Porsche Club of America Russell's Tech Tips Porsche Winter Storage Bill Hawe Bill930@PorscheNet.com

There appear to be several very different schools of thought on winter storage of Porsche's. I've yet to see a definitive statement on this topic. In general the schools of thought cover increasing amounts of work, both in the Fall and the Spring. The schools of thought I've seen include: 

• Drive it, don't store it
• Store it, but keep it alive
• Preserve it until Spring

Others counter that in places such as the Northeast salt, sand, gravel, ground up car parts, etc. are used by the Highway Department on the icy roads to increase both traction and business for body shops. Thus, they point out that the so called fun quotient needs to be modified based on "hours of paint chip-free driving". They also observe that one can obtain an interesting education in chemistry by watching what road salt does to the various aluminum alloys found throughout a Porsche.

It should be pointed out that there exists a minority of people who are oblivious to all this. They say that of course you should store your Porsche for the winter and then get out the "winter Porsche" and drive that one until Spring.

This is where it gets complicated. Here are a few suggestions based on my personal experience and comments from other owners. I offer no warrantee with these ideas. They are merely techniques I have used. Note that this is oriented towards short to medium term storage, such as the winter. Additional steps need to be taken to allow successful long term storage.

Change Oil & Filter

It's important to put fresh oil and a new filter in the car. Otherwise, contaminants in the old oil will have a field day corroding the insides of your engine.

Gas Up

Make sure the tank is as full as possible to prevent undue air in the gas tank. Air (along with its moisture) will result in condensation in the tank. We don't want that water in the gas and the injection system. Use a gasoline stabilizer such as Stabil. Put this in before putting in the gas. Run the engine a while to make sure that the stabilized gas has filled the entire injection system.

Over-inflate Tires

Inflate them to perhaps 40 or 45 psi. I have not seen any problems of flat spotting from storage with today's radial tires. However, if you feel more comfortable, you roll the car a little every 2 weeks or so. (Don't jack it up and rotate the tires. If you do, when you lower the car the suspension will be loaded up.) Check the pressure every few weeks to watch for slow leaks.

 

Some people put the car up on jacks. I don't. I've heard some say that this makes the suspension to sag and shouldn't be done. Perhaps that's true. I've noticed no problems from letting it sit on the ground (for the few months).

Clean Interior

Spend some time and get everything really clean. Clean the glass, inside and out. Clean the carpets. Clean and condition the leather. Clean behind the pedal cluster. You won't believe the dirt you'll find. Clean all the nooks and crannies. Don't forget to also clean the trunk, etc. There is a full driving season of junk and dirt in the car. When Spring comes you won't clean it. You'll hop in and drive it. You might put some moth balls inside the car (more on this below). And you might put a bag or two of the silica gel which absorbs any moisture in the air.

Adjust Seats

This item was kindly submitted by Michael G. Monin (mike@cardinal.mtc.ti.com). Retract your security cover (944, 924, 968) and bucket seats. Notice how the security cover stays in place, does not sag and easily retracts into its holder (tension). Notice how the bucket seats spring forward when the adjustment lever is operated. The security cover and bucket seats use springs for tension. SPRINGS have memory and will lose their original tension strength if they are compressed for any period of time. Therefore, I always retract the security cover into its holder and I let the bucket seats retract fully forward. This puts the least amount of compression on your springs.

Wash Car

But... do not put it away wet! This is tricky if you try to drive the car right up to that first snow day. You should never put your car away wet unless you want to encourage rust to form everywhere the water collects. You might try anticipating the advent of snow and cleaning the car and driving it a little to dry it out before storage. But then how to get the dust off before storing it? Interesting problem, heh!? A gentle wipe down with wet/damp towels followed by drying (with towels not chamois) can work if the car is basically clean to start.  Or you can use one of the "quick detailer sprays" available at an auto parts store.  They do a good job.

 

When you clean the car use this opportunity to make sure that all the drains work. It's not uncommon for drains to clog up during the fall with leaves, etc.. There are suprizingly more drains in the car than you think. Some have amazing routes they follow.

Wax Car

Maybe... It may be difficult to get in a good waxing of the car depending on the temperature when you store it. High quality wax will be too difficult to put on when it's very cold. But, you may luck out and get this done.

