Keeping mine in the garage for the winter. I need help, I live in Seattle.

[Sketchyatbest]

Do I need to do anything special?

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[AZCWTypeR]

Change oil and filter. Wash and wax. Top up fuel, fluids and fill tires. Hook up a battery tender every month or two, topping off battery.
Do not start the car unless you go on a long drive, otherwise water will condense in the engine and not get a chance to boil off.
I used the above on my motorcycles and S2000 for many years in New England. Except I removed motorcycle batteries and stored them in my basement. Car batteries remained installed. I could see water condensing on motorcycle sight glasses if not gotten hot enough in winter running.
Some put the car on jack stands or place plastic under the tires. I never found any permanent effects from leaving tires on concrete over the winter.

 

[Sketchyatbest]

Change oil and filter. Wash and wax. Top up fuel, fluids and fill tires. Hook up a battery tender every month or two, topping off battery.
Do not start the car unless you go on a long drive, otherwise water will condense in the engine and not get a chance to boil off.
I used the above on my motorcycles and S2000 for many years in New England. Except I removed motorcycle batteries and stored them in my basement. Car batteries remained installed. I could see water condensing on motorcycle sight glasses if not gotten hot enough in winter running.
Some put the car on jack stands or place plastic under the tires. I never found any permanent effects from leaving tires on concrete over the winter.

Thanks a million!

 

[blitz423]

Isn't a battery tender suppose to just maintain a battery while plugged in? Different from an actual battery charger. A tender I believe is at a lower and slower charge and test the battery on it's own depending on brand and model.

Something like this below you can just leave it plugged in.

 

[bbrunty15]

Change oil and filter. Wash and wax. Top up fuel, fluids and fill tires. Hook up a battery tender every month or two, topping off battery.
Do not start the car unless you go on a long drive, otherwise water will condense in the engine and not get a chance to boil off.
I used the above on my motorcycles and S2000 for many years in New England. Except I removed motorcycle batteries and stored them in my basement. Car batteries remained installed. I could see water condensing on motorcycle sight glasses if not gotten hot enough in winter running.
Some put the car on jack stands or place plastic under the tires. I never found any permanent effects from leaving tires on concrete over the winter.

This is exactly it! I only have 2 things to add/mention. I found on amazon "Flat Spot Preventing Ramps" that I have used each winter since I got the car and those were cheap and effective at preventing flat spots. YMMV. Secondly and probably the most important, like @AZCWTypeR mentioned, once you do all the things mentioned above, leave it alone. No need to touch it. Don't "warm it up" dont start it until your taking it out of storage. Assuming the battery tender has a status light glance at the tender to make sure its doing its thing but no need to touch the car. Then just find ways to pass the time until spring comes!

 

[ChangeYourOil]

Here's what I did storing for about 5 months in my garage.

Changed oil and filter shortly before storing (i had maybe 100-200 miles on the oil).

Time it so your tank is near a quarter left or less. Then fill it with top tier fuel. I used shell v power. I did not use any fuel stabilizer. Drive it from the gas station to your garage for storage.

Fill the tires to about 40-45 psi.

Put wheel chocks on the rear wheels. Put the car in neutral and release the e-brake.

It's your choice to keep the recirculation vent in the hvac system open or closed. I kept mine open.

Battery tender every so often. Alarm on or off.

Also check tire pressue after it becomes really cold and adjust.

Don't mess with your car until you are ready to take it out.

Once you take it out of storage. I added fuel additive to the tank and ran it through. Then changed oil and filter and filled it up with "fresh" fuel.

 

[AZCWTypeR]

Isn't a battery tender suppose to just maintain a battery while plugged in? Different from an actual battery charger. A tender I believe is at a lower and slower charge and test the battery on it's own depending on brand and model.

Something like this below you can just leave it plugged in.

Yes, that's how a battery tender is supposed to work. I only have one tender and rotated it among the various batteries (car, motorcycles, lawn tractor).

