Shelter-In-Place Maintenance/Storage?

IronFusion

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I was maybe half through an oil change interval when I parked my car the day before "lockdown."
Exterior-wise:
If I take the time, I will strip, bar, and wax.
Else, I will combo wax/polish wash with a hand polish.
And, this may be extreme, at what storage interval do these need to be considerations?
  • Battery tenders
  • Oil change, add in stabilizer goo like STP?
  • Cylinder fogging?
I add something to my fuel that results in what is in tank/lines having anti-corrosive stabilized gas. Otherwise, 'drain' would have been a consideration.
Genuinely interested what people think. Say my car gets used for less than 5-10mi once or twice a month? Once a month? I'm really interested in the fogging.
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c1vic

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I wouldn't add any additive to oil, and just change oil when it's 1 year old.
 
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IronFusion

IronFusion

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Went to do my once-every-two week errands yesterday. Engine wouldn't quite turn over when trying to start ?
I've got a battery booster and everything was fine. When I got home I unplugged my 12V spotter (even though the 12V goes dark when car is off) to feel better.
What's the life folks have seen on the battery from the factory? I'm coming up on 40 months since purchase. Only left stuff on and drained, needing a jump, once. Maybe twice. Certainly not recently.
Not interested in a battery tender. I'd sooner let the stock battery go to crap and save up for a lighter cell-tech (gel, agm, hyrbid, etc.) with longer life. or higher CCA Capacity.
 

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I am in CA and we are in our 3rd week of lock down. I starts my car everyday and took it out for a quick neighborhood drive every few days.
 

Gruber

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Not interested in a battery tender. I'd sooner let the stock battery go to crap and save up for a lighter cell-tech (gel, agm, hyrbid, etc.) with longer life. or higher CCA Capacity.
Well, I'm not on any sort of lock down, but the battery tender is the only thing I do on wife's car, since she's not driving much. Leaving the car sitting for weeks will make any battery go to crap.
 


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I've heard a daily start and 10 minute idle can be worse for a battery then not starting for a few days. Any truth to that?
 

Gruber

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I've heard a daily start and 10 minute idle can be worse for a battery then not starting for a few days. Any truth to that?
You will never know until you measure. That's true for most everything in this world. No theoretical calculation will be of any use except for a large ballpark. And often it will even miss the ballpark. So these attempts to estimate are just that:

https://electronics.stackexchange.c...take-to-recharge-a-car-battery-after-starting

It might actually be enough to idle for 10 minutes. Or sometimes it might not. Depends on how the charging system works, how fresh the battery is, etc.
But a voltmeter or a battery test device is practically free. So just check the voltage on the battery when the car is cold and not running. If it's much less than 12.6 V, it's not fully charged. If it's lower than that just after your idling, after turning it off, it's definitely not fully charged. If the voltage drops significantly after a day ot two, the battery is likely not in good shape.

I would probably rather avoid idling to maintain the car and battery, unless I had absolutely no other choice.. I would definitely go for a ride.
 
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IronFusion

IronFusion

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I've heard a daily start and 10 minute idle can be worse for a battery then not starting for a few days. Any truth to that?
Likely- it seems logically consistent to me.

Years ago I left the lights on and the battery on my Camry was depleted. AAA came and jumped it, but the tech noticed I was low on fuel and told me to keep the car running while refueling. I was shocked. I was told it's actually safe to do and largely precautionary. But if I drove a few minutes and stopped to get gas I'd likely be calling AAA again. The turn off to fuel is sort of like powering down electronics on a plane. Maybe-kinda used to be the case, or was issued as guidance, but isn't the case now. Plus, having fuel fumes and exhaust fumes in the same space when it's warm contributes to ground-level ozone generation. Don't leave your car running while fueling becaue you can, but know you can if you must.
Ten minutes at idle RPMs is likely insufficient to gain much charge vs the amount of cold cranking amps, CCA, expended. Potential for charging gains are offset by any active drains from age or a worn electrical system (contacts, insulation), aged and worn battery, and having to divert power to the cooling fan somewhere in that 10 minutes. It may be safe for a new car but the spectrum of health and state of personal vehicles means a not insignificant amount would not do well. Driving for 10-15 minutes of largely sustained motion under power is probably healthy, however, is a different story altogether: The charging system isn't competing with cooling and accessories and the amount of power to use for charging is in surplus.
Its conceivable that engine wear is a second derogatory mark against this 10 minute idle hypothetical practice. Even at mild temperatures, the engine isn't going to leap into operating temperatures. So lubricant isn't as immediately protective, and stresses from operating outside operating temps lead to accruing wear. At ten minutes, the components that have an operating temperature are kind of just going through a heating cycle. Stuff expands as it gets hot and applies force to seals, joints, and the like. Then it gets to temp just to go into a cooling phase when the 10 minutes is up. If some things don't get to operating temp in the 10 minutes, or some parts continue absorbing heat from those that begin cooling after turning the car off these differences rack up stress that is unnecessary. If the car has the oil dilution update, the stress of the AC compressor running is a factor for reduced recharge and increased wear too. If you don't have the update and the car is inclined to have oil dilution, idling is only going to contribute to dilution.
Voltage testing a battery, alone, doesn't tell you much. If the reading is below upper 11-12V at rest or in use it means the battery is physically worn or damaged. Or severely depleted, past the chances of being able to start the engine. Car batteries are a stack of cells that each provide ~2V. So seeing upper 9-10V means a cell is dead. That's a battery replacement condition, but just because it's 12V says nothing about the ability to start the vehicle. Putting two 6V lantern batteries (the ones with the spring-like terminals that are used in those floating lantern flashlights) in series will read 12V. Not likely ever going to start a 10th Gen Civic with two (unassisted) lantern batteries. Measuring amperage under load is the way to test a battery for charge. You could get fancy and do a chemical test of a non-sealed battery along with voltage over a duration and charging state and get better data. That's more science experiment than practical test though.