Clean Wheels

And we mean really clean them! Brake dust is very corrosive. You do not want this sitting on your wheels for the winter. Remove the wheels from the car. Clean the outside and the inside. The cleaning process is slightly different depending on the type of wheel you have. Some amount of wheel cleaner such as P21-S may be needed to get the insides really clean. Once they are really clean, wax them. Wax the both the insides and the outside. If you have Fuch's allows you don't need to wax the black center. However, put a small amount of Vaseline on a cotton cloth and rub it into the black center until there is a nice sheen (with no build-up). That advice is straight from the owner's manual. Clear coated wheels should be waxed completely. If you are ambitious, put two coats of wax on them. If you keep your wheels waxed like this you will find that brake dust does not adhere to them as it otherwise might. They will clean up much easier year round. You may not ever need to use chemicals such as P21-S if you follow this process.

Condition Rubber

Use a good rubber conditioner to preserve all the trim you can find on the body. Some of the popular name brands from the auto parts stores tend to either put on greasy coatings of silicon (Ugh, we don't want that!) or tend to build up over time and actually make the trim look worse over time! Silicon isn't particularly good for your paint at all. I'd stay away from that type of product. As with waxes, we could get into the religions of what type of conditioner is best and what specific famous brand name he was talking about. But, we won't, for now anyway....

Cover Openings

You should seal up the exhaust tips to help prevent rust, etc. inside the exhaust system. Close the heater vents, etc. Now a question, do you store this car in a place were furry little varmints might decide to setup house keeping? Mice like to make nests on 911 cylinders. While the mouse may get blown away when you drive the car in the Spring. His happy little home will do a great job of preventing any cooling of the cylinder. You'll be tearing this engine apart for a rebuild before summer arrives! I've actually seen such a 911 engine. Not a pretty sight.

There are various critter defense mechanisms which can be employed. A cat works, sometimes. But keep in mind that the cat will like to roost on top of your car. And, that nice wax job we talked about will mean he has to work his claws fast and furious to scamper up the side of the car! I have seen people encircle the car with moth balls on the floor. And I mean surround it with a gap-less wall of moth balls in a ring of defense against unauthorized intrusion. The mice don't like it to cross this line in the sand. This can be augmented with some traps. But keep in mind that traps work my attracting the mice not scaring them away. I suppose you could try one of those "car bags" which completely encloses the car. However, I think that would do better at keeping dust out then mice. Mice like to chew through things like that and hide inside. If they get inside you'll never see them or their droppings. This brings us to the topic of periodic inspection. Every 2 weeks or so, it's probably a good idea to take a look at the car. Have any leaks developed? Have any mice setup housekeeping?

To Start or Not?

I'm of the school which says don't start the car during the storage. The reasons are starting it puts lots of thermal stress on the parts which are all probably sitting around 30 to 40 degrees. Most engine wear happens in those first few minutes when a car is started because the oil hasn't fully circulated. It's questionable that if started you will ever get the car hot enough to burn off the moisture, acids, etc. the car is creating while running. This stuff ends up contaminating that clean oil you put in the car. Have you ever noticed the inside of the oil filler cap when the whether gets cold outside? Did you ever notice any moisture or gummy residue? This stuff doesn't get burned off when it's too cold.  (Note that if you are going to store your car for a really long time then it probably needs to be run periodically to keep it in operating condition.)

Engine Storage

In the Spring you might consider how to prevent all the wear that occurs when the engine is started cold. Here's a good proccedure sent in by Terry Shugart (tshugart@aloggw.analogic.com):

"A major concern for me is starting the engine in the spring.  Over the years I have read and seen the damage that can be done to piston aircraft engines that are left sitting for a long time between starts.  To prevent potential damage to the rings on a dry start I lube the cylinders with a little motor oil in the Spring.  Then I disable the engine from starting (lots of ways to do this including grounding the point lead, or coil output & disabling the fuel pump), and turn the engine over until I get oil pressure.  On my 911 its enough to get the oil pressure idiot light to go out.  This gets things lubricated before you fire it up."

Here's an engine storage procedure from Klaus Fischer at Amalfi Racing. He and his friends at the Porsche Museum in Germany use this for their historic Porsche race cars:

• Take out spark plugs
• Spray WD 40 into cylinders
• Spray WD 40 into air intakes
• Turn over the engine by hand with wrench a couple of times
• Every three months repeat above (Spark plugs stay out of engine)
• Also every three month turn wheels, or move car into different location to change the wheel bearing position
• As well shift into one gear and move gear box internal around
• Every six month drive the car!