 

[CleanTypeR]

Any risk of damage to engine when first started after sitting for months?
Will there still be a film of engine oil on the surfaces to provide lubrication for those first couple seconds until oil pressure builds a oil flows through engine?
Goodson Tools sells an engine preluber and I wonder if this would be worth buying

 

[AZCWTypeR]

I never heard dry engine noises. I use OEM filters, which have good anti-drainback valves. My vehicles normally sat four months, from Thanksgiving until April 1st.

If storing for a year or more, there are more considerations.

 

[chopsuey34]

Change oil and filter. Wash and wax. Top up fuel, fluids and fill tires. Hook up a battery tender every month or two, topping off battery.
Do not start the car unless you go on a long drive, otherwise water will condense in the engine and not get a chance to boil off.
I used the above on my motorcycles and S2000 for many years in New England. Except I removed motorcycle batteries and stored them in my basement. Car batteries remained installed. I could see water condensing on motorcycle sight glasses if not gotten hot enough in winter running.
Some put the car on jack stands or place plastic under the tires. I never found any permanent effects from leaving tires on concrete over the winter.

What this guy said, but I would remove batteries. Can't steal a car if there isn't any juice in it. Don't have to futz with a trickle charger either.

idk what seattle winters are like, but pump your tires up to like +5 psi and check pressures every 6 weeks or so.

Don't put your car on jack stands. FYI your car sits 90% of the time anyways so letting it sit 100% of the time is nbd. Suspensions are designed to be loaded, not unloaded.

 

[blitz423]

I think the idea of jack stands is to prevent flat spots. Putting extra air sounds like a good idea. However less than 1 year i don't think you need to worry about flat spots. Long as it's out of the elements.

 

[ILX6SPEED]

Here's what I did storing for about 5 months in my garage.

Changed oil and filter shortly before storing (i had maybe 100-200 miles on the oil).

Time it so your tank is near a quarter left or less. Then fill it with top tier fuel. I used shell v power. I did not use any fuel stabilizer. Drive it from the gas station to your garage for storage.

Fill the tires to about 40-45 psi.

Put wheel chocks on the rear wheels. Put the car in neutral and release the e-brake.

It's your choice to keep the recirculation vent in the hvac system open or closed. I kept mine open.

Battery tender every so often. Alarm on or off.

Also check tire pressue after it becomes really cold and adjust.

Don't mess with your car until you are ready to take it out.

Once you take it out of storage. I added fuel additive to the tank and ran it through. Then changed oil and filter and filled it up with "fresh" fuel.

I basically do this. Only thing I do is park on thin foam since my garage concrete gets super cold. Havent had any flat spotting with this method. Not looking forward to putting it away but I have an AWD car with new Icepeaks that will handle winter.

 

[Higgs Boson]

I have some cars I don't drive for months (6-12 months at a time), all i do is put about 40-45psi in the tires and use battery tenders. Never had an issue. Flat spots were more of a problem with bias plys, not modern tires. I don't live in a below zero environment though.

 

[J_D]

Just plug in a tender, put some fuel stabilizer in, and boom you're done.

 

[TypeRD]

Here's what I did storing for about 5 months in my garage.

Changed oil and filter shortly before storing (i had maybe 100-200 miles on the oil).

Time it so your tank is near a quarter left or less. Then fill it with top tier fuel. I used shell v power. I did not use any fuel stabilizer. Drive it from the gas station to your garage for storage.

Fill the tires to about 40-45 psi.

Put wheel chocks on the rear wheels. Put the car in neutral and release the e-brake.

It's your choice to keep the recirculation vent in the hvac system open or closed. I kept mine open.

Battery tender every so often. Alarm on or off.

Also check tire pressue after it becomes really cold and adjust.

Don't mess with your car until you are ready to take it out.

Once you take it out of storage. I added fuel additive to the tank and ran it through. Then changed oil and filter and filled it up with "fresh" fuel.

This exactly. Had my FL5 thru 3 midwest winters. Last winter was the longest and coldest during the time I owned it. I never needed tire cradles and didn’t get flat spots. My garage isn’t climate controlled and the concrete gets cold. Inflated the tires to ~45 psi and left it on a battery tender the whole winter and even for a bit after while waiting for the road salt to clear (about 4 months total).

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