sblaylock

I've done the standard winterization stuff to my car, which includes a trickle charger on the battery in the car rather than pulling the battery and charging it at home. It's stored in a temp/humid controlled environment, but my question is should I pull the DME relay and crank the engine over until I see oil pressure just to move the pistons, valves... This, I'm assuming, will get a bit of oil moving through the engine as well. I was thinking no more than once a month.

Is this a good thing, or bad thing? It won't see the great outdoors until April.

Thanks,
Scott.

Mike J

Good thing, Given you are pulling the DME, not fuel or ignition will happen, so its certainly not going to hurt anything. It puts the pistons into a different positions, circulates some oil, its all good!

I do it here in Vancouver as well, but our driving season starts end of Feb ... well actually we can drive year long, although there is a touch of snow on the ground right now.

Put extra air in your tires too, and roll the car back and forth month. That helps prevent flat spotting (although that does not happen very often anymore).

Cheers,

Mike

sblaylock

Thanks for the response Mike. I was thinking it would be good to have pistons, and potentially valves, in different positions while moving some oil around.

I'm very familiar with Vancouver winters - I grew up in Whistler.

Congratulations on Scarlett by the way. Looking forward to your DIY maintenance reports on the tt.

Scott.

Kein_Ersatz

Definitely before driving again after significant storage.

Interesting thinking on how long the "clean" oil will cling to the metal before wear sets in.

For example if 50% loss of oil coating after 1 month and 80% after 3 months (just making up numbers).

Then would 3 DME out starts, once a month result in more or less wear at the end of 3 months then 1 DME out start after 3 months?

Talk among yourselves . . .

Quadcammer

the amount of overthinking that goes into winter storage in this forum (and presumably others) is borderline scary.

Just park the bloody thing.

No HTwo O

Just to scare Oliver a little, here's my check list from the past several years of winter hibernation:

1) All maintenance up-to-date
2) Fresh/recent oil change
3) Full concours detail, interior, exterior, wheels pulled
4) Fuel stabilized with Sta-Bil (run in a few miles)
5) Gas tank very-very full
6) Tires over filled with nitrogen (approx 58 PSI)
7) Park on a thick mil plastic painter's tarp (Home Depot)
8) Several pounds of desiccators in cabin, windows closed
9) Park out of gear, NO e-brake, chock wheels with small wood blocks
10) Plug in Porsche battery maintainer
11) Lock doors, put car keys in floor safe ( or safe deposit box)
12) Cover car with a high quality car cover (Porsche and Carnewal)
13) Call insurance company, and suspend most coverages (save $$$)
14) Hand roll car about 8-12" the first Saturday of each month
15) Last month of storage, do step #14 weekly
16) In the spring, bleed excess air
17) Prior to starting in the spring, manually turn over engine in 5th gear, or pull fuel pump fuse, and crank over (you need to read more about this step on Rennlist)
18) Make sure car is running fine, no noises, leaks, bug/animal infestation etc.
19) Go on a +300 mile drive, and buy fresh fuel

993Godspeed

Nice Checklist!

V

I just put the trickle charger in and that's it, no need to run the A/C or even crank the key without the DME... Next year I will put some extra air in the tires but that's about it. After 6+ months I just turn the key (no pre crank without DME) and that's it, works like a charm. Don't over complicate things.

moacur

I was starting to wonder. I'm new to Porsche but it seems like everyone makes this winter storage thing into such a big deal. Glad i read your post

Quadcammer

For the most part, parking a car for 3 months is no issue whatsoever. I get the stabil and the battery maintainer, and even some extra pressure in the tires. The rest of the stuff seems like massive overkill to me, but what do I know, I drive the car over the winter.

Its not like the rings are going to rust to the cylinder walls in 3 months.

ronnie993tt

Leaving the tires at their regular pressure and parking on foam pads is easier......and I'm into easy. Don't worry about cold and humidity. If your brake discs aren't rusting then nothing else is. Now go skiing!

sblaylock

There are all levels of winterization from the list above to nothing. I'm somewhere in the middle - fresh oil, fuel stab, tires and trickle charger. i was just wondering if it was a good thing. Sounds like it can't hurt, but not really necessary.

it's going to be a long three months.

Edit: With regard to the trickle charger attached to the battery in the car, I didn't realize the dome lights stayed on if the front hood isn't completely closed.

Overdraft

Or Scott, you can go to Mark Motors and pick up a Porsche trickle charger - which looks sort of cool (I mean for a charger and all) and plug it into your lighter and close the door on the cord.....

Quadcammer

Turn the dome lights to always off and disconnect the frunk light.

darrendeguire

So true. Mine's not a street car anymore so it goes many months of sitting between races or events. I use a battery tender and every weekend or every other weekend I pull her out of the garage and let her run for 20 to 30 minutes at temperature and then back inside she goes. That 30 minutes is a perfect time to enjoy the exhaust audio and smoke a nice cigar while admiring the car. Oh, and check the air pressure in the tires every few weeks. Done this for 5+ years now and haven't any issues.