What’s your holiday wish list for your classic car?
I sometimes imagine what it would be like to have a wish-fulfiller to tend to my cars.
I store three classics at my condo, the 1975 Porsche 911S, the 1971 Jaguar E-type V12 and the 1991 Alfa Romeo Spider S4. They all have analog clocks that have a parasitic draw, which drains the battery. (This is especially ridiculous, as the clocks never keep good time anyway.) So I have blade style battery disconnects on all three cars.
Wouldn’t it be nice if someone took the cars out every three weeks for a 20-minute run to get them completely warmed up and the batteries charged?
I have also learned that when you set the alarm on a modern car — in my case a 2020 Hyundai Elantra — the alarm too has a parasitic draw that will drain the battery. I found mine dead as a doornail on the morning I had to be at the hospital for a scheduled procedure. That created some excitement.
With my Elantra parked in a secure garage, maybe it’s better I leave it unlocked and the alarm off. Wouldn’t it be preferable to have a bad guy open the door and rummage through my glovebox than break the window?
High on my wish list would also be having the brake and clutch fluids flushed on all my cars. Brake fluid is hygroscopic, so absorbs water. This water collects in your brake lines and accumulates at your wheel cylinders, and then creates rust. This fluid flushing is always on my list, and almost never gets done.
At the same time, I would have all the inner cables for my mechanical speedometers and tachometers pulled out and lubricated. Even now I can hear the slightest tick-tick-tick from the speedo in the 911. And I know from experience what will happen if I wait to address it — it will get worse until it starts to jump around and damages itself.
Next week I’ll continue with this list.
But tell me, what’s the one most important thing you would do to get your car through the winter? I look forward to reading your responses below.
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10 responses to “Keith’s Blog: Charges, Flushes and Lubes”
California gas that turns to gel in a month is my biggest worry. Regardless of what kind of fuel additive you use ( looking at you, STABIL ), fuel systems on older cars take a beating, and I’m not crazy about rebuilding every time I’m away for some time. I can handle the electrical parasites, like the clocks or the keyless entry systems that constantly wait for your key’s presence, but the fuel issue, ah, that’s the biggest problem for storage for me.
Switches for clocks is a good idea. They also wear out their points and quit working just as soon as you want to sell the car! I typically go out and make a mixture of race gas and non-ethanol high test and leave it in the tank. Race gas as AV gas is highly stable. All of my vehicles are carbureted so dealing with the white fuzz from ethanol is not my idea of recreation. Living in the south I can usually geta car out and put it through the paces. Same for motorcycles but not as much as I use to. I have dealt with several collectors who did maintain large staff and collections. Smart ones encouraged their employees to take car out for lunch .
Up here in frozen Canada, I also put in fuel stabilizer, into a tank full to the cap (to help reduce condensation), but then mine sits 5 months of the year covered in a barn . The stabilizer is very important to me. The battery’s out (of course), in the house and on a tender, and it always fires right up in April. Then, check for leaks….
Old coolant can cause corrosion, so don’t forget to change it in the Jaguar and the Alfa. When batteries die, those little battery packs come in very handy, especially if the car is stored somewhere without power.
Both Alfas and the Porsche are on trickle charges and the MGB has a battery shut off that has worked well for over 30 years. But now you have me obsessing over the easy to put off other fluids being changed on the 3 old cars.
I keep my ‘79 Mercedes 280 SL on a good battery tender all winter long and the clock is always spot on (Germans right?). I’ve done this for over ten years with no issues. Also, because we live in an area with a lot of lakes, I always use alcohol-free gas (along with Stabil) and the car always starts right up. I guess I should be concerned about the potential for an electrical fire but this era of Mercedes seems to be built to such a high standard that you just don’t hear about those kinds of problems, unlike say Ferraris. In the summer, when I’m up north, I have a neighbor who drives my southern car periodically ( still put Stabil in the tank).
I have a battery charger hooked up to my 2002 Mercedes otherwise if it sets for 5 or 6 days, the battery is dead and my charger will not charge it. On my 1993 Ford, I have an electronic battery cut-off switch, so the battery is always HOT. On my 64 Alfa, I have the battery on a trickle charger and a manual cut-off switch, not electronics here!
“What’s the one most important thing you would do to get your car through the winter?” Answer: Drive it to Palm Springs, CA on Dec 26 and stay there until at least April 1st, enjoying the sunshine, perfect temperatures on most days and smooth roads with occasional motoring jaunts in the foothills and mountains between there and San Diego. No trickle chargers needed.
Well first Richard Merrell – my wife Nancy and I are loading up a rental car on December 11 and heading to our home in Palm Springs from Portland. So we will be there when you are there and I would love to meet up.
Just putting your car on chargers there doesn’t work because the cars on your chargers in Palm Springs got kicked off by a power outage or a friend who accidentally kicked the cable out so all the batteries are dead on arrival.
But I want to talk about Keith’s idea which I love . Wouldn’t it be a great idea for the car “fairy” or someone who pursues this mission – to go from old car to old car in the Portland area and pull them out of storage and on a schedule which the owners created – drop them off for the every 2 year brake flush, the annual oil change, wear check and full post purchase inspection then after the appropriate report and repairs returned them to the owner’s garage every year ? Take them for a mild annual detail and then return them to the garage sparkling clean and ready for the “season” and charge an appropriate amount ?
This is kind of the Jay Leno approach to his cars – “hey ! where is that guy – take it and make it right so I can drive it”.
Hard to imagine that the right entrepreneur could make a business out of this in Portland Oregon and other places. This does exist in Palm Springs – in a way – but it does answer the “old car” question of enjoying the car but not being responsible for the maintenance aspect. If I was 30 years old I think I could make this work but alas that ship has sailed.
Drive them.