A110 winter storage - tips?

[jm8403]

What a shame. They seem like perfect winter cars.

[Miserablegit]

Portti is in Finland where they get a proper winter so I don’t blame him!

[Portti]

Miserablegit said:

As it’s being stored in a garage I’d be tempted to lower the windows a bit as well to allow some airflow into the interior.
I had an issue many years ago with an old car stored in a garage where the interior became damp from condensation and became mouldy…

Lowering the windows sounds like a good tip, thanks! I might do that next time I visit the car although that might take a while since the car is 400 km away from where I live. Although hopefully the moisture will not be a problem in my case. October and November are usually months where air humidity is high in Finland but during the proper winter months from December to March the air is mostly very dry.

jm8403 said:

What a shame. They seem like perfect winter cars.

It is certainly possible that A110 would be fun in the snow. However like Miserablegit pointed out I'm from FInland and our winters are pretty harsh for any car and I don't want to subject my A110 to the winter conditions here.

Even though I think that A110 might survive Finnish winter conditions pretty well, I do think that the frameless windows might cause issues. When temperatures drop to below minus 10 C and up to minus 30 C the ice on the windows could be very solid and that might be problematic for the frameless windows and their automatic lowering function when door is opened.

Personally an issue with A110 in the winter would be that I often have a need to carry cross country skis on the car. A110 is not an ideal car for that kind of scenario.

[jm8403]

Apologies, I mean to the others in the UK here that are doing the same.

[bram070]

I am about to prepare my A110 for winter too. What do you guys recommend when it comes to the petrol tank: full or empty?

My dad always told me that if you're not daily using your car, it is better to keep your petrol tank full, so there is less space for the petrol to vaporise. But now I may not drive the car for several months, I can imagine that it is better to keep the tank (almost) empty, and fill it up with fresh petrol as soon as I start driving again in spring. What would you do?

[jm8403]

bram070 said:

I am about to prepare my A110 for winter too. What do you guys recommend when it comes to the petrol tank: full or empty?

My dad always told me that if you're not daily using your car, it is better to keep your petrol tank full, so there is less space for the petrol to vaporise. But now I may not drive the car for several months, I can imagine that it is better to keep the tank (almost) empty, and fill it up with fresh petrol as soon as I start driving again in spring. What would you do?

Yes, full.

[bram070]

jm8403 said:

Yes, full.

Thanks, will do!

[LE62NDE]

You'll always get conflicting advice on this sort of thing! If you use an E10 fuel, I would store the car with the tank closer to empty as E10 contains more volatiles which will evaporate off; and then put fresh fuel in before starting. My lawnmower (which I admit does not have the most sophisticated engine management system!) starts easier with fresh fuel after the winter lay-up.

[Portti]

I put tank full of 95E10 fuel before putting my A110 to winter storage. We'll see in spring if everything works or not.

[fossett]

Hi All

Just thought I'd add (after seeing this stuff on Harry's Garage) you can get high octane storage fuel

Link: https://aaoil.co.uk/product/r-storage-plus/