I'm about to store my Max for the winter. It'll be sitting in my cold, tiny garage until sometime in March. My question is, is there any preparation I should do before I park it?

Should I unplug my battery and put it somewhere? Or would that end up in my digital odometer being reset? I worry that the battery will be weak if I don't run the engine at all to charge it.

I put my stock wheels and tires back on. I was worried about flat spots from sitting in one place and I don't care about the stock Goodyears.

Is it a good idea to start up the car once a week? I'm going to be taking off the valve cover and possibly other parts during the winter so there will be times when I can't start the car up at all. I'm almost thinking it would be best just to leave the engine alone for the three months. Starting it up once a week seems silly because there's so little oil on the engine parts after a week of sitting that you're going to put excess wear on it, especially with cold winter temps here. Is my reasoning right or way off?

Any other advice? Thanks, ORG.

 

I'd just drive it twice a week to keep everything rotating from time to time.

 

you can let it sit...but you need to get some fuel stabilizer for your gas, and if possible put the car on jack stands...with the wheels still on it...will help prevent flat spots

 

Don't drive it once a week!
1. Pump tires up to 40 pounds - that should prevent flat spots, or put the car on blocks.
2. Fill the tank up FULL and put some STABIL in the gas, run it for 5 min before shutting of.
3. Take battery out, put a tricklecharger with Auto shut off feature on it.
4. Take a rug/plastic bag and tape over exhaust pipe and intake snorkel. This will prevent mice getting inside. Tape a note to the steering wheel to unplug this stuff in the spring.
5. Clean it up, do an oil change, put car cover on it, and that's it.
6. In the spring, unplug the tail pipe and intake, put the battery back in, pull out the Fuel Pump Fuse, turn the key and crank it for 20 seconds, this will build up oil pressure. Put the fuse back in and start it up.

 

I am getting ready to do the same thing. I am taking my wheels off and putting my steelies back on for the winter. I am going to leave my battery in the car but disconnect the negative cable until I want to start the car (which I will do probably twice a week). Where can you get fuel stabalizer? Advanced or Auto Zone?

 

Get stabil at walmart

 

Pep Boys.

 

Bear in mind that if you start your engine that many times you run the risk of discharging your battery over time. Unless you are running the engine at high rpms, the alternator may not replace the charge you used to start the engine. You would also need to run the engine till it reaches operating temperature to do any good. If you have a battery charger, it would be a good idea to charge the battery at least once a month. Just my 2 cents.

 

No, the whole point is not to drive it on salted roads to avoid any further corrosion. Also, I will have the engine apart as I said, and I am calling my insurance in a few days to suspend all my coverage except for comprehensive for the winter, so I can't drive it at all. That will save me about $300 which will go to mods.

 

Thanks! My front tires are at about 40 and the rear at 33 or something, which should be adequate given the load. I also plan on rolling the car out into the driveway a bit and then pushing it back into the garage every month in order to rotate the tire contact patches.

I will look for fuel stabilizer. Good advice about the exhaust and steering wheel note. I have a CAI so I don't have the ugly snorkel anymore...or rather, my snorkel is in the basement, where it's probably already inhabited by mice!

Can you explain what a tricklecharger is and how much they cost?

Any reason to do an oil change before the winter? I was planning on doing it right away in the spring...possibly even before starting the engine for the first time. That way, new oil would pour down from the top of the engine and give extra lubrication to prevent such a harsh start.

 

It seems to me that one very cold/hard start after 3 months of sitting would be better than 26 fairly cold/hard starts (3 months = 13 weeks = 26 starts twice/week) in terms of wear on the engine parts. And you make a very good point—a few minutes' of idling per week is not going to keep the battery charged.

 

Oh, and does anyone know if the digital odometer in a '99 has its own independent battery or how it works? Maybe it's just continually written to hard memory and thus requires no power whatsoever.

 

my guess would be hard written to memory, maybe even inside the ecu?

 

I removed battery and stored it indoor

 

It would still need to be trickle charged or at least fully charged once a month to prevent prolonged self discharge.

 

Ya do not leave the battery in the car. It will get ruined keep it inside of the floor and use a trickle charger. A trickle charger will charge the battery periodically to keep it at full charge. If you want to be extra cautious you can spread a tarp over the floor under the car to prevent to moisture from building up under the car. Also if mice are a problem put some moth ***** around the car, under the car, and in the engine bay. Put dryer sheets inside the car and in the trunk. And flod down the sunvisors so nothing will make a home up there. Then you can either rest the car on jackstands or park on wood blocks.

This is how I store classic cars and it should work for your max. Let the car sit the whole winter without starting it. If you just let it idle the exhaust will not get hot enough to evaporate the condensation built up in the exhaust and it will start to rust. Ans make sure to use fuel sabilizer in the gas tank.

 

It's stored on a prom chip inside the unified control meter. This is located inside the instrument cluster. It needs no power to retain memory.

 

Stored indoor till I wanted to start my car up every other weekend.

 

Thanks for confirming this!

 

Oh, and what's the reasoning behind the suggestion to keep the gas tank full? Just so you don't have a lot of gasoline vapor built up or what?

 

To keep condensation from forming inside the tank and causing rust and water in your fuel. It's the same reason you want to keep your fuel tank full in the winter in your unstored vehicle(s).

 

Stabil is not required if the tank is full.

