I have 2 Elans that I have owned for a long time, one is a Type 50 Elan +2 from 1969 that I have owned since 2004 and the other is an S4 Elan that I have owned since 2010. I realise that there are people on here that have owned cars for longer, but I wanted to highlight the challenges of keeping these cars on the button (ready to go at any time).
Our cars don’t generally get a lot of use apart from a few hardy souls that do over 5000 miles a year, so maintenance can often be to do with the shelf life of components rather than the wear life. Tyres are a good example, I have changed mine on more than one occasion in the last 20 odd years purely because they were no longer fit for purpose rather than worn down to a legal limit, similarly things change like standard fuel has 10% ethanol these days unless you pay extra for super that has 5%, both eat into your rubber fuel lines which really need replacing every 10 years or so regardless of ethanol content in fuel.
I call it continuous development rather than maintenance, it’s a great hobby keeping them safe and usable.
Rubber bits in general are prone to aging out. Brake fluid and coolant should be kept fresh based on date rather than mileage as well.
More generally, at least in my experience, a car that is not driven deteriorates more quickly in all sorts of ways compared to one that is driven at least occasionally.
Modern synthetic oils don’t deteriorate like their mineral cousins, but petrol doesn’t contain the witches brew of stabilisers that it used to, and the addition of ethanol makes it last even less time.
I have a standby diesel generator. Diesel used to be fine for 2 years or so, recommendations are now to change or ‘polish’ diesel after 6 months. I have seen comments that petrol starts to degrade after 3 months, but is stored in a cool sealed container can last up to a year.
I change the fuel in my garden equipment / cars every year.
I have such difficulties with the ethanol in my bikes, i tend to only trust my fulies’.
I am starting to consider Jenvey or unfortunately because of costs China (gosh). Building my own ECM because I can 3D printed board etc.
Building a Lotus only garage…
But, I dont want to miss life, sailing, snowbike, paragliding, whitewater, kids, family.
You know the old trick, of distilling your ethanol gas. The easy way is to add some water to your fuel, then siphon off the ‘water’ on-top. Or replace the fuel lines.
I would agree with the comment about older diesel, fuel and older gasoline fuel. I had a car that I was gonna part out an old Volvo 740 and I went to fire at the other day. It has been parked for six or seven years started right up. Obviously because it had pre-ethanol fuel in it.
I put TetraBoost E-Guard Road in my cars fuel tank. It is an octane booster and an ethanol corrosion inhibitor. Interested to know what, if any, fuel additives others might use.
I have used a variety of fuel stabilisers in my cars as the Lotuses can sit for up to 6 months when I am in Europe and the car I have in Europe sits for 6 months each year when I am in Australia. I have tried Liqui Moly, Penrite and Stabil.
However I have seen little difference after 6 months . I see little difference compared to just leaving the cars with a fuel fresh tank of petrol. In Australia the 98 Octane premium has no ethanol which helps