Hello Ziners,

I bought 1991 Acura Legend for the winter so I don't have to drive the TL because it is on 19" anyway, but my questions is should I do anything for the time I'm not driving the TL?
The TL is in garage but sometimes I don't drive it for a week because of snow here in Chicago. Out side is like 15 degrees and I was wondering the time that I don't drive the TL if I need to do anything at all. Perhaps start the engine every 3 days or something?

 

Take it out if the weather is nice. Cars don't like sitting in a garage. Other than that, starting it every so often won't hurt, but you really don't have to do it every 2 days. Also, beware of flat spots on the tires because of the wheels not moving.

 

Ok,
so just start the engine about once a week but do I wait for the engine to reach normal operating temperature before shutting it down?

I drive the car when it is nice and the road is dry but that happens once or twice a week the most.

 

If you take it out once a week for a quick spin, then you will be fine. Just beware of the flat spots like I said before. If you can put the stockies back on for the winter, that will help.

 

Why not just put snows or all-seasons on the stockers and take her out in all condition? Way back when I had my 3G TL it was out even when the snow was six inches deep on the freeway. It did admirably, as one would expect of a FWD with a big heavy engine right over the drive wheels. Of course, I had aftermarket GOOD all season rubber to make this possible.

Of course, if you already have a winter DD, then.....just start the TL up once a week. Alternately, you can disconnect the battery, put the car up on jack stands, put fuel stabilizer in the gas tank, and don't touch it for the rest of the winter.

 

It's much cheaper to get a set of winter tires on stock rims, then to buy another car and deal with maintence, insurance, and gas. Not to mention the TL is a better and safer car. The TL is a great car, but it's not something that needs to be stored for winter. There are 1,000,000 of them. An NSX, or S2K should be stored for the winter. Cars don't like to sit either, especially in the cold.

Keep up on the maintence, wash and wax it when you can and you will be fine. If winter is that rough where you are then a 4x4 would be best.

 

The problem is that I sold the stock rims to pay for the 19".
I know, that was stupid, but I needed the money.
Now, the car is lowered one inch back and front and if I buy stock rims again wouldn't the car sit too low? And the other problem is the RJ kit. That kit is sits lower even that the A-spec about 1"

lol, I'm really in a bad situation here I guess.

 

I understand where you are coming from. It kills me to drive my car in the snow/salt. You have nice rims, lowered and a kit that you don't want to destroy. If you can afford the 2nd car no prob than use it. Since you don't have coilovers you can't raise the car back to stock height.

Use the car when the roads are clear when you can and it should be fine. Make sure you change the oil before you put it away, and change it after you take it out regardless of mileage. Check the tire pressure and so on. Keep all fluids clean and full.

 

^^^^

Good advice. I felt the same way with my CL. But I just enjoyed driving it a lot more than my old beater.

 

I drive the car and it happens to be once a week I guess. If it is that much should I still change the oil even it is not time yet?

I have the 5-W30 Amsoil 100% Synthetic

 

Driving it once a week is fine. Just drive it long enough so all the fluids can get up to temp. No need to change the oil if it doesnt need.

But really you shouldnt be driving it at all. Those 19s with summer tires offer no traction in the cold climates. Be careful.

 

Those Summer tires have really no traction at all.
Proxes 4 are good tires and even though they say M+S believe me, they are no good in snow. I guess they are 35 profile and that is all they can handle just wet roads, not snow.

 

Moved to 3rd gen TL forum.

 

samething here, my rdx is always on my garage, summer or winter... I only use it once a week and drive it to highway atleat 30 miles..

BTW from IL also..

 

.. you don't even need to drive it, just start it up every now and then and let it run for a couple mins to get the fluids going. If you don't plan on driving it and just storing it, disconnect battery + car cover and your good to go.

 

I'm doing the exact opposite... except my '91 Legend is beat up and I'm trying to sell it/donate it.

 

..hahaha, you can always donate it too me!

 

I don't like to wash my car in the winter....or summer for that matter so I don't drive it in rain or snow. I've got a '94 DelSol as a beater for winter and rainy days. I drive the TL in the winter when it's nice...but I make sure I drive it at least 20 miles to heat up the exhaust system to get the water out. Starting the engine for 5 minutes in the winter is a good way to get water condensation in the system.

