It will be a very sad day when I have to store my car for the upcoming winter. I will miss this car more than I'd miss my own daughter and wife.
I live in New York State where the temperature can get down to single digits (F) but normally between 25-35 degrees F.
My question is if I need to store the car in a heated facility and if so (which I suspect will be best) than what should the temperature be kept at?
PLEASE do not talk about how where you live you can drive the car all year long, please.
Jomo

 

Above freezing is surely better although I'm not sure if there's an official (or even unofficial) 'ideal storage temperature'.

I take care of a bunch of old cars and temp inside the building is kept at 52ºF or higher. So, naturally, I don't have any winter-specific storage issues.

Keeping the car (and general storage environment, to the extent possible) DRY is very important, probably more important than temperature.

Cheers
DD

 

Adding to Doug's advice, if power is available it might be a good idea to put a "trickle charger" (sometimes called a Float Charger) on the battery.

Batteries don't like to be neglected and keeping it charged is one way to make sure you won't have to buy a new one next Spring.

The rains have started here and Nix will have such a charger on her battery most of the Winter. I have another car in the shed and put such a charger on it yesterday.
(';')

 

How important is it to have the proper battery vented to the outside of the car when a trickle charger is placed on the battery for the winter?

 

I keep our storage area at 50 degrees all winter. I would recommend removing the battery and putting it on a maintainer, unless you have a sealed AGM type battery (gel non acid battery) as acid flled batteries sometimes don't like being on constant charge and start leaking through the caps, or start growing the green fuzzies on the connections, which you'd rather have happen outside the boot vs. in.

Cheers,

Jeff

 

Please note that neither a trickle charger or float charger is suitable for long term storage. They can boil the battery dry in certain circumstances. You want a 'battery tender' or 'battery conditioner', a very different animal.

No additional venting over what Jag designed into the cars is required.

For the OP- absolute temperature is not really that important, it's temperature fluctuations that cause the damage, particularly when the temperature goes above and below the dew point in the storage location. Do what you can to keep the car at a stable temp.

Last bit of advice- do NOT start the engine now and then or at all unless you're taking the car out for a good long drive.

 

Thank you, Mikey,
I was ignorant of such a device. I'll be looking into one of those.

Although we don't exactly store anything "long term" here, a few weeks max, one of these might be a good idea anyway.
(';')

 

Amen, brother

Amen again !

Cheers
DD

 

Here's an on going discussion being held over on the S-type session.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...market-124405/

I am collaborating with Ken and Steve to complete a full write up as mentioned. Both the Ctek or Deltran brands do a great job.

 

Quote:
Last bit of advice- do NOT start the engine now and then or at all unless you're taking the car out for a good long drive.

I am a bit confused by this statement. Are you saying it is better not to start a car at all if being stored for a long period of time like winter? If so, why is it better to leave an engine sit not running for long periods of time over starting say once a month and getting up at least to full running temp.? Some areas can have pretty harsh winters that can last for 3 to 4 months so taking the car out for a " good long drive " is not always an option.

Logic tells me it is best to keep everything lubricated and working as intended including injectors. Of course proper fuel stabilizer and a battery tender is a must but please explain why you do not want to start the engine and run to full temp. at least once a month or so if that is what in fact what you meant.

 

Engines are not like people or the family dog that needs to get out for exercise on a regular basis. They're lumps of metal and plastic.

There's no real deterioration going on in an engine that's not being used, humidity aside. The oil still sticks to the metal surfaces just as much after five months or five years as it does after five hours. The coolant couldn't care less whether it circulates or not. The sky-is-falling pundits always theorize that the fuel will go bad and the fuel system components will clog and jam during storage as a result but this is just not supported by actual experience. The fuel sitting in the injector during storage is pretty much isolated from any factor that might cause it to 'go bad'.

I store my summer toys for approx. 6 months during our winter and the winter toys conversely for six months during our summer. The small engines have their carbs drained dry, the big toys with carbs or FI don't.

I've been storing toys this way since 1973, never had a problem.

