winter storage question

[kriss]

I notice that folks keep their cars in garages under cover-why the cover?...second instead of a battery charger,why don't you start the car once or twice a week and let it run a little?

[JFP in PA]

Easy: They are kept under cover to keep dust, pets and children off of them; that way they come out in the spring clean and ready to go.

You do not use a charger, but rather a maintainer; the later of which brings the battery to full charge and then shuts off until needed.

The reason you do not want to start the car periodically is that will cause fuel dilution and moisture build up in your oil and on critical parts. Bad idea. Change the oil and filter just before putting it into hibernation, fill it up with stabilized fuel, run it for 10 min. to circulate the fuel, put it to bed and leave it alone until spring.

[clickman]

I keep mine under cover to keep all of the dust off. I give it a real good cleaning and waxing and coating of the convertible top just before storage, and I'd like it to be clean like that at wakeup time in the spring.

First off, I'm assuming you don't plan to drive it in the winter.

You can't just start the car and let it run for a couple minutes. You'd have to make sure it gets up to operating temperature, which IMHO means say 1/2 hr. And then you're looking at getting it gas (insurance? snow?), the oil contamination, etc. Way easier to just follow the short list of prep items and then forget it. I've tried it the other way, and it was a PITA.

If you do a search you'll find all sorts of recommendations and discussions on this. FYI, here's my winter prep checklist:

1. Fill gas tank.
2. Wash, dry and wax
3. Change oil and filter. Cut open filter and check for debris. Record mileage of oil/filter change and put sticker in window (+8000 km with Castrol Syntec 5W-40)
4. Add fuel stabilizer. Start engine just long enough for oil and stabilized fuel to circulate (several minutes, < 5 minutes)
5. Top treatment
6. Check battery electrolyte level and top up with distilled water
7. Inflate tires to 58 psi.
8. Place in storage location.
9. Leave out of gear. Emerg brake off. Block wheels.
10. Block open frunk. Hook up battery maintainer. Remove bulb.
11. Put on cover
12. Get storage insurance

During storage, I debate moving it once a month to avoid tire flat spots, but I rarely do it and it doesn't seem to hurt

Spring startup:
1. IF POSSIBLE, hand crank engine by pushing in 5th gear (forward, NOT backwards) until you hear the engine turn over, then fire up with key. May have to roll back in neutral a few times to get a full engine revolution
2. Adjust tire pressure

[Johnny Danger]

Presumably, the purpose of the car cover is to keep the vehicle clean by protecting it from unwanted dust and dirt during storage. As far as periodically starting your stored vehicle is concerned, the consensus of opinion is to leave it connected to a battery maintainer and refrain from continuously cold starting it . According to many, simply letting the engine run is not the equivalent of driving the vehicle in terms of getting things "flowing".

[t2-bxtrs]

Folks,
What about just disconnecting the negative cable on the battery terminals?
any bad implications in the Spring?
thx
t2

[JFP in PA]

Only that your DME will need to "re-learn", which may cause poor running conditions until it does, your radio will lose all presets, your windows will lose their memory settings, any pending or “trapped” codes (alarm events, etc.) will be lost, and if you have fitted a 996 cluster, your gas gauge will go bonkers and require a lot of work and a PST II/PIWIS to recalibrate it. Other than that, not much..............

[Overdrive]

Originally Posted by t2-bxtrs

Folks,
What about just disconnecting the negative cable on the battery terminals?
any bad implications in the Spring?
thx
t2

For that, bear in mind:

Have your radio security code handy for that, as you'll need it when you reconnect the negative in order for your radio to work.

Disconnecting also resets the DME

Say in the case of a non-temperature controlled situation (garage, outdoors), the winter temps will still sap the energy out of your battery as well as possibly freeze it, and you definitely don't want to charge or operate a frozen battery

Due to these things, if you're going to disconnect it, might as well remove it altogether from the car, bring it indoors and hook it up to a battery maintainer. Just don't forget to do like it was suggested before and block open the front trunk so you can get back into it to drop the battery back in.

If the temperature thing isn't a factor, though, then you've only got the DME reset and radio code to be concerned about.

[SeaNile31]

I'm not going to "winterize" mine but rather keep it covered and use the battery tender and hope to drive the car when there is not snow on the ground/roads and the roads are salt and grime free. If all goes well the car should get a decent drive every two weeks.

Any suggestions for an indoor car cover?

[t2-bxtrs]

Thanks for all the comments, Overdrive came with the most sense to my situation! Yes my garage is not heated but is fully insulated where i can hang around and do some work/maintenance on my other cars,.ie: my wifes and son..
The DME from my experience in previous years took about a week or so on some settings to be re-learned.. On the radio code, it does not need one on an 04' 986S!
Oh ! the things that we worry about on the colder and snowy months, but come Spring it feels like i always have a brand new TOY !
Cheers everyone...
thx
t2

[Flavor 987S]

Originally Posted by SeaNile31

Any suggestions for an indoor car cover?

The silver OEM Porsche crest cover is very good. I use this on the Boxster.

Carnewal makes some awesome car covers! Very expensive. About $450 (duty included) and takes a couple months to receive from Europe. This is the Turbo with the Carnewal cover:

[Flavor 987S]

Here's how it looks from the front (not my car or photo):

[Overdrive]

Originally Posted by t2-bxtrs

Thanks for all the comments, Overdrive came with the most sense to my situation! Yes my garage is not heated but is fully insulated where i can hang around and do some work/maintenance on my other cars,.ie: my wifes and son..
The DME from my experience in previous years took about a week or so on some settings to be re-learned.. On the radio code, it does not need one on an 04' 986S!
Oh ! the things that we worry about on the colder and snowy months, but come Spring it feels like i always have a brand new TOY !
Cheers everyone...
thx
t2

Glad to be of some help, sir. I'm looking forward to getting that feeling for the first time myself come this spring.

You definitely have that one less worry with the battery removal in having a younger car that doesn't need a code.

Mine has to stay outdoors, unfortunately, so I'll have to wait for a warm day in case my battery is frozen (quite likely right now) and for the lighter adapter for my battery maintainer to come in the mail to get my battery back in shape.