[F87source]

Credit: F87Source



Introduction:

In this product review I will be looking at the BMS aluminum Jack Pad adapter for BMW’s (plus the Toyota Supra - which pretty much is a BMW) and all the intricacies that make this the best jack pad adapter on the market. I will also go over why every BMW owner should own at least 1 jack pad adapter, but why it is better to get the four pack (which is what I opted for).

So if you are interested in purchasing the BMS jack pad adapter here is the link to do so: https://burgertuning.com/collections...ck-pad-adapter



Disclaimer:

Damage/Injury Disclaimer: Any information, guidance, technical advice, coding advice, tuning advice, datalogging advice, installation instruction, calculation, experiment, safety information, or product installation demonstrated in my reviews is to be consumed and or done at your own risk. I will not be responsible for personal injuries, injuries to others or any living being, or any damage to your car, or any property damage.

Monetary disclaimer: I do not make commission, or profits or any kind of monetary gain from the sale of the BMS BMW Jack Pad Adapter.

Sponsorship disclaimer: The way my reviews work is that I determine what product that I want to buy and actually use on my own car, and during this process the product that I end up choosing is what I believe is the best option on the market. I then reach out to the company offering the product and ask them if they would be willing to sponsor me in a review, if the answer is yes then I write a review, if the answer is no I would end up buying the product (sometimes at a later date) but I wouldn’t complete a detailed review about it (I might write something, but not to the same extent as my standard reviews). But the critical thing is that I reach out for a sponsorship and not the other way around, this means that the products I am reviewing are actually things I believe in and would use on my own car. This also means that I am not being paid to review something I do not care about. Would I do a review if a sponsor reached out to me? The answer would depend on if I believed in the product, and I would make it clear in my review if this were the case. But at the time of writing this review, such an interaction has not occurred yet.


Time of writing disclaimer: everything I am writing about in this review is described at the time of writing and may not be updated in the future, so there is a potential that things are no longer accurate in my comparisons as parts are changed and upgraded as time passes.


Bias and comparison disclaimer: Throughout this review I will attempt to be as unbiased as possible while drawing comparisons to other products.


Mistakes and Inaccuracies Disclaimer: Throughout my review I will try to be as factually accurate as possible, but there are always chances that I make mistakes and write things that are incorrect/false. If this is the case please point it out to me and if indeed it is true that I am incorrect, I will correct these mistakes and apologize for them. Afterall I am only human, so mistakes can and will inevitably happen.


Subjective Disclaimer: Please note, these reviews are also written in my own opinion, so when I am comparing different products to determine what I see as the best, there are many factors that I go through to form this opinion. Obviously there will be disagreements between people, so I will do my best to objectively determine what I deem to be the best, but at the end of the day it is still just my own opinion whether it be right or wrong. Take whatever I say in my reviews with a grain of salt.



Image Credits:

Images and videos used in this review are all property of their rightful owners as credited below each image, I am just using them for the purpose of this review but if you (the owner of the image) would like them removed please let me know via pm. Otherwise thanks to the respective image owners (I made sure to credit your online name and link where I found the photo) of the photos, without you this review would be so much more bland.



Review Disclaimer:

First and foremost I would like to thank Burger Motorsports for agreeing to sponsor me for this review. Despite this I will remain as unbiased as possible during the review. Please note, the dynamics of this relationship was that I reached out for a sponsorship review and not the other way around. This should demonstrate how I truly feel about the BMS BMW Jack Pad Adapter - in the sense that I truly believe it is the best jack pad adapter on the market, and that every BMW owner should have at least one. In fact I actually have 4 of these Jack Pad Adapters and have been using them ever since I received them in late July (I used them to install: my 034 motorsports front and rear brake rotors, my Spiegler stainless steel brake lines, my paragon titanium brake shims, my paragon brake temperature stickers, and my Automotive Passion rear mud flaps).



