Hi All,

I want to know just how long my 8 can sit with out fear of developing flat spots. I did a search and did not see any ideas on this. I do plan on driving the car some on nice days this winter but it may sit for several weeks to maybe a month at a time. Is this possibly too long? My car was on a dealer showroom for 1-2 months and the tires feel fine now, maybe it was on carpet

Anyone have any comments?

Thanks,
Dean

 

Sea Ray

Flat spots on these tires will occure so you are headed in the right direction.

You have 2 options.

1. You can buy car tire pads. they flex instead of the tires. You can find the ads in C & D or R & T. I will look later and post issue and page.

2. This is an old Ferrari owner trick. Get 4 jack stands and prop up the car. nearly every Ferrari owner or shop does this if the car is going to remain standing for any length of time.

 

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the info, but how long does it take? Is 1 month enough? I have heard that the tires need to be driven and heated up a bit, not just rolled a half turn.

The tire pads sound interesting, I wonder if these are such that you can drive onto or do you have to set the car on them.

Thanks

 

If you notice on cold morning your tires are somewhat flat spotted already. After about 10 minutes they soften up.

THe tire pads are the drive on kind.

 

Sea Ray,

I have read countless web pages about this sort of question. Mostly car enthusiast web sites like corvette or Miata's. The amount of owners that store the car through the winters is very high with cars like that.

I am storing my car also. As for your question about tire "flat spotting"........
Most of the storing techniques varied greatly. The opinions on tire flat spotting were pretty consistant. Todays tires are a far cry from tires made in the 60's and 70's....where flat spotting WAS a real problem. Most everyone said that jacking the vehicle up to avoid tire flat spots was not neaded on a car that was being stored (or more importantly not moved) for a month or two.

Newer tires are more resistant to the problem. If any flat spotting did occur, warming up the tires as you drive on them will be all thats needed to correct this. Also, many people recommended setting the PSI to about 5 over the spec. In our case this would be about 37 PSI. An average tire CAN lose 1 or 2 PSI each month anyway.

My solution is to do the 5 over method, and since you should never set the hand brake on a vehicle that is being stored for a period of time, roll the vehicle slightly for and aft each month.
In other words, I have enough room in my garage to move the car enough for 1/2 wheel rotation. I will roll back....and a month later....forward.

You will find alot of different ideas on this.....figured I'd give my 2...

 

I chaulk the front wheels.....my car is in neutral and no hand brake when in storage.

 

Hi Gyro,

Thanks for the reply. I doubt that I will not be able to get it out at least 1 or 2 times a month thsi winter so I should probably not worry about it.

Thanks

 

Bridgestones are pretty prone to flatspotting overnight. At least that is my experience. Even with lightweight cars like a Miata.

 

I've got RE730's on my FC & FD and they do flatspot a little overnight and it's more noticeable when they're cold. Only takes a mile or two to get them back to normal though. I'm not sure if the RE040 compound on the '8 is more or less susceptible.

I've had both of them sit for over a month (sadly) and there's been no noticeable permanent flatspotting, so my opinion would be that provided you keep the air pressure in them normal you probably wont have a problem.

Simon.

 

Sea Ray,
You may want to ask the experts at
http://www.tirerack.com .

rx8cited