Hey, y'all.


Just thought I'd take the site's temperature on this divisive topic.


Most of us who live north of the Mason-Dixon put our cars away for the winter, maybe up to six months depending on the local climate. So ... do you guys just let the vehicle sit for the winter, or do you start it up and run it periodically?


I fall into the former camp -- I used to start my cars up every three weeks or so in the winter, but then I read an article somewhere (can't remember where -- Hemmings?) which told me that you don't want to start a car (especially a carbureted one) unless you plan on driving it and bringing the entire vehicle up to operating temperature. That way, you minimize the instance of damage from raw fuel running down the cylinder walls, from lubrication (or lack-of) stress, from condensation moisture and from the other gremlins that come with every cold start. Now my car sits from mid-November to mid-April, and aside from any projects I might have for it, I leave it alone, with fresh oil and hooked up to a Battery Tender.


When it comes time to wake it up, I just crank it on the starter motor for a few revolutions until the oil pressure comes up. After that, I give it some fuel and it usually fires within 2-3 turns of the crank and I'm good to go.


What do you do?

 

I usually let my car sit through the Winter months. All I do is disconnect the battery, replace the oil and filter, and fill the gas tank.
Come Spring, I check for puddles of fluid on the floor, check the tire pressures, grease the suspension, reconnect the battery and start it up. It starts almost instantly, being fuel injected, but the oil light goes out almost instantly as well.
I make sure that its first run is a 20 mile cruise to get everything up to proper operating temperature, when I get home I check everything under the hood again, paying particular attention to the transmission fluid.
There are those who recommend changing the oil, having the suspension hanging, and checking for animal nests. All perfectly good advice, particularly checking for nests in rural areas, but my regime works for me.

I see no reason for you to do anything differently to what you do now.

Roger.

 

If the car don't have A/C I do my best to not start them. If you do, it does need to get to full operating temp including the entire exhaust system. If you only run it for a few minutes and turn it off you will have an exhaust full of water and also moisture in the engine. The older A/C compressors need ran much more often than newer compressors or they will leak out the refrigerant. The car I am building now has A/C and I will be starting it every couple weeks in the winters.

 

Let it sit. However, I'll take door #3 Bob, drive it. Cold does not hurt these cars, as long as the roads are clean and dry, take em out.

 

I fill the tank, add stabiliazer and let mine sit over winter. Come spring I follow the procedure of check fluids/BRAKES, crank w/o coil in circuit to circulate oil, add fuel and fire. Then I drive to thoroughly warm engine/tranny.

 

Two words: road salt. They slather it on out here, apparently anytime the overnight low is forecast to be within ten degrees of freezing.


PS -- Who's Bob?

 

They use salt and a lot of sand here in the winter months. When I lived on the E. Coast there were many days I could drive in the winter when the roads were dry.

 

I fill the tank with some Mystery Oil and park it, disconnect the battery and let it sit, there are a bunch of other things I do but nothing major. If it sits more than 3 months or so I start it once and that's it. Always starts second turn of the key. This winter I put it away a bit late but it still hasn't come out, too many piles of slow still around, pot holes, sand flying in the wind. I probably won't take it out until early May. Usually my first drive is late March. The extreme cold did provide for some very dry air most of the winter.