 

I don't drive the TL in the winter, nor do I take out our modified RX7 Turbo which we purchased new. Haven't had the Mazda in the rain since I was caught way back in 1992, and never in the snow. Fresh oil change, fill the tank, add some fuel stabilizer and let it sit until a nice day. May be a cold day, but no snow/salt on the road which sometimes can be many weeks here in Jersey. It sits in a garage about 100ft. from the house, so I do leave the hood open and cover the air intake so the little guys don't make condos inside the air intake, or on the engine. Never had a problem in the 20 years we've owned the car, or at least 20come next May. Cars are really very durable. The TL sits inside the garage at the house where the temps are considerably warmer, so I realy don't do much to the car at all, no problems.

 

So by just starting the car for about 5 min or 10 min would or would not create condensation in the system?

 

In my opinion it still better driving it coz we need to think also the transmission, brakes, coolant, bearing, and any other fluid on the car,,, If its just sitting there without driving the car your car might get rusted because the fluid didnt circulate in a long period of time.. anyway its juz my opinion..

 

You could put it on jack stands or put some other wheels on it.
then,
I would just take the battery out and store it in the house where its warm so it doesn't die, then come spring time put the battery back in. This way you don't have to worry about starting it to recharge the battery. As for the fluids, they should be just fine sitting as they are.

 

There are so many thoughts on this and each one of them make sense. I mean by not circulating the fluids the car might rust, but on the other hand the sits anyway, so there is no need to be worried.

 

Toyo Proxes 4 are horrible in the winter, your right. Traction control makes me feel like i'm stalling out in the middle of the intersection. I've been driving my other car but plan on getting rid of it next year.

Also the stock rims aren't great in the winter either, snow gets inside the spokes very easily. Then the wheel vibrations come on until you manually remove the junk from the inside of your rims.

My vote for winter is 16 Steelie replacements with a solid winter tire.

 

I just got black steelies with 16" Blizzak WS-60's and couldn't be happier. I wasn't going to try to make it through snow on my 18's...not living here.

 

if your really going to store it for the winter than id put it on stands, cover it and put it on a Battery Tender Plus.
http://www.pacificbattery.com/charger.html
i boughtmine on sale for $30

otherwise maybe id just cover it and repark it every week or so but id definately get a batt tender plus. It charges your battery and automatically maintains it at the correct voltage, you never have to disconnect unless of course you start your car id probably take it off. But its so easy just plug it in! no buttons or switches it just does everything for you. I use it for all of my motorcycles, lawnmowers, snowblowers and anything else that has a battery. I learned my lesson after i killed my bike batt and the replacement costs $170!! They sell adapters to hook up i think about 10 or so batt at a time on one tender!

 

Someone said that when the car has not been moved for a while, in the gas tank creates water? Something needs to be poured so it can keep it dry?

Does anyone know what it is.

 

wipe the dust off start it every so often get the fluids circulating shut it down go to sleep and pray for the spring to get here quicker!! I like to keep the tires clean so they dont dry rot....yea yea yea i know its BS but i dont like seeing em so dry that it doesnt look "normal"

 

Damn, you have a very strong garage roof.



jk. lol

 

Yes it will. There is some really bad advice in this thread.

Do not start your car unless you are going to drive it. Starting the car and letting it sit while idling does not help the car and it will hurt it. It takes too long to get it up to operating temperature while just sitting there.

If you are going to store the car for some length of time it is best to keep the gas tank full and use a battery tender. That is all you need to do. You will not find any professionals recommending occasional starting of the car.

 

i think the cars instructions tells you what to do for storage

 

Yes. The engine will come up to operating temperature pretty quickly but other systems will take longer. The rest of the drive train and the exhaust in particular. That's why short trips (like people who only drive a few miles to work) are so hard on exhaust systems. They develop condensation but never get a chance to dry out. And a transmission/transaxle takes longer than just a couple of miles to thoroughly warm up.

As for the gas tank, keep it topped off. If the car is in a garage, chances are you will not develop condensation in the fuel tank. But if the gas is going to be sitting in there for several months, there are two products you can use to help the situation. Sta-Bil and a quality dry gas are recommended.

 

The oil will not warm up quickly while the engine is sitting there idling. The best way to warm up an engine is to gently drive it. If a car sits for 10 or 15 minutes and never moves it is very unlikely that the oil warmed up enough to get the moisture out. It is more likely that additional condensation was added to the oil.

 

Yes, I was referring to driving the car, not letting it sit and idle, which is not something you should do with a cold engine anyway. Your statement is correct.

