laying around. This part of the task at hand often receives the least amount of fore-thought. I'm not real fond of this: photo below shows perhaps creative and even careful use of perhaps a, for the purpose bought 2 x 4 to increase the stand's foot-print, however cheap or poor softwood (as shown) can easily split during use and may do so unexpectedly. The saddles at the top of the stands are too sharp and small to use bare like this reliably against just a common softwood board. Supporting your car properly is serious stuff. Always err on the plus side when jacking your car.

yodasfro

pinch weld?

Lago Blue

I don't like to lift on the bottoms of these, as the contact area is too small. I don't want to bend them over either, or damage the undercoating or paint. The proper tool for the job will leave no evidence of its use. Think "do no harm" and try to have as big a contact area as possible.

If you have an adapter that presses up on both sides of the welded flanges (see first photo) that you can fasten to the top of your jack-stands, that would be great, but this one is meant to fit into your jack's cup.

Even the infamous OEM jack (second photo) doesn't press on the bottom of the pinch-welds/flanges, it simply <i>locates</i> there. The strength of your entire car is in these slender box sections, be creful not to damage them. When I go look at a used car, this is the first place I look.