Expy during quarantine ?

[Plati]

OK. Stay home. GotIt. My 2 Expy's just sit in the driveway.
2003 I drive every few days to Grocery, HDepot, Post Office, essential supplies (BEER, WINE).
The 2014EL I never drive anywhere as I would only use that for long trips.

What are you'all doing with those vehicles not being daily driven? How to keep them healthy?

I filled them both with no ethanol .. no ethanol gas! The 2003 gets driven at least every 5 days and I do try to drive far enough to heat it up at least once a week. The 2014EL I have to go to the effort of driving 40 minutes every 2 weeks, highway speed 3/4 of that. Park facing into sun with windshield sun blocking shade inside, not under a pine tree. Keep it locked. Washed & clean.
If this goes on ... longer ... will need to hookup battery tender every month or so.

How long do you have to drive one to get the whole thing fully heated up, all fluids moving around, catalytic converter fully operating?
Any other ideas to keep it in tip top operating condition?

 

[Aspen03]

Guessing about 15-20min drive cycle to get thoroughly warm. Likely less than that because in winter I'm up to full temp well before then but hey if you're going out, enjoy a few extra minutes.

Mine sat parked for 13 days without issue. I did take it to ohio twice in the past week though, racked up over 700mi there.

E0 fuel is wonderful if you can get it. Fortunately I'm surrounded by a lot of farms and a station about a mile and a half away has it at a single pump. It carries about a 50cent premium over regular but you get slightly better economy and like you're hinting at no ethanol to worry about water. I run it in my mower, generator, trimmer, etc. Keeps for quite a long time without issue.

 

[Blksmk]

All my vehicles sit for 3 to 12 weeks at a time, not once have I had any issues.

My fun car ( s ) has sat 2 years now.

 

[RichardH]

I drive my '03 at least every 3 days. Usually every other. Sort of depends on what 'itch' I have for certain foods. Pasta? Chicken? Steak? Oh, and beer.

I have new battery, battery cables, terminals and all seems to be well. Also keep the tank no lower than 1/4 tank. Right now with gas around $1.50'ish I keep the tank full. Usually fill up before 1/2.

Only takes me a few miles to get to operating temp. Also take a longer route home to stretch it's legs. Jumping on the fwy, I'll run up the RPM's a bit, but usually take it easy (lol, I have State Farm Drive safe and save. Damn that saves me a lot of $$$).

 

[MrTommy]

Never even thought about this. When we went down to Quartzsite for 13 weeks last year, we left the EL at home and towed the trailer down with our F-350. When we came home, wifey hopped in her EL and went to the store. End of story.

 

[Blksmk]

I cheated. I have s little solar panel 7.5 watts mounted to the dash to trickle charge the battery.

Come back and the battery is sitting at a nice 13.6 volts

 

[mquick5]

My fun car ( s ) has sat 2 years now.

You need to have more fun!

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

 

[RichardH]

I cheated. I have s little solar panel 7.5 watts mounted to the dash to trickle charge the battery.

Come back and the battery is sitting at a nice 13.6 volts

Great idea! How did you route to the battery? Through the firewall?

I don't have a garage and like the trickle charge idea.

I'm looking for a small solar panel after I post this...

edit: looks like you can plug into cig outlet. Interesting. Very easy.

 

[Blksmk]

In 3 weeks I've run 11211 miles at 65 mph averaged out at 78770 lbs

 

[Adieu]

Proper E85 is actually GOOD for the Flex Fuel badged 3rd gens. It's like running injector cleaner additives. And since it's designed with E85 in mind, your fuel system *should* behave and not dissolve any hoses or seals... probably.

It is highly preferable to drive em a bit every 10 days or so. If you forget it for 3 weeks or more, your battery might just run flat enough that it won't jump easily unless you have another V8 vehicle or double jump it (parallel - pretty damn ridiculous looking, but simultaneously hooking up a running V6 sedan AND a jumpstarter can work even if you had discharge so deep your power locks wouldn't work).

Also if you can reach a power outlet, you can hook up a deep cycle charger without disconnecting the battery. You won't fry anything. Run the wires through the wheel well and place the thing in a plastic tub under your truck just in case it decides to rain or a sprinkler comes on though... no guarantees wth happens if you get an AC battery charger wet while operating. Prolly nothing good.


PS do NOT let the battery go fully flat or disconnect it to charge if you have a nasty throttle body that depends on adaptations to run ok. Massive wackiness WILL ensue if you leave it without power entirely and it loses adaptation memory.