930 turbo owners should read their owner's manual carefully. There's a "maintenance item" in there which says (and I am not kidding about this!) that each time the car is run it should be either (1) run at highway speeds for a while, or (2) given a least one full throttle, maximum acceleration in first gear. Since the car comes from the home of the Autobahn we can only guess what they mean by highway speeds. The reason Porsche states for this procedure is to assure that any moisture which has developed in the waste gate and waste gate exhaust is burned off. Way cool! "But officer, it says right here in my owner's manual that I am supposed to drive this way every time I take the car out! Really!" This moisture will develop in your engine, transmission, exhaust, etc. if you just start the car and let it idle for a little while. So, I'm of the school which does not start the car.

Remove Battery

For several reasons you really should remove the battery from the car. Usually the car is stored in an unheated garage. The cold will do a number on discharging the battery and killing it. Some people leave the battery in the car and plug in a trickle charger. I prefer to remove the battery completely and store it inside the house in reasonably warm place. But not a hot place. Trickle charge the battery while storing it. Make sure you use one of the small trickle chargers which monitor the battery charge and automatically turn off to avoid over charge.  They cost between $20 and $40.  You can get them from most of the aftermarket Porsche parts suppliers listed on our page.

Note that the "old wives tale" which said not to store a battery on concrete least it discharge on you is not true.  Thanks to David Johnson <DavidJohnson@sunsetimports.com>for pointing this out.  Also, thanks to David point pointing out this "battery maintenance" web site: http://www.ibsa.com/estore/www_2001/content/faqs/tech_talk/maintenance/faq_tech_maint.htm

The other reason for removing the battery is so that you can clean the battery tray and surrounding area. It's not unusual for there to be some battery acid there. We want that out of there. If you store your battery inside your house, please keep in mind that the trickle charging will generate (explosive) gases. So don't store it near the furnace, sources of electrical spark, a heater, etc..

It should be pointed out that in many of the newer Porsche's (such as 993's) you may end up disabling the security access code if you remove the battery.  You may in fact need to leave the car unlocked so you can get back into it, and may need to have the security code reprogrammed (by a dealer service center).  Yikes!  It may be better for those cars to leave the battery installed and make sure you have it on a trickle charger.  Make sure, as we mentioned above, that the trickle charger has "auto-charge sense" and will turn on/off as necessary so as not to over-charge the battery. Thanks to Stephen Ramos (sramos@bm.bm.net) for this observation!  

Brake Fluid

Guess what? You really should change the brake fluid. It's hydrophilic.  This basically means it loves to absorb moisture. (Previously we called this "hydroscopic".  But tonsilking@hotmail.com pointed out that that word doesn't exist and it's "hydrophilic".)  Moisture sitting in the equipment over the winter means corrosion. This means brake problems. Porsche, along with all car manufacturers, recommend changing the brake fluid at certain intervals. However, as was the case with the engine oil, storage allows contaminants to remain in the system without being burned off or flushed. Thus, it is important to put the car away with fresh fluids. If the car has been used on the track this is even more important.

It's probably not a bad idea to change the transmission (and differential) fluid as well. Although, I think this is perhaps less critical than the engine oil and the brake fluid. Certainly good maintenance will have you putting new fluids in the transmission, differential, brakes, etc. at least once a year anyway. So this may be the time to do it.

Cover Car

Clearly the car should be covered to keep dust, and sunlight from a garage window, off the car. Also keep in mind that sunlight and ozone are very bad for rubber. While the car cover will protect the car from the sunlight, it may not cover the tires. In addition, ozone produced by sparks and electrical arcing from electric motors will deteriorate rubber. So, don't store tires, or the car for that matter, where it is exposed to this. Tire manufacturers such as BFGoodrich mention this in their storage procedures. Incidentally, the October, 1995 issue of the BFGoodrich Technical Newsletter mentions that BFG R1 tires may be stored over the winter with no ill effects. However, BFG cautions against exposure to sunlight and ozone as mentioned above.

Optional Items

I have heard of people spraying a light oil such as WD-40on the brake rotors under the theory that it will prevent them from glazing over with rust. They say it burns off in the Spring. I'm not so sure about this. I don't do it. I don't put away the car with the rotors wet. My rotors are not rusted in the Spring. So, don't spray oil on your brake rotors. It's a dumb idea.

WD-40can be used effectively on the engine, wires, etc. to keep moisture from collecting.  This is a common storage procedure on race cars between races.  It burns off when the car is started and run.