Customer Service, Shipping, and Overall Experience Dealing with BMS:


Credit: F87Source


Credit: F87Source


Credit: F87Source

Let’s begin with customer service, shipping, and the overall experience. I have said this in the past and I will say it again, BMS has some of the best customer service in the entire BMW community. They are responsive when answering emails, and are friendly, patient, and polite (Thanks again Payam). Shipping was great, BMS uses FedEx International Connect Plus which allowed for economical and fast shipping even across international borders (USA to Canada). BMS also uses quality ULine boxes (not some cheap Chinese boxes) with proper Box certificates and they package the box incredibly nicely with plenty of brown paper stuffing. Now you may wonder why is this even important? Well to answer that question it has everything to do with shipping insurance. If your package is ever damaged FedEx or UPS or any other carrier will ask for photo evidence of the packaging to make sure it was sufficiently packed and protected. They will then ask for the box certificate number to ensure that the box was strong enough for the items packed within. If any of these are not within spec, then your insurance claim may be denied. This is why packaging is so important, and BMS has perfectly nailed this criteria.

So overall, customer service, shipping, and my experience dealing with BMS has been great, no real complaints!



BMW Factory Jacking Point:

Before we can go on and discuss the BMS jack pad adapters I would first like to go over the factory BMW jacking points, because understanding these things will help us understand why we even need jack pad adapters.


Credit: ECS Tuning https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...h/51717169981/


Credit: ECS Tuning https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...h/51717169981/


So essentially all BMW’s from 2006 and onwards had the exact same jacking point design pictured above, and the part number is: 51717169981 https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/par...&q=51717169981

The problem with this plastic jacking point is that it was never meant to support the weight of the car on its raised edges. It was actually meant to act as a receptacle to guide an adapter into its rectangular middle section, and then have that adapter be used to lift the car. So the only portion of this adapter that was meant to bear weight was the internal flat section, not the raised walls of the rectangle.

This is an example (and a really mild example as well) of what will happen if you jack the car up directly on the jacking points:


Credit: .Slug https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...21&postcount=1

The soft plastic is not designed to hold the weight of the car, so it will crumble and break apart. This means that these jacking points cannot be used to lift the car, but it isn’t safe to leave the car directly on these jacking points because if it suddenly crumbles the car can drop. This is why you need jack pad adapters.



What are Jack Pad Adapters?

So now the question is, what are jack pad adapters? Jack pad adapters are typically adapters that fit into these recessed rectangular jacking points on the BMW, and adapt this rectangular shape into something that sticks out and has a nice flat surface that can sit nicely on a jack pad (the flat surface of your hydraulic jack pad meant for lifting) or flat top jack stand. These Jack Pad Adapters are typically made of rubber or aluminum.



BMS Aluminium BMW Jack Pad Adapter:

Now let’s examine the BMS Aluminium BMW Jack Pad Adapter:


Credit: F87Source


Credit: F87Source


Credit: F87Source


Credit: F87Source


So now that we have more detailed images of the BMS Jack Pad adapters, let’s discuss some of it’s features that make it better than the aluminum competition:

1) Textured (grooved) bottom: I haven’t seen this on any other jack pad adapter, and this is a really really nice feature to have. The reason why having grooves cut into the bottom of the jack pad adapter is so nice is because it increases the amount of surface area being in contact with the surface of the jack pad, and therefore increases the amount of grip these jack pad adapters have to the jack. So I know you might be asking, how is this the case? Because slick tires offer more grip than grooved tires. Well the answer to that question is due to the depth of the grooves and material the grooves are cut into. With tires the depth of the grooves have to be really deep to help evacuate water from the contact patch, and the rubber material of the tire buckles easier under load when the tread divides them into individual blocks - and this buckling reduces grip because the tread blocks move around. Whereas with these jack pad adapters, the grooves are very shallow and since the jack pads are made of aluminum which is rigid and doesn’t buckle under load. So the result is that these shallow grooves actually dig into the rubber surface of the jack pad and “bite” into them, this offers more surface area to contact the jack pad increasing grip, and the biting action further helps lock the jack pad in place. So having this grooved bottom is a really nice touch that BMS adds.

