Maintaining M4 - F82 in extreme cold

[Ronin_52]

Hello,

I live in a cold weather state, and we're about to have 5 straight days of negative degree weather (-5 and below).

I work remote, and do not have to drive or start my M4 if I don't want to.

It's in a "covered" parking garage, that's NOT heated. So it's still 100% cold, but no wind.

Should I start and idle my M4 daily for 20 mins to maintain the battery? Or every other day? Avoid driving altogether? What's the best way to handle this, and maintain the car over the extreme cold days?

All help is appreciated! Thanks!

[alex2364]

Assuming your battery is healthy, don't do anything unless you won't be driving the car for at least a week. Letting it idle for 20 minutes won't warm up all your components and isn't very good. Go for a drive for at least 30 minutes if you want to warm up everything. If you won't be using the car long term then get a lithium ion battery charger and use the battery terminals in the engine bay, not the trunk.

[b_w.]

I would just put a charger on it to maintain the battery.

[theweebabySeamus]

I would fire it up and get it fully warmed up periodically. It seems like long periods of sitting in the cold without being driven can lead to Valvetronic issues. When mine failed I noticed a lot of guys that had the issue lived in cold climates where the car sat on a charger for long periods.

[Bimmer.Plug]

Warm it up and drive for a bit when possible.

[amrazM]

just let it sit there, get a tender for lithium if possible, if not it should be ok. dont start it and leave it idling youre just adding excess moisture to the crankcase.

[hC1001]

No, dont idle your car for 20 mins each day.
You should be fine leaving your car undriven for 2 weeks... If theres a nice warm day to drive the car within that period, i would take it out for at least a 30+ min drive to get the fluids moving and warmed up. I try to drive my car once every 2-3 weeks if possible. I use a battery tender if im not able to take it out for more than 3 weeks.

Might want to consider a battery tender if you think you wont be driving for an extended period of time.

[Ronin_52]

Originally Posted by hC1001

No, dont idle your car for 20 mins each day.
You should be fine leaving your car undriven for 2 weeks... If theres a nice warm day to drive the car within that period, i would take it out for at least a 30+ min drive to get the fluids moving and warmed up. I try to drive my car once every 2-3 weeks if possible. I use a battery tender if im not able to take it out for more than 3 weeks.

Might want to consider a battery tender if you think you wont be driving for an extended period of time.

I talked to the dealer and they also suggested to just leave it plugged in with a battery tender. It’s $160 for the tender FYI incase anyone else is interested.

Only problem is, I don’t have an outlet in my parking garage lmao…so I might have to store it at my parents garage and plug it in there.

I’m probably overthinking this…my car is in good shape with only 30K miles. I’ll probably just keep it in my parking garage and drive it normally but try to drive it for 30 mins or longer every other day.

Components just don’t do well in extreme temperatures and I don’t want any mechanics issues. It’s my first M car and I want to keep it problem free.

Thank you all for the responses.

[b_w.]

Look up the ctek lithium chargers on Amazon. Won't cost you that much.

[agentrnge]

30-40 minutes of driving a week should be enough to keep everything happy. And really very little risk of just letting it sit for 2-3 weeks. Every other day is not needed. I only put my car on a tender when it sat for 2-3 weeks and I know it would not be driven for another 2-3 weeks.

[dezzracer]

What tries are on car? Be careful. Warm weather performance tires will not fare well. At all.

[andrewmr]

Like most everyone has said, just leave it.

Starting your car and letting it sit and idle will not get everything up to temperature. At least not to the temps required to burn off moisture in the oil.

At to taking it out for a drive.... if you do not have all season tires you are most likely gonna have issues with the tires not working very well when it's that cold.

And then to my biggest issue, the salt on the roads. I've owned a car that started life in Chicago and there was significant rust on parts under the car. If things have changed and they no longer put salt down then just ignore this item.

[gerri]

I have an F83 and I don't use it six months a year. It remains in the unheated garage, the tires inflated to 3 Bar so as not to become oval and every six weeks, as per the TIS programme, I charge the battery. After six weeks the battery (from 2016) is between 50 and 75% and I charge it up to around 80/90% because lithium batteries should not be charged to 100%. The alternator itself is programmed to charge them to 80% and for this reason I never leave the charger/maintainer (Noko G3500) always connected. In April it starts on the first try and, as I said before, the battery is 8 years old. Turning it on every now and then and keeping it on for 20/30 minutes at minimum is only harmful to the car, the environment and a waste of money.

I've been doing the same thing (but with 100% charge because it has a lead-acid battery) since 2012 with the E46 (2006) cabrio (original battery from 2011)

[MineralWhiteF80]

Originally Posted by Ronin_52

I’m probably overthinking this…

You are going to fit in real well on these forums then since all we do on this forum is overthink and overcomplicate EVERYTHING Welcome!

In all seriousness, BMW performs long term durability testing on all of their cars at their test facility only 35 miles south of the arctic circle in Arjeplog, Sweden where it gets quite cold.

Use a battery tender, not because of the cold, but because the car isn't driven a lot. You have nothing to worry about.

The only thing the owner's manual states about starting the engine or warming up an engine is this:

Do not wait for the engine to warm-up while the vehicle remains stationary. Start driving right away, but at moderate engine speeds. This is the quickest way of warming the cold engine up to operating temperature.

There are no specific 'cold weather' instructions in the owner's manual.

[Keca10]

Don’t overthink it. I don’t see any issues in it sitting for a week or so in the cold. This car can be a daily driver. I drove the shit out of the E46 M3, E60 M5 and E70 X5M back in the day in Minnesota cold weather with trips to ND, Canada etc.

The car will tell you if the battery is getting depleted faster than usual when you go to start it (unless it’s totally dead). You can get a Li Ion charger (trickle charger or tender), just make sure to get the right one. You don’t need to do this unless it’s sitting for 2-3 months or longer.

I store mine at around 40-45F garage. If it’s sitting for 5-6 months I have to recharge my battery. I just yank the battery out, and charge it in my apartment.

Bigger issue for me is storage of summer tires. My Cup2 tires cracked when stored in super cold temperatures (below 0F for many days).

[M3SQRD]

Battery tender + engine block heater! If my winters were always subzero I’d use this combo.

In all seriousness, as others have said, drive the car ~30 sec after starting, drive for at least 30 min to heat things up and burn off moisture in the oil, and fully charge the battery. You definitely do not need to do this every other day. Once every week is more than enough. Keeping your car on a battery tender is important and will extend the life of the ultra expensive Li-Ion battery!