Gasoline and batteries; they last longer than you probably think.

[Aerindel]

The test subject:

A 1998 Subaru Outback, my fourth line backup vehicle for my EDC outback.

It was parked outside in summer of 2019, half a tank of regular ethanol fuel, battery vintage 2014.

Not touched until yesterday.

As you would suspect, battery stone dead, not enough voltage to even light up the dash.

I took the battery out, stuck it on my trickle charger overnight.

The test.....will a car left abandoned in such a state start, and will a battery left discharged for two years take enough of a charge to start said vehicle?

Result. Battery charged to 12.8 volts overnight.

Placed battery back in vehicle and attempted to start.

Vehicle started immediately, ran hot, straight and true.

After about three minutes idle, engine bogged down, stumbled and died. I restarted it and it run rough for a few seconds, stabilized and was fine, although check engine light did come on.

On a short test drive power seemed less than usual, but engine ran perfectly.

 

[Spikedriver]

The test subject:

A 1998 Subaru Outback, my fourth line backup vehicle for my EDC outback.

It was parked outside in summer of 2019, half a tank of regular ethanol fuel, battery vintage 2014.

Not touched until yesterday.

As you would suspect, battery stone dead, not enough voltage to even light up the dash.

I took the battery out, stuck it on my trickle charger overnight.

The test.....will a car left abandoned in such a state start, and will a battery left discharged for two years take enough of a charge to start said vehicle?

Result. Battery charged to 12.8 volts overnight.

Placed battery back in vehicle and attempted to start.

Vehicle started immediately, ran hot, straight and true.

After about three minutes idle, engine bogged down, stumbled and died. I restarted it and it run rough for a few seconds, stabilized and was fine, although check engine light did come on.

On a short test drive power seemed less than usual, but engine ran perfectly.

Would be interesting to see what the codes are for the engine light.

Could be something in the spark plugs. I've had that happen to a car that sat...

 

[Aerindel]

Would be interesting to see what the codes are for the engine light.

Could be something in the spark plugs. I've had that happen to a car that sat...

Ask, and you shall be answered.

PO325

Knock sensor, bank one

Logical. We know the solution to engine knock is higher octane, or retarded timing.

I suspect what happened is the fuel lost octane over time, and once the ECU detected the knock, it retarded the timing, which solved the knock and reduced engine power.

 

[Spikedriver]

Ask, and you shall be answered.

PO325

Knock sensor, bank one

Logical. We know the solution to engine knock is higher octane, or retarded timing.

I suspect what happened is the fuel lost octane over time, and once the ECU detected the knock, it retarded the timing, which solved the knock and reduced engine power.

So adding octane booster and seeing if the light goes away should confirm your suspicion, correct?

 

[Alaskajohn]

I have had similar experiences where I’ve had two year old gas in vehicles with no real impact. I try to avoid this, but it sometimes happens.

 

[Biggkidd]

The real test will be if the battery will hold a charge for a week or longer. Far as old gas goes mix it with some fuel system cleaner and 93 octane and burn it through. I like Lucas myself.

 

[Aerindel]

So adding octane booster and seeing if the light goes away should confirm your suspicion, correct?

It should. Although I think this is a code you have to manually clear to make go away, but if I added some octane booster it shouldn't come back.

But what I really need to do is drain the gas. I could probably just fill up the rest of the tank with regular and it would be fine but its not a car I drive or even keep insured. Its one of those 'free' cars with nothing really wrong with it, but that I have no need for unless all my other vehicles break down at once. If I ever have enough time I want to eventually strip it down and turn it into a dune buggy. 4WD and with a boxer engine, stripped down to half its weight, it should rip and still be street legal.

The real test will be if the battery will hold a charge for a week or longer.

Agreed. I'm surprised it even took a charge after two winters and two summers baking and freezing while dead.

 

[UrbanHunter]

My experience is that cars need to be driven at least every other week, cars that sit for long period of time create problems for the tires, the belts, and the battery (although a small battery maintainer helps). We have multiple cars but only 1 driver (due to wife's medical issues), so I try to rotate the vehicles I use for errand trips.

 

[Bacpacker]

I've got a daily driver, but i try and drive the truck to work at least once every couple weeks if I haven't had it out on the weekend.
The battery surprises me more than the gas. 7 yo batteries typically aren't worth much anyway. Coming back from dead is something.

 

[Tirediron]

Batteries seem to be a crap shoot, the one in my welder is over 10 probably more years old, it will still start it in warm weather, one that surprizes me is the battery in my Ditch witch, it sat for at least 8 years, and still had enough juice to spin the engine. that battery was old when it went into the machine. gasoline is a crap shoot, but usually good for at least 2 years, but we are in a cooler climate.

 

[Supervisor42]

I've got a daily driver, but ibtry and drive the truck to work at least once every couple weeks if I haven't had it out on the weekend.
The battery surprises me more than the gas. 7 yo batteries typically aren't worth much anyway. Coming back from dead is something.

I don't play the battery game anymore.
If it is over 5 years old, it gets changed. Period.
Trying to see how many more years than that you can get out of one is crazy.
It will always pick the worst time, or the worst place, to fail.
Not happening!
What can I say; my life is getting too short to worry about that crap anymore.
My new motto: "Peace of mind is priceless!"

 

[viking]

Our 1998 Windstar hated ethanol mixed fuel, it would constantly throw service engine codes for injector misfires and slow the vehicle down to 35 on the freeway, we stopped using the ethanol mix and went to clear, gained 7 mpg in the process. Due to transmission problems we no longer drive the Winstar, we bought a 2005 Sienna and it doesn't care what fuel it's fed, it just runs great and gets good mpg.

 

[zoomzoom]

I "normally" wait for a battery to start giving me problems before I replace it. The recent exception was to replace the 10+ year old battery in my tractor as that's one machine I want to start every time, especially in the winter.
In all our vehicles, we keep the small jump starters. Can't get the link to work but search Amazon for:
DBPOWER 1000A Portable Car Jump Starter


They're small, easy to use and can start any engines we own without problem (up to 7L gas engine).

 

[Haertig]

You might want to add some "Sea Foam" additive to you next take of gas, to clean out gunk that may have accumulated in the fuel system.