My oil change is scheduled for next week, and then it's a short drive to the winter storage facility. Then my Subie gets to move from the back yard back into the garage. I had to scrape frost for the first time this morning, so it's time.

I hadn't gotton around to adding a bay to the garage this year, and now the idea of having part of our yard torn up is starting to bother me. We've got lots of room on our lot for the bay, but that green space is really precious, and I'm reluctant to break it up.

And when you do the math, the cost of the storage is probably less than the saved cost of construction plus the p/l p/d / collision component of the insurance premium.

 

Best to make it a long drive.

 

That's what I do. I'd be interested to hear why the doors/windows should be completely closed.

 

Agreed, and not sweat the condition of the oil.

 

you got like 11 quarts or so in there. I take it for a long drive to , to make sure it is intermixed. It would be nice to bae able to get all the oil out , but i think it can't be done without adding air lines to blow it out the coolers

 

Interesting choice of words. What you actually want is for the oil to sweat. Engine combustion produces a lot of moisture some may get into the oil, some will get into the exhaust. What you want is to bring it up to operating temp to makes sure you can burn off all that moisture.

 

I haven't researched this yet, so bear with me for asking, but are there a couple of litres of old oil that can't be drained during the change? If so, then the engine would need to be brought up to full temp after the change to blend the old with the new, and to cook the moisture out.

My storage place is 2 minutes from my tech's place, so if it's all new oil, I could take it straight over.

In any event TIA for the tip.

 

This is what I do with my Mustang that I keep in Europe:

- Park it in Grandma’s garage with a full tank.
- Disconnect the battery and give it to a friend to use (it will be dead in a few months anyways so might as well let others get some use out of it).
- Leave the doors unlocked and key in the ignition (don’t want to trust grandma with the key, she might forget where she puts it).

AND that’s it……………..have been doing this since ’95 and haven’t had one issue with the car.

The cars that I have over here and store for the winter, well, don’t really do too much. Except make sure to start them every week or so and let them fully warm up. Cars are not as frail as people might think, they don’t really need to be “stored” for a short period. A few months of sitting will not do any harm to them either.

 

My brother is a master tech at BMW and sees clogged injectors and fuel system problems from Sunoco gas all the time. The Ethanol actually disolves particulates from the tank at the gas station & water in our tank as well.

 

Agreed. And it's high (3,500 feet asl) and dry here in Calgary. I just park it and put a motorcycle Battery Tender on for the winter.

 

Shell 91 in Toronto has no ethanol according to the few pumps I have used. Have used 91 for over 3 years now with no issues.

 

If you read some of the docs (do a search) and get the info,
you will then simply disagree.

However it is your car, so go ahead and use Ethanol, and then store it for months.

 

I don't use ethanol, in any of our vehicles. What I meant in my post 25 is that I don't take steps to dehumidify my car's environment (although my car will be in heated storage, it doesn't need to be), or fog the engine. We don't get rust rings in the cylinders here during short storage intervals. I was commenting on post 23, not 24.

I'm not a chemical engineer, but my recollection is that ethanol laced fuels don't do engines any good.

 

I see, and agree.