When I head out to work, even on really cold mornings, I start the engine, then inside of roughing 45 seconds to a minute at most, I am driving through the neighborhood to get to the main drag through town. It's about 3/4's of a mile to get to an interstate and by that time (after driving 25 MPH) my engine is up to normal temperature. I'm on the interstate for maybe three miles to another route for another half hour+.

 

OK. So from the last few posts, don't start the car unless it is going to be driven. Opps. I did that 3 times so far. I just let the car sit but did not drive it. But the oil was changed in November last year. I hope I did not do anything to the engine. Anyway, since I have my summer tires on my 19", someone here said to re-park the car once a week. Could that be done just so not to let the tires get flat spots?

 

If you want a great all-season tire, try the Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS. I have those on all our cars. Even drove the TL a few weeks ago, when there was about a foot of snow on the ground. The TL did quite well. Passed many cars and SUVs that got stuck going up our hill.

If you have an SUV, I swear by the Goodyear Fortera Tripletread. Have those on our Jeep. Later in the week we got dumped on, and there was 27" of snow on the ground... Jeep plowed right through it. The skidplates even nicely groomed the snow for the sledders in our neighborhood

Jeep even managed going up a hill on solid glare ice. I counted 20-30 cars/suvs that got stuck going up when the hill was covered in ice. We tredged on fine, while many had to pull over to install chains. I was VERY impressed.

 

I live in montreal, and this is directed to a comment made about 4 season tires in 6 inches of snow. IMO thats suicide. If I was living in chicago I would spend the few hundred dollars to buy some snow tires and have piece of mind. Why risk your life and the life of others just for few $ difference between the cost of winter vs 4 season. On my car I put on the winter tires for winter and summer tires for summer.

 

Oh please, all-season tires in 6" of snow is not suicide, unless you are running crap to mediocre all-season tires, like the crap that came with the car. I've ran good quality all-seasons in much more snow than that. You are not risking suicide. I've even ran these tires on glare ice going up our hill.

Now bare in mind, I wasn't saying that snow tires don't have their place, I was just saying that just because there is 2" of snow outside means you need to ditch your tires and get dedicated snows. I was explaining that on almost every occasion that I've helped stuck motorists on our hill, they had crap tires on their car. There are people in my neighborhood that throw on studded tires in October, and keep them on until April, because they are allowed to. Likewise I've seen people run chains on bare pavement, because they are afraid of black ice. One of my friends is like this... They said that their tires "suck" in the snow. I asked them what kind of tires they were... They didn't know. They said they were whatever tires were on sale at Walmart at the time.

Now I didn't see that original poster was from chicago, I was speaking for myself. Around here, we only get like 2-4" of snow a year. I live up on a hill, so we get about 6-8" of snow a year. This year we got 27" of snow, but this was the most snow we got in 40 years. Around here, it snows maybe a few days out of the year. For that type of condition, getting dedicated winter tires is rediculous. But on the same token, it gets cold enough for long enough (and rains), that I can't just run dedicated summers all the time either.

Either way, regardless if you get 4-season or winter tires, you need to do research and get GOOD tires that are rated highly. Just because a tire is a winter tire doesn't mean it's superior to all 4-season tires.

I wouldn't get el-cheapo winter tires, just like I wouldn't get el-cheapo chinese made chains, etc. For example, the Michelin Energy MXV4 and Pilot MXM tires that come on Honda cars and Goodyear Eagle RS-A that come on many others are pretty much crap in any weather condition, but that doesn't mean that's the norm for an all-season tire.

 

You are entitled to your opinion mate, It really all depends of your geographical location and the amount of snow/ice. In montreal if you dont have winter tires and you get stopped its an automatic ticket. legislation helped push this bill because too many motorists were getting in to accidents. That being said, If you live in a place were constant snow/ice is present during winter, then WINTER snow tires is what you will need and not 4 season tires. 4 season tires are good when you get small amount of snow then it melts etc... worse thing you can do is drive your winter tires on asphalt during mild weather. my

 

That's why I said I didn't realize the original poster was from Chicago. Around here, we have no such legislation, and like I said, it doesn't snow that much around here. Maybe 3 days out of the year, and then it's gone. I was saying you can use 4-season tires (if its a good tire) in deep snow if necessary without much issues, as I haven't had any issues even in a foot of snow going up our hill. But if the snow is going to stick around for a month or more, than yeah, I would use winter tires.

It's like wearing Cross-trainer shoes at the track... It will work fine if you are doing some casual running. But if you are going to be doing it everyday then running shoes would be more appropriate.