If you go here
tinyurl.com/5kgam9
and scroll past over the long and very thorough discussion of oil, you will find an excellent summary of why under-used cars deteriorate. Search for "Garage Queens".
Then go back and check out one of the best analytical discussions of oil that I've seen.
[This belongs in Technical Matters, but I could not see how to post it without putting a make/model in the heading.]
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Mind you (on the oil bit) it seems he drained all the oil from His Ferrari, including all the unions and so on, pipes and fittings, taking an hour to avoid previous oil contaminating the new.
Then it seems he started it and it rattled dry like a bag of spanners until oil got through the system again.
Common sense tells me not to do that, but put a couple of litres of the `new type` in, run a few minutes then drain and fill with new. Of course, if you wanted to be that particular...
That says it all to me....
I have a `Drive Queen` sometimes though if the roads are newly salted in Winter... But modern cars are surely built for anything?
Again it would be interesting to hear from Trade members who actually see the effect of standing dry/damp/inside/outside for varying lengths of time.
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The oil bit - Common sense tells me that if you don't do a a lot of miles the car will be worn out before the engine, even if you don't change the oil each year - we have a 12 year old and 16000 miles Micra that now does a 15 mile a week journey - just put on a new battery and tyres (because the walls are cracking) the car has just passed its MOT again, has very little traces of rust, but the plastic trim and seat material is breaking down due to age, the oil hasn't been changed for a couple of years and is still light brown and very slippery to the finger test, and I'm sure if we never changed the oil again the engine would still be as it is now (no rattles and doesn't use oil) in 5 years and with 20000 miles on it - but I would expect the car will be scrap due to other stuff falling apart.
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Regarding the `Garage Queen` bit.
I suspect regular heat, from the engine and car heater are beneficial to the electrics and wiring... but again where`s the evidence?
Out on the drive in winter surely can`t be good if its standing there with condensation on everything under the bonnet and with atmospheric dampness permeating the inside.
A few years back, one of my cars had to stand for two months on the drive in winter while I was out in the Far East. I had disconnected the battery and it fired up instantly on return, but it was slightly damp inside and the rotary heater switch was very stiff for a while afterwards.
Must say, I thought the topic would be more popular as I`m not sure that electrical switch/wiring/relay/ecu issues have been covered in detail in this context, with the interest usually focussing on the engine and oil.
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>>heat, from the engine and car heater are beneficial to the electrics and wiring...
On the various 1990s Mercedes car afflicted with dodgy bio-degradeable wiring insulation, it's the hot parts of the loom that fall apart first!
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Interesting reading.
If engine oil temperature is more important than coolant temperature, why do the cars only show coolant temperature? IIRC, only high performance cars show engine oil temp & oil pressure.
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Never had any such problems with SWMBO's 106 diesel which has averaged under 3,000 miles/year over 15 years.
Anuual oil and filter change and some Waxoyl and an annual polish and washed when dirty and garaged at night.
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My Golf GTI mkII had a digital display that included an oil temp option - and the hand book warned aginst working the engine too hard before the oil reached operating temperature. I remember being surprised how much longer this it took to reach normal - the coolant gauge would have been on normal for 10-15 minutes (depending on the nature of the driving).
MPZ
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