348 hibernating for the winter.

[pneumothorax]

advice please. my 348 spider has gone into dehumidified storage for the winter with people i've used before. they have all manner of exotica and she is parked next to an f40 so good company...would the general consensus be that there program...which runs the car every four weeks. up to operating temps and a little spin around the grounds... should be sufficient to avoid most seal /gasket issues...or should i be popping in for a longer drive on a monthly basis..shame i had to put her in there but this weather recently has been so unpredictable and with all the stories of prangs on slippy roads/tornadoes in north london.... i just woke up this morning and thought it for the best...and sort of proved the point by having a semi major moment on a roundabout en route....normal speed but wet and back end sort of jumped up and then sat back down again....a wierd sensation. or am i likely to have a her springing leaks everywhere on picking her up for a spin in the spring.....i've stored old merc sl's previously with these guys and they have been fine.... do these fezzas need more love/attention?

[lynno]

pneumothorax said:

my 348 spider has gone into dehumidified storage for the winter

Then

pneumothorax said:

normal speed but wet

Hm, do you drive her in the wet a lot? If you do is there any point in putting her in expensive dehumidified storage when she's already seen wet and road film?

[steve w]

Either take it for a good 30/40 mile drive or just leave it until next year.Worst thing that you can do is start the engine and let it idle every few weeks.Doesn't sound to me that the storage company knows much about cars.

[murph7355]

lynno said:

[quote=pneumothorax] ... is there any point in putting her in expensive dehumidified storage when she's already seen wet and road film?

Dehumidifiers help dry the car out when its wet.

The key thing is to make sure you get any salt off the car vefore leaving it to stand for any length of time. Gritters have yet to be out round where I live, so not a problem. But I suspect they'll be out this weekend looking at the frost on the road today.

I'm with Steve on the storage front. Unless you can run it properly up to temps, don't bother. You'll get condensation forming in the exhaust/engine which is v.bad.

Can you access the storage place when you want? There may be days when you can safely take it out, even over winter. And winter is one of the nicest times to be driving a drop top.

If you are going to leave it stood for a few months, get the battery on a conditioner and overinflate the tyres.

[pneumothorax]

yep, the cars live in a barn, and its a bit like being in your front room...i think the plan would be to head over once a month on a bright day and take it out myself for a run, ps, judging by the cars these people are storing i think they must know a little bit about looking after them..its at tigastor just outside ayelsbury.

[angelis]

Rain????? It's more fun in the rain.

John, drive it as often as you can. You'll get a lot less problems in the long term.


[URL=http://imageshack.us][/URL]

[Davey S2]

Do you have a garage yourself or does the car live outside?

The best thing to do is to drive it regularly if you can. If not over inflate the tyres, make sure the petrol tank is full and hook it up to a trickle charger and leave it until you can take it out for a proper spin.

[murph7355]

Davey S2 said:

...make sure the petrol tank is full ...

Is this definitely the best way?

I'm assuming the aim is to stop corrosion in the tank.

But...petrol goes off relatively quickly. If you're not using the car for a few months, I wonder what's worse - the risk of corrosion or fuel that's gone bad...??

[MitchT]

pneumothorax said:

would the general consensus be that there program...which runs the car every four weeks. up to operating temps and a little spin around the grounds... should be sufficient to avoid most seal /gasket issues...or should i be popping in for a longer drive on a monthly basis...

And how does one go about getting a job at this place?

[justinp1]

murph7355 said:

Davey S2 said:

...make sure the petrol tank is full ...

Is this definitely the best way?

I'm assuming the aim is to stop corrosion in the tank.

But...petrol goes off relatively quickly. If you're not using the car for a few months, I wonder what's worse - the risk of corrosion or fuel that's gone bad...??

I think the petrol is ok - after all it has been distilled from something a few million years old!

I think it is the additives with the petrol which degrade in effectiveness over time. By this I mean the detergents and other stuff they put with it. I seem to remember readin from someone on a similar thread that the additives lose their effectiveness in a few weeks rather than months anyway, so if you are filling up a 'weekend car' by the time you come to fill it up again the detergents are largely ineffective.

The additives make a good advert though!

[pneumothorax]

thanks for all of the above guys...just goes to show, there isnt really a consnesus on whats best to do when storing. no, i dont have a garage, they are like hen's teeth round here ( windsor), and if i had one the car would be there..any way ...something has already come up that i "need " the car for and so shes coming out next weekend....so much for winter hibernation..ps angelis ..that car looks great in black...

[murph7355]

justinp1 said:

I think the petrol is ok - after all it has been distilled from something a few million years old!...

Not sure about this.

The base product has very different properties to the petrol that pops out the end of a refinery.

Petrol is very much more volatile and as a result I suspect even that goes off in a way that crude would not.

Not 100% though.

[MJK 24]

murph7355 said:

justinp1 said:

I think the petrol is ok - after all it has been distilled from something a few million years old!...

Not sure about this.

The base product has very different properties to the petrol that pops out the end of a refinery.

Petrol is very much more volatile and as a result I suspect even that goes off in a way that crude would not.

Not 100% though.

Petrol will indeed go off over a period of a few months. However, this will do no harm, you'll probably just find yourself slightly down on power until you fill up.

[andy 308gtb]

murph7355 said:

justinp1 said:

I think the petrol is ok - after all it has been distilled from something a few million years old!...

Not sure about this.

The base product has very different properties to the petrol that pops out the end of a refinery.

Petrol is very much more volatile and as a result I suspect even that goes off in a way that crude would not.

Not 100% though.

I've never paid any attention to the amount of fuel in the tank when I've parked my car up for the winter - and I've never had a problem starting the car 5 months later on the same fuel.
The more volatile part of the fuel evaporates off first I recall being told - hence petrol does have a shelf life, it's 'potency' will decrease over time.
Overinflating the tyres, I think, is unnecessary. I'm sure this dates back to when tyres wall were constructed differently. Even so I still roll my car backwards or forwards every few weeks so that it sits on a different area of tyre tread/wall.

Edited by andy 308gtb on Sunday 10th December 20:47

[burriana]

John - here's a quote from one of the guys over on the TVR forum on the issue of winter storage which seems to make sense:

900T-R said:

Sorry - but even if an eight mile round trip each week is better than nothing, under normal circumstances it won't likely be enough for the engine and transmission/diff oils to have fully warmed up yet, i.e. there will still be moisture in it.

The other thing to consider is, that a cold start causes more wear to the engine than the twenty subsequent miles, and the twenty miles you do after that do even less 'harm'.

the concensus is definitely KEEP DRIVING IT!