Storing brand new 2016 Ecoboost

[ZuluEcho]

Greetings all,

I have ordered my car from the factory (Ecoboost Premium, Race Red, silver racing stripe, ceramic interior, nav). Now the wait (plus the fact the dealer is not very good at keeping me posted):doh:

The thing is that (if all goes well) about three weeks after I am expected to get the car, I have to be gone for two months. With my old car I just unplug the battery and off I go. With a brand new, high tech toy, I am not so sure.

My idea is to get a nice battery tender like the ones made by Genius, and leave it hooked to the car battery. I will have someone coming by the house every week, plus video surveillance in the garage, etc (so I can see my toy).

Does anyone see a problem with this? I figure I would put in as many miles as I can before leaving, do an oil change, then park it with the tender plugged in. These things are supposed to come on only when a charge is needed...

It will be a long two months for sure :-)

thanks!

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[Wally]

Greetings all,

I have ordered my car from the factory (Ecoboost Premium, Race Red, silver racing stripe, ceramic interior, nav). Now the wait (plus the fact the dealer is not very good at keeping me posted):doh:

The thing is that (if all goes well) about three weeks after I am expected to get the car, I have to be gone for two months. With my old car I just unplug the battery and off I go. With a brand new, high tech toy, I am not so sure.

My idea is to get a nice battery tender like the ones made by Genius, and leave it hooked to the car battery. I will have someone coming by the house every week, plus video surveillance in the garage, etc (so I can see my toy).

Does anyone see a problem with this? I figure I would put in as many miles as I can before leaving, do an oil change, then park it with the tender plugged in. These things are supposed to come on only when a charge is needed...

It will be a long two months for sure :-)

thanks!

I think you would be fine with just the tender. I read in another thread that Ford requires new vehicles to be able to start after sitting for 45 days without a tender so an extra two weeks should make much difference. Sucks to not be able to drive your brand new car for so long though.

 

[paul123]

what's the shelf life of gasoline?


http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cul...s-stabil-and-other-fuel-stabilizer-additives/


Per product instructions, pour in the right amount of stabilizer to treat a full tank of fuel. It's best if the tank is relatively empty, and that the gas inside hasn't already gone bad, which can happen in as few as 30 days.

 

[MATT1971]

If you use a good fuel stabilizer (Stabil Fuel is what I have always used) and fill the car with about a quarter of a tank of gas and then drive it for about 15 or so minutes, the gasoline will be fine for a long time. I have used Stabil Fuel in three previous cars in storage when I have been deployed (once for 13 months) and all three cars were fine upon my return. I just popped the hood, jump started the battery and fired the cars up. I drove them until the stored fuel was exhausted, used a fuel system cleaner and a tank full of 93...and everything was fine.

what's the shelf life of gasoline?


http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cul...s-stabil-and-other-fuel-stabilizer-additives/


Per product instructions, pour in the right amount of stabilizer to treat a full tank of fuel. It's best if the tank is relatively empty, and that the gas inside hasn't already gone bad, which can happen in as few as 30 days.

 

[MATT1971]

If you use a good fuel stabilizer (Stabil Fuel is what I have always used) and fill the car with about a quarter of a tank of gas and then drive it for about 15 or so minutes, the gasoline will be fine for a long time. I have used Stabil Fuel in three previous cars in storage when I have been deployed for months at a time (once for 13 months) and all three cars were fine upon my return. I just popped the hood, jump started the battery and fired the cars up. I drove them until the stored fuel was exhausted, used a fuel system cleaner and a tank full of 93...and everything was fine.

what's the shelf life of gasoline?


http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-cul...s-stabil-and-other-fuel-stabilizer-additives/


Per product instructions, pour in the right amount of stabilizer to treat a full tank of fuel. It's best if the tank is relatively empty, and that the gas inside hasn't already gone bad, which can happen in as few as 30 days.

 

[ZuluEcho]

I think you would be fine with just the tender. I read in another thread that Ford requires new vehicles to be able to start after sitting for 45 days without a tender so an extra two weeks should make much difference. Sucks to not be able to drive your brand new car for so long though.

Thanks Wally, I did not know that. RIght now any mount encouragement in terms of it being ok is welcomed.

I figure the car will be ok, the tender should kick in if the battery drops below a certain level, etc. But it is BRAND new...

I just hope it has not lost too much of the new car smell by the time I get back. As for the break in, from all I have read here and elsewhere, 500 miles of varying engine rpm/speeds ought to do it. I guess I will spend at least two weekends on the mountain roads around here before I leave. That will be tough, on a brand new Mustang:lol:

 

[Ecoboosted]

What i did was use a battery Tender Jr, Stabil for fuel, pump tires up to 45#'s, dryer sheets in exhaust pipe and in various parts of engine bay for (mice and rats) and was good to go.

