Minnesota Focus Owners Club

so we got the motor and clutch in my svt and it runs great and the clutch is smooth as butter. so ill be parking it in a few weeks when the snow starts sticking or causing problems. what do i need to do to my car before i let it sit all winter? i will take the battery out and bring it inside forsure but anhything else?

Fill the gas tank with the highest grade gas you can. If you park inside on a slab make sure to park on top of a tarp and jack the car up and off the wheels if your not planning on touching it at all.

There is more to know about parking a car over winter. Someone on MNSC made a really good write up about everything you could/should do to properly store it over the winter.

I go over the top. I pulled into into my garage about a month ago. I shut it off. Then I locked it. Whoa, now its parked......

Pappy wrote:I go over the top. I pulled into into my garage about a month ago. I shut it off. Then I locked it. Whoa, now its parked......

I agree, I used to store my '69 Skylark every winter and that's the extent I went to as well. I never even pulled the battery and it would fire up just fine in the spring.

Winter storage really isn't "long term" storage, just park it.

i just start them once every 2 weeks for 10 mins.
my hornet just sits, i don's start it no more, and it did fine when it sat befor i bought it
the 280 is outside covered, starting that once in awhile

another thing you should do is stuff something in the tailpipe, just in case some critter wanna nut in you tail pipe

I fill my car with gas right before, and park it on tires that I don't plan to keep (usually whichever set is closest to being bald )

I don't think it's worth it to start it up every so often (did that the first year). A couple times a winter I will turn the engine over by hand a few times via a breaker bar on the crankshaft pulley.

DO NOT start it every couple of weeks. Just let it sit. If you think about it, after a couple weeks, all the oil has settled down in the oil pan. Now when you start it up, there is second or two of running the engine with no oil up top, before the oil pump can pump it back up to the top again. Doesn't sound like much, but why do it? Your car will start just fine if all else is OK.

This is what I do:

Change the oil
Park it inside, over a tarp - to prevent condensation from seeping up from the concrete and forming rust on the chassis
Put it up on jacks - to keep tires good
Let some air out of the tires - to reduce stress on the tires
Fill the gas tank, put in some sta-bil - to eliminate condensation in fuel tank, and preserve the fuel
Take out the battery, trickle charge a couple times - to keep battery fresh and charged
Plug the exhaust - to keep out the critters
Cover it

FYI.........
I just did wiring repair on a ford ranger that the lady had sitting for most the winter. Take drier sheets and stick them in your engine bay and in the interior of the car. The smell of the drier sheets repel mice. This ranger had a mouse nest under the intake manifold.....Expensive place to repair wiring. My dad also had a 66 jaguar e-type and one winter a mouse chewed through his soft top. he replaced the soft top and started using the drier sheet method of protection and he never had a problem again with them

Traps set with peanut butter and left around the car and checked frequently works well, there are also commercial rodent repellents you can buy at most hardware stores that you can use around the car to keep them away.

Another method I've heard but not tried is to simply pour a ring of powdered laundry detergent around the car because they don't like the chemicals in it.

+1 on the dryer sheets. We use them at our place on the river, and inside the boat. NEVER a problem!

Also a big fan of keeping our crap ethanol blended fuel fresh with Stabil. Reccommend that it's added and driven a few miles to get it thru the entire fuel system.

Those that start the vehicles periodically....your doing them more harm than good. Let 'em sleep!

My buds with their 850 HP boat motors will roll them over by hand once a month....keeps the stiff valve springs from taking a set.

humm, don't start huh. i'm worried bout the oil settling and rust starting. fogging oil?

The problem with starting it and not driving it to get it up to full operating temp is that you actually cause condensation to form which actually cause more rust issues than just letting it sit.

In particular if the car is in dry storage indoors then it's going to have virtually no issues at all, outdoor storage is much worse for a car but in most cases the engine internals will still be fine after winter storage.

You can get around some of the fuel problems by letting the tank get empty and filling it with non-oxygenated unleaded premium gas. No ethanol. On the south side you can get it at Leroy's at 90th & Lyndale. I believe the MN Street Rod Assn. web site maintains a list of sources for non-oxygenated gas. I still use stabil when I store a vehicle, but feel better without the ethanol in there.

Theres a station on the Northwest corner of 694 and Rice st that has non-oxygenated premium, thats where I fill up even though it says on the pump that it's for off road or classic car use only.

FORDSVTPARTS wrote:Theres a station on the Northwest corner of 694 and Rice st that has non-oxygenated premium, thats where I fill up even though it says on the pump that it's for off road or classic car use only.

Sinclair in IGH is the same way. I fill up there even though it has the same sign I figure if anyone asks just tell them that your car requires premium so you have no choice.