Parking the 308 for a longer period of time

When you guys park your cars, lets say a month - do you park it on top of: carpet pieces/ nothing/ or special no flat spot ramps that I recently saw? Something else?

And, if you have flat spots - do they usually go away when the tires get warm again from a longer drive.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Mike

 

On the concrete floor, roll it back six inches one week and forward the next. Never a problem all winter for the Pirellis or the crappy TRX's.

 

I jack mine up and very carerfully place 12" X 12" foam rubber pads under each tire to cradle them from contact with the harsh concrete floor.

 

Put on Jackstands
Or just drive it on bluebird days

 

What's really harsh about a concrete floor isn't the hardness, it's the moisture that permeates up through it. The typical four inch residential slab (even with vapor barrier) will exude a lot of moisture in a wet climate. This moisture tends to keep the lower parts of the car somewhat damp and allow corrosion. There are low-amp air circulaters which can be left under the car and help with this situation.

 

Cliff,

So by citculating air - you mean the car's tires are flat spot proof?

I think its just mental for me, but I might put some thicker carpet pieces under the tires for this winter if the weather is bad enough not to drive. Iguess something is better than nothing.

 

You won't have a flat spot if you're only letting it sit for 30 days. 3 or 4 months maybe, but 30days is nothing to worry about. Make sure the air pressure is where its supposed to be and do not leave the parking break on. It will be fine.

JIM

 

How does the parking brake affects with having flat spot?

 

You get flats spots after a year or two of sitting, not a few months. Now, when I got my car running again a couple months ago after 15 years of sitting, well, THAT was some serious flat spots on the tires, and those tires were old when I parked the car, the date code was 1986 .

I think the parking brake thing has to do with rusting to the rotors, not sure, it isn't particularly damp where I live.

Doug

 

Hi Mike, yes, exactly right.

 

My 328 is stored for 5-6 months at a time. I put 50 psi of Air in the tires and a tarp under the car for storage. That's it. Reduce pressure to normal when un-storing and no flat spots at all.

 

In days of old, NYLON tires, usually bias ply, we had to worry about flat spots. Several of my classic cars sit for years at at time on nylon corded tires and yes they flat spot something terrible, a short drive and the 40 year old Goodyear tires go back round.

Todays tires, if they sit for a real long time will get a bit of a flat spot and will dissaper quickly. My 308 on some sort of crappy tires the dealer put on sits often for 2+ months and I have no problem with flat spots. I do have a carpeted garage, the tire treads when the cars sit for extended periods leave tread marks embossed in the carpet, they actually crush the carpet.

just keep them properly inflated and out of sun light

Doug Crall

 

You might also want to consider dropping a bottle of STA-BIL in the gas tank if you're not going to go through a whole tank in a year's time. Keeps the fuel fresh, and if you run the car with it in the tank before storage, you can prevent clogging fuel lines and injectors with varnish.

For the tires, I went to Home Depot and picked up four ribbed, what look to be door mats. Fold 'em over for double thickness and you're done. I've never had problems with flat spots using this technique.

 

Great. Looks like I got my plan. I had my other car (A Corvette) outside in winter parked on concrete on more than several occassions for couple months at a time and never noticed a problem. One doesn't even think of this stuff until you start reading F-Chat, ha ha. Being too safe is always better then being sorry though.

 

Hi Mike, I was just being tongue-in-cheek.... The air recirculation is just for purposes of trying to prevent corrosion during storage on a concrete floor. As others have suggested, the only way I've found to minimize the flat spotting is to give it a little nudge forward or reverse every week or two!

 

It doesn't....has to do with the rotor rusting and caliper seizing.....common mistake.

jim