Parking the car for long time
 

Dear All,
I am planning to park my car E53 2005 4.8 for a period of 6 months L
What should be the procedures/guidelines for reserving the car?

thanks

Long Term Storage Instuctions from BMW TIS
 

Here's a link to the BMW TIS that lists what should be done to vehicles that are being stored: BMW TIS - 00 00 ... Upkeep measures for stored vehicles (new and used cars) and vehicles to be laid up at customer's premises

Good list Qsilver, if a bit overdone imo...

We regularly park ours for 5 months. What I do:
-Wash it, but no detail. Zaino or wax of choice, if I have time, reasonable temps and any elbowgrease left.
-Make a run down the mtn to fully warm it, fill tank, add a '20 gallon dose size' bottle of Stabil.
-Drive back up the mtn, add a few more ounces of Stabil
-oil has already been changed sometime in past month or two; I don't worry about it.
-park it, pump up tires to ~40 psi
-attach a Battery Tender to lugs under hood via an in line mechanical appliance timer that comes on for ~12 hrs twice a week.
-we have mice up the wazoo, so I stuff the tailpipes, put mothballs and peppermints on a paper plate under the hood, (only car I have that mice can't get into the interior).
-lock it via fob, with alarm off, to put it 'sleep', and pat its head to say goodbye.

Even if I were 'there', and not running it, I would not rec'd starting it or running the A/C...leave it in situ, imo.

It starts on first key turn and fires right up, every spring of the 5 times I have parked it like that. Runs like a top: '01 3.0, manual trans, ~86,300 miles.
My 50Cts.
GL, mD

No parking brake set,

what about the tires - do they develop a flat spot?

+1 to MDs post. I use jackstands to prevent flatspotting if the vehicle is not being used for more then 2 months (hide your floorjack too, this is an anti-theft measure because car thieves don't carry them).

Either car that I park, (X or the Vette), has never developed flat spots; I pump up either car to 40ish, and reset psi to normal in spring. Do the same with the scoots, though 2 of 3 of them have their rear tires up via centerstand.

I realize some people buy the foo foo tire pads, or jack it up, but some cursory reading on the web suggests the flat spotting is very exaggerated. I used to park at airports for weeks, and even on my crummy company cars I never noticed any problem driving off.

It's a half year or less park, not long term storage, imo... :D

Another tip: if you want to lock the vehicle without arming the alarm siren...just lock the vehicle manually using any of the other doors except the driver's door (it's the only one with the anti lock-out feature & can only be locked when it is closed)...as the last door to lock & close.

You can also use the central lock button on the center dash (if you can reach it)...again using any of the doors except the driver's door as your access/exit point. The central lock/unlock button doesn't arm the alarm system...and again, will work as long as you DON'T have the driver's door open. :)

If you use either of the methods above...make sure you have the car keys IN YOUR HAND before locking the last door...would hate to have someone lock their keys inside the vehicle...especially if they don't have a spare key handy. :)

The flatspotting issue was much more prevalent in the days of bias-ply tires. Modern tires are less prone but can still flat spot in a few months if the parked vehicle is in a location that allows the rubber to thermal-cycle (sunlight on the tires during the day (heat up) and cool night temps (cool down), windows in a garage can allow for this condition. ANY operating electric motor in the storage area will accelerate flat spotting, ozone will reduce the plyability of all rubber/plastic items on the vehicle. With the cost of replacement rubber, I look at jackstands as an ounce of prevention, even without the thermal-cycle and ozone issues in my garages.

If it's parked on a cold surface, I placed some card board and have the tires rest on it.

I like jack stands for more than the supposed flat spots. My reason for them is to prevent spring and bushing static "memory". I don't lift the car of the ground, just a couple of inches to relieve the tension. Not sure if it does more harm or good, but combined with everything that MD stated, my cars always fired up first crank, and nothing groaned after prolonged storage.

Unless you load the springs past their yield strength (which you won't be able to do) you won't have any "static memory". As for the bushings, they hardly rotate during a drive and the roads that they were designed for they barely move during a normal drive so I wouldn't be concerned about the fact that they are static......

IMO.... What I would be concerned about is having a car sitting on 4 jack stands creating stress points on it's frame for months on end when it was designed to sit on the wheels. Flat Spotting will be the least of your issues if you keep straining the chasis by leaving it on jack stands for a long period.

???? I place the jackstands under the approved jack points specified by the BMW engineers. You're telling us that BMW specified jack points will cause damage to the chassis when subjected to vehicle load?

Lol. So what we have been doing for the past decade is wrong? And what my father has been doing for a couple of decades before that is wrong? Yea, no, I will disagree. Put the jack stands in the correct spots. Frame damage, this isn't some 1940s car with no jack points or shit metal.

Memory, as in those bushings and mounts get constant pressure in the same spot with no motion. Even the little motion that they are used to. Again, been doing it forever, so not going to stop this.

Starting in the '80s/'90s BMW has lead the way in regard to finite element analysis and nonlinear dynamic analysis. Put jackstands under the most convenient place under your car and carnage is sure to ensue.

I've been putting Trans Ams, Mustangs, Vettes, Vipers, BMWs and other vehicles on jackstands in my garages for over 30 yrs and not once had any damage/issues.