Cooling System - Winter Storage

[DS1980]

Thinking about putting the mini away before the salt starts flying. I'm curious what opinions are about draining the cooling system after parking it? Good idea, bad, neutral?

[MtyMous]

Bad idea. This will lead to rust in the water passages and a whole mess when you finally go to put more coolant in the car to drive it in the spring.

Instead, depending on your climate, flush the cooling system and put in fresh coolant with a lower water ratio to reduce possibility of freezing. Change the oil. Old oil can do bad things if you let it sit over time. Give the car a good wash (including under the car) and a fresh coat of wax. Cover the car if it's going to sit outside (or inside if you're anal like me) and park it on concrete if you can. If you're on bare earth, put a layer of plastic under the car to prevent unwanted corrosion. If you've got the space park it in the garage and put it up on jack stands to save the tires. If you can't put it up on jacks, make sure you inflate the tires and try to move the car around a couple times to keep from flat spotting the tires.

I've got a bunch of other ridiculously obsessive  rituals I follow, but I won't bother you with the rest unless you really want to know them.

[94touring]

Yeah unless you're on the south pole I see no reason to drain the coolant. 

[DS1980]

Thanks guys. I was curious if it had anything to do with rust. Sounds like it does.

[MtyMous]

You should look at treating the fuel system as well. I usually leave gas in the tank and add sta-bil. Then I drain the fuel bowl completely.

[DS1980]

And then open and shut the door 3 times, adjust the mirror 3 times, check the tire pressure 3 times, and then.....

You have OCD like me. Ever get up at 1 am to make sure you locked the door? I do.

I have about half gallon in the tank. Worth filling it up and adding treatment?

[94touring]

The stabil is a good idea.  I'd just add it and run the car for awhile rather than drain the bowl.  Heck add some sea foam too.  Maybe it cleans out the system while it sits for the winter. 

[MtyMous]

And then open and shut the door 3 times, adjust the mirror 3 times, check the tire pressure 3 times, and then.....

You have OCD like me. Ever get up at 1 am to make sure you locked the door? I do.

I have about half gallon in the tank. Worth filling it up and adding treatment?

I'm very particular.. haha

I've never filled it up to store. Just added the appropriate amount for how much I had in the tank. Filing up is a good idea. There is always condensation above the fuel line when it gets cold. Not a problem on a daily driver. Do what Dan recommended. Fill it up, add Sta-bil, run it for a bit (this will get it into the fuel pump) and then go from there.

If you want to get real crazy, put some large desiccant bags in the interior and boot. They're about $15 a bag, but will stop condensation, mold/mildew, and mild surface rusting. Baking soda works in a pinch, but I recommend the bags.

Did i say disconnect the battery yet?

[MiniDave]

Cheese louise......how long is your winter?

I fill the tank, add stabil, top off the fluids and park it in the garage.

Done.

Of course our winter is only about 3 months long......

[94touring]

I drive my cars year round!  4.gif.   

[MiniDave]

So do I, but they do lay a lot of salt down here when it snows, I usually don't drive the classic when it's really salty, but wait till after a good rain storm has washed the roads off.

Cold weather doesn't bother a classic, but salt will eat one up pretty quickly and my body shop is 4 hours away!   ;D

[MtyMous]

Winter isn't that long. I've just grown up with classic cars that sit longer than one season. And I do exactly the same as you with the salty roads. The one thing I really loved about Dallas was that they don't salt the roads. They put down sand. It makes a muddy mess, but it doesn't eat your car from the inside.

[94touring]

The fun thing about driving my pickup when it was driving, were the floors were already rotten.  One snowy day went to wherever I had to go and one of the holes was taking in snow.  While it wasn't snowing outside the inside of the truck looked like a snow globe after being shaken. 

[MiniDave]

The one thing I really loved about Dallas was that they don't salt the roads. They put down sand. It makes a muddy mess, but it doesn't eat your car from the inside.

Same with Colorado - they also add ground up tire bits too.......but they replace a lot of windshields there from sand blasting.

[Willie_B]

Yeah unless you're on the south pole I see no reason to drain the coolant.

It's not that bad at the South Pole. The year I was in Antarctica the pole station hit 125f below that winter.

[94touring]

Just 125 below.  Yeah that's tolerable  20.gif

[DS1980]

Same with Colorado - they also add ground up tire bits too.......but they replace a lot of windshields there from sand blasting.

There are some cities that use MagChloride. No bueno.
The joys of having a single car garage...the only thing I don't like about my house.
I don't know why they posted sideways

[94touring]

It's a glitch with the pictures.  Are you uploading from a phone?   I use "reduce photo size" app which when I pull them into the app it shows me how they are oriented.  Then I simply rotate and/or reduce to speed up uploading.  Works like a champ. 

[ADRay]

officially put away for winter for the first time



waxed, oil & coolant topped off, fuel stabilizer added and run for 10 minutes, gas topped off, battery disconnected, covered, parked on pavement, insurance deferred.

did I forget anything?

[MtyMous]

You forgot to put a garage around it. lol. J/K. You should be fine. I would recommend putting it on jack stands or just somehow getting it off the tires, but that's optional. If you don't elevate it, I would recommend you put a jack under it and spin the tires once a month at least.

[ADRay]

I'll try to do that, as long as it's no buried in snow (which it likely will be)

thanks

[MiniDave]

Where are you located? I still see green grass - it's not winter there yet!  8.gif

[ADRay]

New Hampshire.

it's been getting cold, and we could get slammed with snow anytime at this point (did last year at Thanksgiving)

[Mudhen]

Dude, you need a storage place.  When I lived in Dover I used a guy over in Madbury for my Rabbit GTI.  It was pretty cheap, in the spring I just had to clean off the dust, chicken crap, etc.

DON'T USE THAT GUY.

The only thing I do to winterize my car is park it inside and sometimes disconnect the battery.  Been working ok for me for 28 years.  And a few of those times winter was a few years long.

Although, now I think of it, some of my chrome is a little gross now - my dad used to be like Mtymous and go through this huge ritual with his MGs, including coating all chrome with polish and leaving it until spring to take off.  Maybe there was something to that piece of it...[memory lane on]man I used to hate helping him take cars to other people's garages for the winter where he borrowed space - seems like it was always 20 degrees, standing there freezing - here, this is the jack stand I made for the front left of the TF, wait, this is the front right...or was that the rear of the TC? get me the scissor jack, get the twin 6-volt batteries out of the As that only had 1/16th of an inch space and I'd always catch my fingers on the lip, put polish on, unhook the convertible tops, etc, etc, etc.

Now I miss it.   :D
[/memory lane off]

[ADRay]

I hear ya man...

I figure I'm doing better than it being buried under a snow bank like it was last winter.