[Sleheri]

How long do you let your car sit? I drove my last challenger in the road Salt snd it made my rims and paint look horrible. I have my current one as a second car. What's the longest you would leave one sit? At what point do you need to use fuel stabilizer? I often wonder if its better to just drive them as sitting might do more harm then good.

 

[oneheadlite]

...has sat a week because of salt/snow.
Of course, I didn't buy this car to DD, just to show off in....and...
to let my Grandson drive a full-fledged hot rod. (he'll never own it)

 

[mjb4450]

I had a Mustang that sat for six months at a time twice when I was stationed in Korea. I put it on blocks so the tires wouldn't flat spot. Other than that I threw in a new battery, turned the key and it instantly fired right up like it was parked for just five minutes. No valve train noise, ran fine and never had any problem with it afterwards. Surprised me and everyone else there. It reminded me of the scene in the movie Sleepers when Woody Allen, in the future, finds a 200 year old VW Bug in a cave, gets in it and it starts right up and drives off.

 

[saint]

I leave mine for four months during the summer when I escape the Arizona heat for the cool lakes and woods of Minnesota. It sits in my garage. Before leaving, I get the oil changed, top off the fuel tank, air up the tires to around 45 and connect a battery tender to it. When I come back, I disconnect the tender, turn the key and it fires right up. I do notice I have some flat spots on the tires but they go away within a few miles of driving.

Hope this helps!

 

[hunttriumph1500]

Most of my cars sit out the winter here in New England. I keep the batteries charged and I move em every so often but yeah around 4-6 months without driving is not unusual for me. Never had any issues while doing this to many of my fleet vehicles.

 

[Red392Scat]

I try not to let it sit for more than 2 weeks in the winter because I don't want to get wet salt kicked up on it. There's usually a cold dry day with minimal dried salt on the roads so that's when I take the car out. But we've had a lot of snow this winter & the streets have stayed pretty crappy lately. It's warming up this week so that will make it sloppy. Maybe it's time to take a chance & go out early when it's cold & hopefully most of the snow & moisture is frozen from the cold night air. And less traffic to kick salt spray on the car.

 

[lws43]

end of october till spring. Usually march so it basicaly sits half the year.

 

[Cuda340]

In the winter, I try to drive my SRT once a week, when the weather is sunny and the roads are clear of snow, ice and salt.

The longest that it has ever sat was four weeks when I was hospitalized with COVID, for 27 days, in Sept.-October 2020.

 

[raceheart77]

The longest my cars have ever sat in the garage was about a 10 days because of snow/salt.. I will fire it up every few days in the winter (I like the sound of the exhaust ha ha). I will even drive it out and in the garage and give it a hard brake. I give it a few hard revs when heated up also. I try not to park in the same spot to avoid flat-spotting of the tires (about 6 inches).

 

[Rockster]

How long do you let your car sit? I drove my last challenger in the road Salt snd it made my rims and paint look horrible. I have my current one as a second car. What's the longest you would leave one sit? At what point do you need to use fuel stabilizer? I often wonder if its better to just drive them as sitting might do more harm then good.

Here in Benton County AR due to bad weather I let my Scat Pack sit about two weeks.

Last time I drove it -- just before the 1st of two snow storms hit -- was Feb. 7. Then didn't drive it again until Feb. 20.

In the meantime the area got hit by two fairly bad (for this region) snow storms.

A pic after the 1st storm:

After the 2nd storm passed and after some days -- the weather remained quite cold -- the roads finally were clear. But I had to deal with an apartment drive that was not plowed so I didn't take the car out until the weather warmed up and melted the worst of the snow/ice from the apartment drive.

A view of the apartment drive from inside the car:

Have not looked that close but if any salt residue is on the car I'll just rinse/wash the car off. I know my "daily driver" (my van) has a good amount of residue because I used it before the roads were clear.

As for fuel stabilizers I posted a link to a video of a guy who tried various fuel stabilizers for a year and believe it or not the test engine with just plain old 87 with no fuel stabilizer started the quickest. In one case with a popular fuel stabilizer the engine required considerable effort to get started. Once started it ran lousy.

The one I recall the engines were started after 1 year of sitting -- but were started (as part of the test) at 6 months -- but this one has the engines being started (again) after 13 months.

The take away is from the video is fuel additives do not work and in some cases can make the engine harder to start and make for a lousier running engine once it does start.

As for using the car vs. letting it sit, if the weather is real bad, if the snow is bad, and if you do not want to fit real snow tires to the car, best to let the car sit out the bad weather. Or if you just do not want to subject the car to the "ravages" of winter or the risk of an accident from some doofus not on the proper tires then let the car sit out the bad weather. Really your call. And you can use any reason you want to let the car sit.

My experience has been from living in areas where bad weather is not a given for long long periods (months) so even after a week (or two ) of bad weather, intolerable road conditions -- my Scat Pack is fitted with summer high performance tires -- the weather breaks the roads clear up the temperature warms up some and I can bring the car out for a nice long (~1 hour) drive.

