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  #1  
Old 10-17-2002, 12:17 PM
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Question Is It Bad To Let Car Sit?

My repair shop said that it was bad to let my 1972 250 sit. They said to drive it about a hour a day. I drive it about 1 hour to 2 hours every three or four days. This is because my job is just 10 minutes from my house.

Will this hurt anything?

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  #2  
Old 10-17-2002, 01:03 PM
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Well, its all relative.

What does he mean, better? How much better? 10%? 20%?

Clearly, there are other components which wear with use. Tires, bearings, transmission, engine, starter, just to name a few.

It sounds like he is suggesting you put from 2 to 4 times more miles on your car for any given time period than you currently do, which is going to wear out those parts, in general, 2 to 4 times faster.

Is there going to be that much more benefit from driving it every day for one hour, to offset the increased wear, not to mention your loss of time and cost of fuel?

In my opinion you are doing just fine.
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Old 10-17-2002, 08:16 PM
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An hour a DAY? Are you kidding? I don't drive ANY of my cars an hour a day total, let alone all of them!

I suspect what he means is drive it for an hour when you do drive it. Better yet, as far as I am concerned, is to never drive it unless you get it completely warmed up -- engine temp up to normal, full output from the heater in the winter, etc. This is 20 min or so, not more. Short distance driving will kill it from acids in the oil and exhaust, and condensation in the interior.

You only need to drive it once a month or so. Any longer sitting, and the torque converter will start to leak down, and the excess tranny fluid will overflow and leak out. Messy.

Sitting for extended periods causes water to build up in the brake fluid, causing corrosion, rots the tires faster, and in general lets all the field critters make homes in strange places (such as the air filter housing). Rotors will rust, causing brake problems, and so forth.

Not that I take my own advice, mind you -- the 280 isn't licensed yet (hope to get that taken care of this weekend) and the 220D has been sitting all summer waiting on a caliper rebuild I've been putting off.

Drive it when the spirit moves you, but make sure you drive it long enough for it to get completely warmed up each time.

Peter
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Old 10-17-2002, 10:44 PM
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My 108 gets out of the garage every few months, I start it up every so often just for fun, warm her up and shut her down, she still has some expensive gas in the tank, over $2.00 a gallon, if that tells ya anything. It takes about a week of daily driving to really shake her down, and purr......never any problems.
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  #5  
Old 10-20-2002, 08:40 AM
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I had a 1963 lincoln convertible that I had to replace the muffler on because I never let it run long enough to get the condensation out of it. I also kept fouling plugs for the same reason. I think the trick is not so much to drive it every day as to get it to a good running temperature when you do drive it.
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  #6  
Old 10-22-2002, 10:30 PM
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Take her out on the highway twice a week, 30 mins. each time and everything will be grand.
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Old 10-29-2002, 06:14 PM
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Vintage Mercedes six cylinder engines MUST be exercised well if they are not going to sit dormant all winter. If you just start it and let it idle (even up to normal operating temp) you will foul the plugs out. It's got to at least be revved or simply driven to keep everything clean.
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  #8  
Old 11-02-2002, 12:58 PM
PaulC
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If you plan to use the car so infrequently that a tank of gas lasts for months, then I would suggest that you use a gas stabilizer to prevent the fuel from developing a gummy characteristic that plays hell with carb jets, injector nozzles, etc.

If you use such a product, run the car long enough to consume untreated gas remaining in the fuel lines.
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  #9  
Old 11-05-2002, 11:08 PM
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I have several cars that sat in my garage for years while I worked abroad. Sitting did not hurt them.

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