Peter 642

Without a battery tender and no other winter maintenance except regular maintenance, the minimum amount these cars need to be driven is?

A. 35-45 miles a week at highway speeds part of the time.
B. 35-45 miles a month at highway speeds part of the time.
C. 35-45 miles, around town, every month.
D. None; get a battery tender and plug it in.

I'm thinking on good days in the east, there's no reason not to drive, but I'm not switching my tires, so no snow. It will be rinsed post-sand, salt and road dirt.

Thanks.

Divot

I'm in the same zone, and drive it about once a week in the winter, enough to get it warmed up. There are 2-3 weeks where it is too cold/snowy without snow tires for me to take out without snow tires.

cuttinsod

i haven't had any issues taking it out at least once a week in the winter...usually drive at a minimum for it to warm up and stay there for 15-20 min....this past winter it sat for 3 weeks due to constant snow storms...fired right up, and drove with no issues....

Barn996

I'd say as often as you can. With snows, I still only drive mine 2-3 times a week.

Quix

I drove mine at least once per week, usually to work (27 mi each way) or in the dead of winter 10-20 miles to get it warmed up. There were a few God-awful weeks last winter where I really didn't want to take it out. I did have two problems, both early in the winter:
1. Once I left it too long and left the radar detector on, battery died and could not be revived. Bought a new battery and a battery tender (can provide details about this if desired) with no battery problems after that.
2. Early in the winter I started it up cold, ran it only for a few seconds to move it and then shut it down. I must have gotten too much water vapor in the gas line, because it froze over night and I had to spend the next week with as many heaters and fans as I could find, trying to get the garage warmed up enough to thaw it. Eventually it thawed, and I made sure thereafter to always keep at least half a tank of gas in it, and also to run it at least until warm whenever I started it up. I also never got gas from a particular station again. No problems after that.
Hope this is helpful.
q

Macster

A problem is that even at highway speeds the engine may not get very warm.

When I drove my Boxster in cold temps I was amazed at how long the engine took to get up to the actual 180F level, as viewed in real time with an OBD code reader/data viewer attached to the car's OBD connector and set up to display coolant temp every second or so.

At freeway speeds the temp would not climb much higher. Stop/go driving, with lots of idling and running in 2nd gear when moving to help the engine work a bit harder and get more heat was the only way to warm the engine up more. And even then it never got real hot.

Also, if you drive with the A/C on unless the air temp is close to freezing the fans run all the time and these fans running all the time then work to really keep the engine coolant cool.

Sincerely,

Macster.