Typical for me is when I used the car the last time before the 1st of two snow storms hit I put the car away after topping up the fuel tank with fresh 91. It so happens it was ethanol free 91, but I have lived in another area -- several hundred miles north of here -- where 91 ethanol free was not available -- or if it was I was not aware of it and never bothered to seek it out and use it -- and the presence of ethanol didn't seem to matter in any way I could tell. The engine started and ran just fine even after at least a week or two of lack of any use.

I bought the car new in Nov. 2020 and on January 5 I had the oil/filter service done at around 1500 miles. So the engine is "facing" winter with infrequent use with fresh oil in the engine.

 

[Rockhopper01]

I’m going on three weeks now for both my Scat Pack and my daily driver SXT. Telework and three winter storms have ‘em stuck in the garage. We live out in the woods in southern Indiana with long hilly gravel driveways currently encased in ice.

 

[lws43]

Here in Benton County AR due to bad weather I let my Scat Pack sit about two weeks.

Last time I drove it -- just before the 1st of two snow storms hit -- was Feb. 7. Then didn't drive it again until Feb. 20.

In the meantime the area got hit by two fairly bad (for this region) snow storms.

A pic after the 1st storm:

View attachment 1015276

After the 2nd storm passed and after some days -- the weather remained quite cold -- the roads finally were clear. But I had to deal with an apartment drive that was not plowed so I didn't take the car out until the weather warmed up and melted the worst of the snow/ice from the apartment drive.

A view of the apartment drive from inside the car:

View attachment 1015275

Have not looked that close but if any salt residue is on the car I'll just rinse/wash the car off. I know my "daily driver" (my van) has a good amount of residue because I used it before the roads were clear.

As for fuel stabilizers I posted a link to a video of a guy who tried various fuel stabilizers for a year and believe it or not the test engine with just plain old 87 with no fuel stabilizer started the quickest. In one case with a popular fuel stabilizer the engine required considerable effort to get started. Once started it ran lousy.

The one I recall the engines were started after 1 year of sitting -- but were started (as part of the test) at 6 months -- but this one has the engines being started (again) after 13 months.

The take away is from the video is fuel additives do not work and in some cases can make the engine harder to start and make for a lousier running engine once it does start.

As for using the car vs. letting it sit, if the weather is real bad, if the snow is bad, and if you do not want to fit real snow tires to the car, best to let the car sit out the bad weather. Or if you just do not want to subject the car to the "ravages" of winter or the risk of an accident from some doofus not on the proper tires then let the car sit out the bad weather. Really your call. And you can use any reason you want to let the car sit.

My experience has been from living in areas where bad weather is not a given for long long periods (months) so even after a week (or two ) of bad weather, intolerable road conditions -- my Scat Pack is fitted with summer high performance tires -- the weather breaks the roads clear up the temperature warms up some and I can bring the car out for a nice long (~1 hour) drive.

Typical for me is when I used the car the last time before the 1st of two snow storms hit I put the car away after topping up the fuel tank with fresh 91. It so happens it was ethanol free 91, but I have lived in another area -- several hundred miles north of here -- where 91 ethanol free was not available -- or if it was I was not aware of it and never bothered to seek it out and use it -- and the presence of ethanol didn't seem to matter in any way I could tell. The engine started and ran just fine even after at least a week or two of lack of any use.

I bought the car new in Nov. 2020 and on January 5 I had the oil/filter service done at around 1500 miles. So the engine is "facing" winter with infrequent use with fresh oil in the engine.

Man im going to have to show you what a snow storm is. We call that a dusting and we get that much probably 3 times a week in between real storms. Makes me snicker at my dad back in the early 70s. He worked civil service on the local air force base. Every year first snow the roads would be littered with cars in the ditch from southerners first attemps at driving in the snow. I used to make good money running up and down a 30 mile stretch between the base and the main town charging 10 bucks a crack to pull them out. We go up the road pull out three and turn around and find maybe 3 more. Sometimes even the same car we already pulled. Dads story still makes me laugh. He worked at the boiler plant and had three GIs on every shift with a civilian (dad) as a lead man. He got a new airmen from alabama that showed up in the fall with his dodge 383 charger. Like about everyone he had bias ply 60s on the back. First snow obviously it was a handful. He came to work after that first storm he witnessed and asked my dad where he got those tractor tires on his pickup. He had never even heard of a snow tire. i allways tell people that if they ran one nascar race up here on a snow and ice covered track my ma when she was in her 70s could take her street car and whip jimmy johnson in a race. Snow and ice covered roads dont even slow down traffic here. Only thing that slows it is a white out blizzard. Heres my back yard last week. We get an average of about 250 inches a year. this has been a mild winter.