 

[TheDivaDanielle]

two months? I'd just park it and do absolutely nothing. see ya later in two months, car.

ya'll really overdo it. considering half of our cars sat on lots for that long without attention unless they were really filthy.

 

[15 Stang]

It wouldn't hurt to place some sort of de-humidifier in the car to control any possibility of mildew of the carpet or seat upholstery.

 

[GT Pony]

If it's only going to sit for 2 months, all you need is the battery tender. No need for fuel stabilizer - just fill up with gas before parking. Fuel these days is pretty stable. I've stored my vehicles over the winter months (~5 months) for years with no fuel stabilizer and have never had a problem. Make sure to drive the car a good distance to get the engine to full operating temperature for a while before parking so there is no moisture in the crankcase.

 

[WatchSquid]

Just don't go cheap on the battery tender. The cheap ones are nothing more than a small float charger and will waste the battery (I know, I did it).

I'd still use fuel stabilizer, it's cheap insurance. Matt's suggestion of getting the stabilizer through the system is good.

 

[jasonstang]

2 months is a bit long but if its in a garage it will be mostly fine.
Definitely wash the car and completely dry it by driving. Put some desiccant in the interior to keep moisture out of it to prevent mold growing.
Put fuel stabilizer in the tank, fill up, drive at least 30 minutes to get rid of any moistures in the fluids, and then fill it up again.
Pump tires up to 40 psi.
If you could get pure gas, its worth the extra cost.

 

[ZuluEcho]

Thanks all for the great advice. I have used the Genius 750 tender on my Yamaha FJR1300, and it seems to work fine, it turns itself on to charge, then back to standby. I will probably buy one of their new versions, all sorts of safety features, etc.

As for moisture, mildew, I live in New Mexico, 5,600 feet, DRY air, unless you pour water on stuff nothing grows here LOL. So that is one less thing to worry (unlike during the 3 years I spent in Mississippi!). I am adding an exhaust fan with a thermostat control for when it gets hot in the garage, but that should be fine.

I have left my car and bike sit for 2 month periods before, never had issues with the fuel. Even the batteries, unhooked they started after two months. But with the Mustang, I would rather leave it connected and charged.

I guess the REALLY hard part is going away shortly after getting the car.

I must say (and please forgive me) I am a new convert to the Mustang thing. I never really cared much about them. Sure, the old classics looked fine, but I never wanted one. In fact I had been looking for a Mercedes SLK300 for a while... then I saw the new Mustang, took it for a drive, and it was love at first sight :-) THERE IS something about this car that sort of drives you crazy! I can't believe I never noticed it until now. But glad to join in the fun :-)

 

[tsunami]

Long-Term Storage...

I live in Minnesota, and store my Mustangs all winter.
I have used STA-BIL for my years without a problem. In the past, 'regular' Sta-Bil supposedly didn't protect very well from ethanol 5-15% gas, so I bought Sta-Bil that was formulated for ethanol (special blend). But now, 2016, Sta-Bil has advertised that they have re-blended the regular formula to handle ethanol.

I was going to try Sea Foam as a stabilizer, until I was warned by a mechanic that Sea Foam is not recommended for use in a Turbo engine.

I also own an RV that is stored in the winter along with a couple of boats.
My RV mechanic told me about a 'marine' stabilizer that they use in stored boats called Starbrite Star Tron by Attwood. This fuel stabilizer has a completely different chemistry than Sta-Bil. It is enzyme based, to bind with any water molecules that are captured by ethanol.
Unlike Sta-Bil...it will not do any harm if you accidentally add too much to your gas tank. (I found out that if you mistakenly add too much Sta-Bil you can harm the engine when you run it in the Spring).
You can buy StarTron in the 'marine' section of WalMart. At first, it seems to be much more expensive than Sta-Bil, until you read the label and find that the little bottle will treat many times more fuel than the large Sta-Bil container.
So the price per gallon of gas is actually lower than Sta-Bil.
A lot of marine mechanics/storage use Star Tron rather than Sta-Bil.

Just remember...never mix two different formulations of fuel stabilizers in the same gas. Drive your car long enough to completely use up the stabilizer already in the tank.

 

[EFI]

IMO, there's not much you need to do in your particular situation.

You live in a dry climate and will be parking the car when it's going to be decently warm outside. I doubt a battery tender is even necessary. You will not be gone long enough and the environment is not harsh enough to really cause any issues. Plus you already eluded to this, new cars are a lot better built than old cars...even with their high tech stuff. Modern engines and EFI systems are much easier to deal with over long periods of storage than ancient carburated setups with solid lifters, distributor caps etc. Remember these cars can sit for months on end in dealer lots and they don't get anywhere near that treatment.

Now if you were leaving your car for longer in the dead of winter in Minnesota, I would say definitely do all that. The middle of spring in bone dry New Mexico for 2 months...don't sweat it.

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