As a longtime boater in winter-cursed Michigan, I've used the same strategy for my Benz (and the old Mustang I had for 12 years before it) that I learned eons ago. Fill the tank, so that you minimize condensation of water which will settle to the bottom, and add stabilizer; drive a ways after doing so to make sure the stabilizer's gone through the whole system all the way to the injectors; and I leave a Guest Marine battery maintainer type of charger hooked up all winter with the battery in the car. Both the Stang and now the Benz always fired up with no problems every spring. I *don't* start it during storage, as the last thing you want is condensate from combustion in the oil and the exhaust system without getting up to full temp for a while to dry out. We used to fog the marine engines but that doesn't seem a good idea with the sensors and catalytic converters our cars have now.

People who know more about fuel chemistry than I do tell me that modern fuels, especially regular, start losing octane in even a couple of weeks and stabilizer is more important than ever. I use it routinely in the gas I have for lawnmower and snow blower, since those cans can sit for a while, unless the two-stroke oil I'm using has stabilizers included in it.

__________________
Craig Bethune

'97 SL500, 40th anniversary edition

'04 Olds Bravada (SWMBO's)
'06 Lexus ES330
'89 560SL (sold)


SL--Anything else is just a Mercedes.
(Kudos to whoever said it first)