 

[Rockster]

Man im going to have to show you what a snow storm is. We call that a dusting and we get that much probably 3 times a week in between real storms. Makes me snicker at my dad back in the early 70s. He worked civil service on the local air force base. Every year first snow the roads would be littered with cars in the ditch from southerners first attemps at driving in the snow. I used to make good money running up and down a 30 mile stretch between the base and the main town charging 10 bucks a crack to pull them out. We go up the road pull out three and turn around and find maybe 3 more. Sometimes even the same car we already pulled. Dads story still makes me laugh. He worked at the boiler plant and had three GIs on every shift with a civilian (dad) as a lead man. He got a new airmen from alabama that showed up in the fall with his dodge 383 charger. Like about everyone he had bias ply 60s on the back. First snow obviously it was a handful. He came to work after that first storm he witnessed and asked my dad where he got those tractor tires on his pickup. He had never even heard of a snow tire. i allways tell people that if they ran one nascar race up here on a snow and ice covered track my ma when she was in her 70s could take her street car and whip jimmy johnson in a race. Snow and ice covered roads dont even slow down traffic here. Only thing that slows it is a white out blizzard.

Oh I am well aware of as snow storms go that's not much snow. But my car on summer tires stays put. And my van on I have not idea what tires stays put until the roads are plowed and have some traffic to help clear the snow/ice.

I have the "luxury" of not having to be out and about every day if I don't want to be out and about.

The drive was not that bad in the pic but was pretty much sheet ice the day before. 24+ hours at 40F+ temperature with a good wind and even some rain made a big difference from one day to the next.

 

[lws43]

yup winters are long up here but my 130hp yamaha viper and my wifes 120 hp 600 polaris indy take care of the need for speed. If you never saw triple didgit speeds on a snowmobile you haven lived. Only experience as cool is 80 in a boat. Those speeds on them feel like 200 in a car. to be honest I dont go out much in my truck or jeep in the winter either. my wife drives the truck to work and i think the son in law puts more miles on my jeep then i do. Even with this virus thing the challenger did some sitting last summer. A guy is just so limited in where you can go and what you can do today. I know ive put more miles on my snowmobile this winter then i did on my jeep. Probably more then i put on my challenger last summer too. Hundreds of miles of trails up here i can access right from my back yard. Add to that the tourists that over run us in the summer all run south when the snow flys and its the nicest time of year up here. I do miss driving the car though.

 

[Big Swede]

Mine sits 4-5 months. Never had a problem.

 

[Frank Julian]

October 28th to April 28th (Insurance goes to comprehensive only).
But usually around mid April, I get the itch and call AAA and pick the insurance up a couple weeks early.
This year it comes out on April 28th and leaves on the 30th to get dropped off at OST Dyno. The wait for the Whipple, Torque Converter, Exhaust Cutouts, 1 piece Drive shaft and Hellcat Cat Back install is going to kill me.

 

[Grumpy59]

Mine is parked Nov 1st until April 15th depending on conditions. I start it and let it run about every 3 weeks in garage.

 

[lws43]

October 28th to April 28th (Insurance goes to comprehensive only).
But usually around mid April, I get the itch and call AAA and pick the insurance up a couple weeks early.
This year it comes out on April 28th and leaves on the 30th to get dropped off at OST Dyno. The wait for the Whipple, Torque Converter, Exhaust Cutouts, 1 piece Drive shaft and Hellcat Cat Back install is going to kill me.

im officially jealous

 

[Red392Scat]

I did take my SP out today, but first drove around a bit in my other car to check out which streets were the driest. Nothing was dry & it supposed to be 35-40 degrees the next 10 days so roads will just get sloppier. There's a single lane in each direction road by me that I drove today. That way I could keep my distance & didn't have to worry about other cars passing & spraying the car with whatever is left on the pavement.

The car started up but the first turn of the crankshaft sounded sounded a bit slow. The car has probably been sitting longer than I thought. It takes a while to get the oil up to 212 degrees in cold weather but driving in a lower gear & keeping the revs up to about 3,000 - 4,000 rpm for a minute really makes the oil temperature climb.

Edit - just to clarify, the oil temperature was 210 degrees when I started to rev things up a bit. It didn't take much to get it to 215° & then 217° popped up.

 

[Pauljw]

I did take my SP out today, but first drove around a bit in my other car to check out which streets were the driest. Nothing was dry & it supposed to be 35-40 degrees the next 10 days so roads will just get sloppier. There's a single lane in each direction road by me that I drove today. That way I could keep my distance & didn't have to worry about other cars passing & spraying the car with whatever is left on the pavement.

The car started up but the first turn of the crankshaft sounded sounded a bit slow. The car has probably been sitting longer than I thought. It takes a while to get the oil up to 212 degrees in cold weather but driving in a lower gear & keeping the revs up to about 3,000 - 4,000 rpm for a minute really makes the oil temperature climb.

Whoa, remind me to never buy a SP from you... lol. It's not the spray on the paint that's an issue, that's protected with clear coat and wax, it's the undercarriage that is now being devoured by the salt and brine. And you're supposed to wait till the engine is up to temp before hitting 3-4K rpm, not use high rpm to get to temp...