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In Reply to: Additive ???? posted by KR3 on December 17, 2000 at 21:37:16:
Some general advice regarding winter storage:
Go to a Conoco, Texaco, Chevron, or some other "name brand" gas station that you can trust (more-or-less) and fill the tank full with their premium unleaded. Don't use that s&$t from the tanks at the local Seven-Eleven or Quickie Mart - it may have a name brand on the canopy but in reality it could be from anywhere (Apu's Refinery?). Then, add the recommended doseage of Sta-Bil additive. Better yet - add the Sta-Bil when you fill up the tank, to aid mixing. You can find Sta-Bil at most auto parts stores, and even at some hardware or garden centers (Deere, Toro, Tecumseh and others recommend its use). I usually go a little light on the amount of Sta-Bil I add, just to err on the side of caution. We are, after all, talking about advanced, precision German technology here.
Drain the oil and replace the oil and filter with new. This way you won't have the old grubby oil and all of the contaminants it's trapped sitting inside your motor for months. You'll also be ready to drive come spring. Don't bother throwing any additives in with the oil. Most name brand oils these days are of very high quality, and hard to improve upon. Oil additives, with a very, very few exceptions, are a waste of money. I don't care how many have been "approved"(I use the term loosely - so do the additive makers, for the most part) by the FAA, or how many running engine blocks they douse with water and sand during their 3am infomercials. They rely on snake oil, junk science and the gullibility of the public to move product.
Sorry- got a little carried away there!
After parking the car for the winter, inflate the tires to 3-4 psi above their rated pressure, this helps to prevent, or at least minimize, flat-spotting during storage. BE SURE TO SET THEM BACK to their specified pressures BEFORE driving the car again.
Remove the battery from the car and store it in a warm, safe place. Alternatively, disconnect the battery from the car, leaving it in place, and connect it instead to a trickle charger. You should be able to purchse this from a BMW parts supplier, maybe even from Sears.
If you live in a locale with high humidity, you may want to take the additional steps of taping off the exhausts or plugging them with rags (again, this is one of those little things you want to remember to undo next spring!), and placing a pie pan full of silica gel drying compound (available at hardware stores. It's that stuff that comes in the little packets with your new shoes. You know, the ones that say "contents not edible")in the passenger side footwell. Some people also add gelatin type air fresheners, but I don't care for my cars to smell like a boudoir or a pine forest.
These are pretty run-of-the-mill methods, and I have used them for several years on 911's of various vintages, E-Types, Healeys, TR6's, and, yes, even BMW's.
Good luck.
Regards, TB
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