The saph is only gonna be used for a few months a year so what are the best tips for keeping it stored in my garage?
Got a trickle charger yesterday.
Thanks

 

deumidifer (sp) inside the car and in the garage with the windows open a crack, on another set of wheels to stop your tyres cracking imo

 

pump up your tyres to around 40psi to stop flat spots

 

oven dish with carcoal inside the car to absorb and condesation wheels off and put on axel stands disconect the battary this is what i have done in the past

 

some people sometimes put there cars on axle stands to stop flat spots on the tyres. Ive got my car in my dads garage and i go over every now and then to start it up. My sisters boy friend said to me last time i went to start it up. "its the worst thing i can do cause all the water vapour sits in the exhaust and cant get out and rusts the exhaust" i said my cars got a stainless steel exhaust on he said "it doesnt matter it will still rust" what a cock.

 

lol


cheers james

 

The soft twat!

 

You wont be saying that when your exhaust is rusted through

JAmes.

 

leave the doors open and boot on first catch, put it on stands and disconnect the battery.
some stanless systems have mild steel inside the boxes so that guy is kinda right!

 

Hot water bottle and a nice blanket!

 

I think i will be waiting a long time.

 

or he knows his stuff.

 

i just park mine up and forget about it for a few month's. charge up the battery and it fire's up first time. still seem's to be going strong..

 

i usually fire the car up on axle stands, carpets always on the ground of the garage anyways. leave doors open a tad and same with boot, and then take the battery out and use it on something else or disconnect it. pop a u-pol bodyshop sheeting cover over the car to stop dust getting into the open doors and shut the door.. start it up every week for about 20mins on tickover and a wee rev every couple minutes....

bout all i do with mine other than if need be occasionally drive it!

 

same as lol

the only thing i have noticed is that the leather keeps getting blotches of white over it? how can i stop this???

 

Park mine in the garage disconnect battery then put the cover over it till april.

 

Same here. Mine has been off the road for 6 months whilst I have been sorting the clutch out and after charging the battery it started instantly just like normal Disconnecting the battery stops it draining.

I tend to always leave the drivers window open on mine and it never gets damp

 

Starting it and letting it idle for a while is the worst thing you can do, as its not getting properly warm. Brim the fuel tank, pump the tyres up nice and hard, take the battery off and bring it inside in the warm, make sure its ventilated and forget about it!

 

Park up - batt disconnect - car cover over. Done.

 

Why would he bother disconnecting the battery, he's already said he's got a trickle charger! All the basics above are good advice though, i tend not to leave the handbrake on either and just chock one of the wheels as mine siezed on last winter!

 

i open drivers window open the boot so its just resting shut take off handbrake chock the wheels leave it on the floor take the battery out and store it in my spare room tape bags over the connections and use a thermal water proof cover over the whole car and thats about it oh and i drain the fuel and leave the filler out in the boot

 

Thats all ive done every winter for the last eleven years and never had grief either think some peeps are too paranoid

 

I leave mine nearly empty so that it has fresh fuel when I fire it up again

 

i put mine on scaffolding boards,leave windows down a touch,disconnect battery and leave a dehumidifer in the car and outside the car on the top of the cover (breathable)

 

+ 1 as petrol tends to go off over time


cheers james

 

Indeed, however its the air space in the fuel tank that helps the fuel to go off quicker. Brim the tank and there is no air space for the fuel to gas off into and go off. I guess someone can come on and offer a more scientific explanation!

 

some pretty good feedback here, Rich170 can you explain abit more why its bad for the engine to idle for a while whilst in storage.

Ric.

 

Because unless you drive it you will never get it properly up to temperature unless you let it idle for about an hour, so constant warmish/cold cycles will induce moisture into the engine and exhaust. One of my colleagues used to drive a mile each way to work every day, it used to gunk up the oil with white sludge where there was damp getting into the engine.

Plus letting it sit for ages on idle will coke up the plugs and head, modern fuels with their additives will help combat this though!

There is nothing at all wrong with letting a car sit for months on end without being run, some of our vehicles we have at work aren't used at all over the spring/summer/autumn, others arent used autumn/winter and some of these vehicles are 20 years old, not had a single problem with them!


Even if you are worried about the engine seizing, get a socket on the crank pulley and turn the engine a quarter of a turn every now and then to keep it moving!

 

Thanks for a good reply, so all in all just leave it be.

Ric.

 

- Clean the car from all the salt / road dirt

- Put on an old set of tyres or pump them up to about 45 psi

- Make sure there's enough antifreeze in the coolant and alcohol in the washer bottle...

- Fill up the tank - if it's empty the acid mix of gas, moisture and petrol might corrode it from the inside. Even if you have a plastic tank, it might corrode and/or jam your fuel pump and fuel gauge sender unit

- Get rid of all the moisture in the inside of the car. Put a little heater inside if necessary to get the carpets 100% dry.

- Give it some good thrashing on a dry road so it's absolutely up to temperature. Before you drive it into the garage, apply the brakes a couple of times to eliminate any moisture in the calipers.

- Once you've switched it off in the garage, don't ever start it again! The worst thing you can do is 'starting it up every now on then'. You'll only end up with unburnt fuel and condensation water in the oil and exhaust. If you have to run it, get it up to temperature, let the fans kick in, wait for them to stop, then switch off again.

- Disconnect the battery or attach a trickle charger (removing it and keeping it in a warm place is better though. If it goes flat and the temps drop significantly below zero it might freeze and crack its housing, leaking battery acid all over your engine bay... not nice

- Open one window a tiny little bit.

- Make sure that the place where you've stored your car has a low-humidity. Check your brake discs. If their still blank after a month, your fine.

Personally, I wouldn't put a car on axle stands as the dampers and suspension bushes will have to take a kind of stress that they're not designed for.

 

Even my Mk4 XR3i Cabby on MFI ran without a single problem after 5 years of not being started at all. With EFI, you don't have to worry at all.

 

i start my car up let ju idle then rev it a few times. Then i wait for the fans to kick in then i switch it off and disconnect the battery.

 

I wouldn't start it at all if not necessary. I've had cars stored for years and never had problems with seized engines or the like.

The only reason to start it would be to lubricate the fuel system, especially on MFI but as said, even there, I never had any issues.

 

may be my sisters boyfriend was right lol.

 

Park it up ouside on the drive , come back to it in the summer and hey presto where your car was is a nice pile of rust

 

I fuckin love passionford!
Cheers people,a top quality set of answers
Pick it up on sunday,in bodyshop monday and workshop thursday,its all good!