2) Height: The BMS Jack Pads have a rectangular section that is a bit taller than the depth of the BMW jacking point. This is a really nice feature because when load is applied to the Jack Pad adapter, the plastic jacking point may compress a bit and this brings the circular base of the jack pad adapter closer to the surrounding raised lip of the plastic jacking point. If the jack pad adapter’s rectangular section’s height was identical to the depth of the jacking point then the circular base would be resting on the raised walls of the jacking point before any load is applied to the jack pad adapter. This means as soon as any load is applied to the jack pad adapter during lifting the car, the plastic jacking point compressed down a bit then the jack pad adapter will immediately begin applying load to the raised walls of the jacking point. This can damage the walls over time and is something we wanted to avoid by having these jack pad adapters. So the small buffer BMS puts in place by having the jack pad adapter being slightly taller than the depth of the jacking point is extremely nice, and I don’t think many other competitors do this.

3) Shape: The BMS jack pad adapters don’t have a perfectly rectangular top section, they are actually slightly trapezoidal (it’s hard to see in the images but that is indeed the case). Again this is a really really smart design choice by BMS that I haven’t seen on any competitors. So this shape is smart because it allows the BMS jack pad adapters to be easier to locate into the plastic jacking point because the top is slightly smaller than the rectangular opening of the jacking point. Then the trapezoidal sides also allows the jack pad adapter to self-adjust as it slides into the jacking point if it is off center. So if it is slightly off the angled sides will push it over a bit as the jack pad adapter slides into the rectangular recess, so this is a really nice touch by BMS.



BMS Jack Pad in Use:

Next I would like to add some images showing the BMS Jack Pad Adapter in use:


Credit: F87Source


Credit: F87Source


Credit: F87Source



BMS Jack Pad Adapters vs. the cheaper rubber Competition:

Now I would like to compare the BMS Jack Pad adapters to the cheaper rubber competition typically found on aliexpress, ebay, and amazon:


Credit: F87Source


Credit: F87Source

So from left to right we have the: BMS BMW Jack Pad Adapter, an Aliexpress/Amazon rubber BMW jack pad adapter, and an Aliexpress/Amazon Mercedes jack pad adapter. I am including a Mercedes specific jack pad adapter because the rectangular portion is the same width and length as the BMW jack pad adapters, they are just taller which is something that I will go into more detail shortly.


Now let’s look at how they fit into the BMW jacking point:


Credit: F87Source


Credit: F87Source


Credit: F87Source


So the first thing we notice is that the Aliexpress/Amazon BMW jack pad adapter has the shortest rectangular top out of the 3 jack pad adapters - and this is a huge issue because it forces the base to press up against the jacking point and cause damage over time (this is an even bigger issue because rubber compresses a lot). The Aliexpress/Amazon Mercedes jack pad adapter has the tallest rectangular top out of the 3 jack pad adapters, but as a result it sticks quite far out of the jacking point which can cause instability if the rubber buckles, but it doesn’t risk damaging the plastic walls on the BMW jacking point. The BMS jack pad adapter is the best out of the 3, with it being just a tiny bit taller than the depth of the BMW jacking point so it doesn’t ever touch the plastic jacking point. It also isn’t so tall that it would ever cause instability issues, and since it is aluminum it will never buckle.

Finally I would like to look at long term use of these cheap rubber jack pad adapters and why you shouldn’t waste your money on them:


Credit: F87Source


Credit: F87Source

So these are my Mercedes rubber jack pad adapters (images above), and what you will notice is the rubber has cracked all over the place due to the plastic buckling under load. Eventually if you keep using them too much they will fail all the way through and break apart, this is what happened and I had to throw one of them away.


This is why you shouldn’t waste your money on cheaper rubber jack pad adapters, because not only are they not the correct height, but imo they are not durable at all and will fail over time.



Summary:

So overall the BMS jack pad adapters are an extremely nice and high quality tool that all BMW owners should have, and I personally think you should have a set of 4. If you work on your own car you should have these adapters to properly jack up your car and place the entire car on jack stands. If you don't work on your car having a set of 4 means you will always be prepared to have your car properly lifted up no matter where you go. For example if you take your car to the tire shop where they may not have BMW specific jack pad adapters, you can lend the shop these adapters so that they won’t ever damage your car while lifting it up in the air to do the tire change. So having a set of 4 will always keep you prepared no matter where you take your car.

So if you want to buy a set of BMS jack pad adapters here’s a link: https://burgertuning.com/collections...ck-pad-adapter

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