 

What is that based on? Gas begins to break down over time. Even if the tank was full, it would still break down because you can't seal it from the atmosphere. Stabil prolongs the breakdown process so your gas won't turn into varnish.

 

I'm going to put stabilizer in to be on the safe side. Although like most break-down processes, greater heat probably means faster breakdown and the fuel is going to be damn cold in an unheated garage. Three months is nonetheless a long time for a tank of gas.

 

Gas turns to Jello because water gets in it from condensation. If you have a full tank no water can get in it. I mean really full. Don't stop when the pump automatically stops. Go another 1/2 gallon. All people that I know don't put stabil in their boats, cars, or lawnmowers and nothing has happened. They all fill up the tank all the way though. Hey, if you run that **** through the fuel system good for you! Its your fuel pump and injectors that'll need replacing. Not mine. BTW, you live in Florida. What makes you think you know about storing ICE's during winter. Go ahead and call up a boat storage place. Ask them what they do for winterizing. They'll tell you they drain the water out of the engine and fill the gas tank. When I called a winterization place and asked for the winter storing procedure and Stabil they said, "We don't use that ****. Who do you think we are?" Thats on a carburated engine too. The jets on a carb are much larger than injectors and therefore they can take much more abuse. Still they don't use it. Stabil is for morons who toss the boat in the winter barn four minutes after they've been skiing all day and now have a 1/4 tank. Those adds are BS! Maybe in Russia its required.

Seriously Tom, you think I'd give misinformation to you? Call up a storage place and ask 'em.

 

Not sure if you were directing that statement toward me or not. I do live in Florida and I know quite a lot about storing equipment over the winter or other long term storage. I have been a mechanic longer than you have been alive. I have seem the effects of leaving untreated gas in different engines many times over. We are not talking about boats here. We're talking about the poster's car. I have never seen any evidence of harm to any fuel pumps or injectors/carburators from using a fuel stabilizer. I'm not sure if you've ever smelled bad gas or not but it smells awful and does no good to your fuel system or engine. It does not ignite easily if at all. Once your fuel passages are gummed up, you will have to complete a thorough cleaning to remove the gums and varnishes to get the engine to run right again. I know this from personal experience from working in the mechanic field for over 22 years. If the man wants to use a fuel stabilizer in his car, it's all up to him. I don't believe that anybody in this forum is trying to provide misinformation to anyone. If you were not directing that statement to me, disregard my last transmission.

 

We are talking about storing something that uses fuel. Boats and cars both use fuel. I can see that the deterioration of gas would be an issue if the car were stored for a year or more. Experience doesn't lie. Everyone I know stores their cars, boats and yard machines in this manner. Yes I was directing the previous post at you.

 

Yamaha Motors suggests their own fuel stabilizer for storage: http://www.yamaha-motor.com/faq/answ...xs_storage.asp

Motor Trend suggests it: http://motortrend.com/features/care/112_0105_ccout1/

Random motorcycle storage info website puts fuel stabilizer as #1 on the "Minimum" storage prep list: http://www.dansmc.com/winterize.htm

I just did a Google search on "fuel stabilizer necessary"; there are tons more sites that agree. On my quick search I did not find any sites that said it was "not necessary" (they would have come up in the same Google search).

I did come up with a few sites that advised against using stabilizer with fuel injected engines, but the majority of sites said stabilizer is fine for both carb'ed and FI'd engines.

Popular Mechanics (I used to subscribe when I was a kid!):
As I see it, there are two wholly independent issues: (1) preventing condensation and rust (keep tank full) and (2) preventing oxidation of the fuel (add stabilizer). Given that I will be storing it for 90 days, I could likely avoid using stabilizer. But the bottom line is, it was $2.67 for a bottle and I'm confident it's not going to hurt anything. Broan, I trust the collective knowledge base of the internet more than an anecdotal story about one mechanic. I'm not even suggesting he's wrong; in his experience he may never have seen the need for fuel stabilizer, but that's just the experience of one mechanic.

 

I did not want to go there but I'm glad that you did. I was only trying to enlighten the young lad. I use fuel stabiler in my gas powered lawn equipment year round and my 10 year old lawn mower still runs like new.

 

The biggest difference between boats and cars is that a lot of boats have external/detachable fuel tanks and cars don't. You can remove the tank from smaller boats and use the gas for something else. When you are a little older, maybe you will understand.

 

Alright. Well thanks for all that input guys. Still the fact that you found sites that advised against it are interesting. Proves that there are two sides of the coin for everything. My boat has a permanent aluminum fuel tank. Still the storage place recommended not using Stabil. Also, removing the tank from the boat doesn't get the fuel out of the most important places. If it were an issue pumping it out or running it dry would be required.

 

hey tom, make sure you take out the fuel pump fuse and turn the car over until it shuts off. shat should get most of the fuel out of the rubber lines. you dont want those eroding up there in maddy.
steve

 

Good call, Steve.

All I can say is it better be a snowy winter...I'm having second thoughts about storing the Max for three months but I think it's for the best. (Also I'm an X/C skier.) I don't need the car except for errands and recreation and I can do both with my girlfriend...haha. I am plannning on taking off the valve cover and doing some other minor engine work so it's worth it. And I got SO fed up at rusty bolts while modding last season that I swore I'd never drive it through salt and snow like the previous owner did.