 

Full tank of gas and sufficient fuel stabiliser for the quantity in the tank.

Run the engine until the conditioned fuel has reached the injectors
so that the entire system contains fuel stabilser.

I would pull the battery and just charge it every two months.

Supporting the vehicle weight can save the wheel bearings
from fretting.

 

I would actually lean towards leaving the car full of fuel! Even "gone off fuel" (and it does go off in the UK with the high ethanol content) its still beats corrosion in the tank. Worst case you have to pull a fuel line to drain it before refill, most of the time it will run anyway. Do not whatever you do leave it empty for 11 years (as I did) - it will rust the tank to hell.

 

Mikey,

FWIW, I have boiled out a battery on a tender too (just a couple of weeks ago actually), so it really depends on the battery condition just as much as the maintainter itself. For that, if the car is being left any longer than a few weeks to a month, remove the battery (don't set it on the concrete either) and then hook up the maintainer.

Jeff

 

I'd suggest that your tender malfunctioned then. The whole purpose and the main difference between them and a trickle charger is the ability to shut themselves off if either the battery is fully charged or defective. Sounds like yours kept on going when it should have shut off.

May I ask which brand and model?

 

My 1995 XJS 4.0L Convertible refused to Start one day, where eventually the problem was traced to a faulty Fuel Pump.

Not such a problem on most Cars, changing a fuel pump isn't 'Rocket Science' and can be done for the most part in just a couple of hours.

Not so on my 1995 Convertible XJS

Changing out the Fuel Pump was a nightmare!

The Fuel Pump sits in the 'Top of the Tank' and Fuel Tank had to come out!

The other problem being that its sits behind a Steel Baffle Plate, which is such a precision fit, that I had to remove all the Trim, just to get that out!

As well as the CD Changer, The Gas Struts and the Fuel pipes, which were very difficult to get to.

When I eventually got the Tank out, I looked inside and found it was rusted to hell, no doubt thanks to the Ethanol content of the Petrol.

As a result I had to have the Tank professionally Cleaned, followed by a New Fuel Pump and a New Sender.

All in all it cost me around £400 as I did all the work myself apart from the actual cleaning.

If I had taken her into a Garage, the cost would have probably been much nearer £1,000.

 

Here are a few of my concerns letting a engine sit and not ran for long periods of time. I am just bringing of few of these thoughts up because I need your feedback to see if there is any logic at all to my thinking on this.

A. What about the seals on the engine like valve stem seals sitting for longs periods of time. Would sitting cause them to fail quicker as in dry up and shrink back or crack etc?

B. I have always been concerned about piston rings starting to stick or in my mind somehow damage the cylinder walls if allowed to sit for years at a time-is this a legitimate concern?

C. The intake system and fuel injectors have parts that open and shut internally and I have always been concerned about them gumming up and sticking. Fuel additive is said to only be good for about a year and with most fuels containing ethanol seems to me you might be causing issues letting these parts sit unused for long periods of time.

D. I think about all the other wear items on a vehicle like caliper seals, power steering shaft seals, transmission seals and a/c compressor seals etc. Just seams logical to me to have all these items run every 3 months so fluid gets on everything as intended. I will run the transmission through the gears and turn the steering wheel left to right several times. I also move the car about a half tire rotation so the tires are not sitting for too long on the same spots. Is all of this necessary if car is sitting for long periods?

Thanks in advance for all feedback on these thoughts about long term storage.

 

Mikey,

I use only Deltran's Battery Tender Juniors, have for many years without incident (I store and "tender" about 15 cars every winter). The battery in question had a bad cell (was a 10 year old Interstate standard lead filled battery), and the tender thought the battery was at less than 11.8 volts or so and cooked it. Not the tenders fault, as it could not properly gauge the total voltage.

Thus why I just don't risk it anymore and yank 'em.

Cheers,

Jeff

 

Hope this helps.

 

Sitting on concrete has no effect on the longevity of batteries, if anything it might help since the cooler the battery the longer it lasts.