Putting your car into storage for winter?

Neil · Post by **Neil** » November 4th, 2005, 4:35 pm

I got this off another forum, and as my car will be in storage for the winter i wanted some input from fellow mx3ers on what they thought about this list i found.

"1. Purchase a gas stabilizer of some sort, I use Sta-Bil as it is the most readily available. As we all know, gas goes bad after a couple of months and can leave gummy deposits in your fuel system, the gas stabilizer will keep the gas fresh and prevent the deposits from forming.

2. Wait until your car has about ¼ to 1/8 of a tank of gas left in it, stop by the gas station and put in the Sta-Bil according to the instructions. Then fill the tank, all the way full. Why full you might ask? You want a full tank of fuel to keep condensation from forming in the gas tank. Water in the gas tank is bad. Drive around for 5 to 10 minutes to get the Sta-Bil through your entire fuel system, then drive home.

3. Change the oil and filter. Oil contains all the by products from combustion and these by products are acidic, so you want the cleanest oil as possible in the engine. (You can skip this step if you just changed the oil and there is only a couple of hundred miles on it.)

4. With the oil changed, thoroughly clean the inside and outside of the car. Hand wash, wax, vacuum, armor all, the whole nine yards. I’m not going to go into any more detail on this because most of us are fanatics in this area already. If cleaning tips are needed, there’s a ton of info out there.

5. This next step has a couple of options. The owners manual wants you to put the car up on jack stands for any extended period of storing. I personally would rather use a set of old wheels and tires on the car for storage and store the custom rims separately. This will allow you to move the car if you need to and will save your expensive tires from possible flat spots. This is also a good time to clean all the brake dust and road debris from the rims and brake components, and to throw a coat of wax on rims (if applicable). To properly store the custom wheels, lay the first tire on a piece of cardboard so it isn’t in contact with the cement then stack the other wheels on top with a layer of old rags or newspaper in between.

6. The car should now be in the garage either on jack stands, or on crap wheels. Crack you driver and passenger windows a ½ inch or so for breathing purposes. This only applies if you are storing the car indoors.

7. Leave the Parking Brake OFF."

Is all of this important when not storing your car in a garage or heated enviroment? My car will be in my drive way for the winter. Just looking to get some input from people on here.

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » November 4th, 2005, 6:19 pm

Sheets of cardboard lying under the entire length of the car is good for absorbing moisture/condensation that occurs with daytime heating and nightime cooling. If the engine is not started during the storage period either use a spray protectant over engine parts and/or lay out sheets of newspaper in the engine bay to absorb accumulated moisture.

95 rs · Post by **95 rs** » November 5th, 2005, 12:08 am

i dont recommend using aror all on the dash board since it has silicone and well it can make them crack i would go with a silicone free cleaner. just my .02

Hoodzy · Post by **Hoodzy** » December 28th, 2005, 6:01 pm

i plan on parking my car in my garage on stands for 4 months over the winter

i can get my parents to start the car for me if it is better

how often should i start my car? and how long should i let it run for??

MX3parkerGS · Post by **MX3parkerGS** » December 28th, 2005, 10:41 pm

i wouldnt know a damn thing about it, because winters here and i plan on riding her through it and pulling the ebrake in empty parking lots quite often.

fry_81 · Post by **fry_81** » December 29th, 2005, 11:19 am

Hoodzy wrote:i plan on parking my car in my garage on stands for 4 months over the winter

i can get my parents to start the car for me if it is better

how often should i start my car? and how long should i let it run for??

i start mine at least once a week.

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » December 29th, 2005, 11:47 am

Mine's been stored for over a month, it's covered and tied down so I can't easilly go in and start it up, although I'm waiting for a nice day and when I'm down that way.

fry_81, how's you mx-3 coming along?

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » December 29th, 2005, 10:59 pm

A start every week should do the trick. With the garage door open of course, let it run for at least 10 to 15 minutes so that it gets to a good operating temp. Within the last minute of idling, I'd have it rev'd a few times to about 3k to 4k rpm, to kick out some of that built up carbon.