Best thing for having a car sit weeks at a time, for a number of times, would be a tender to keep it topped of and maintained with a float charge. Next best would be to disconnect it from the car and remove external drain. Third-ish best might be using a booster battery to dampen the starting stress and run for 20 minutes a week.

I have a battery tender arriving in a few days, so I know which route I'm going. Come winter, I'll probably upgrade to a new battery. If <20 days parked without use forced me to use a booster, when it gets cold I'll probably be dependent on a booster to reliably be able to use the car daily. I may upgrade to something fancy if isolation or remote work stretches into the fall with lockdown measures easing, which would give me more time to work on my car for performance goals. Lead + liquid is heavy, yo.

Update/edit: I realize I did an about-face on going the battery tender route. Between how the coronavirus has unfolded in the last 20 days, and the very very risk-averse nature of my employer, it is likely I will be working from home full-time through August, if not the remainder of 2020. That's a completely different scenario from things, and my car use, trending toward normal starting in May. I'd rather split the difference on the timeframe I may be driving to work again, and replace the battery in Nov/Dec before it gets very cold rather than being back against the wall and popping my hood to boost starts in order to get to work and get home with regularity. I have to drive to pick something up tomorrow. That will be the first time in 21 days I'll have used my car. Doing 2-3 week intervals for a month and change is world's apart from doing that for a 4-9 months ?. I'd like to think I'm a logically consistent fella, even if the outcomes of applying my logic differ.
 
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Gruber

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Voltage testing a battery, alone, doesn't tell you much. If the reading is below upper 11-12V at rest or in use it means the battery is physically worn or damaged. Or severely depleted, past the chances of being able to start the engine. Car batteries are a stack of cells that each provide ~2V. So seeing upper 9-10V means a cell is dead. That's a battery replacement condition, but just because it's 12V says nothing about the ability to start the vehicle. Putting two 6V lantern batteries (the ones with the spring-like terminals that are used in those floating lantern flashlights) in series will read 12V. Not likely ever going to start a 10th Gen Civic with two (unassisted) lantern batteries. Measuring amperage under load is the way to test a battery for charge. You could get fancy and do a chemical test of a non-sealed battery along with voltage over a duration and charging state and get better data. That's more science experiment than practical test though.
No, you are wrong, it's not just "a science experiment." :rolleyes1: I would hope that everyone who drives a car realizes that a $10 or less voltmeter is not all you need to always diagnose a worn-out or damaged battery (that's why you go to Auto Zone or other service where they have the appropriate tool for testing under load etc.) That's not what the simple voltmeter test is for. It's for measuring the state of charge on a lead-acid battery that's assumed to be good, or failing in a common way. On a good or normally aging lead-acid battery, the state of charge can be determined by measuring the no-load battery voltage. This is really elementary and useful to know.

So without guessing, you can easily monitor with a cheap voltmeter just how fast your battery is discharging and you can react before it's either reversibly or irreversibly xxDEADxx. That's why everyone with a car should spend these several dollars, have a voltmeter (even a simple one with red, yellow, and green LEDs), and use it whenever the car needs to remain parked for a long time. Costs nothing.

It is strongly recommended to check the battery voltage before trying to start the car after a long rest. Trying to start a car with a discharged battery may just kill it for good or damage it.

Also a basic "battery tender" is cheap and is the best recommended solution for maintaining a battery if the car can't be driven. But, if the car is parked somewhere out on the street, it may not be practical to connect a charger.
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