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Thread: Winter Storage

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    Forum User verified Feedback Score 0 locplayer1's Avatar
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    Cool Winter Storage

    Well this is the first year that I will be storing my Stealth over the winter. I was wondering what steps I should do to the car and how is best to store it? Should I disconnect the battery or should I just start the car every now and then and let it run? I live in Iowa where it gets cold and the car is just going to be in my unheated garage any other things I need to do because of this? Also is there anything I need to do to the wheels?

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    Not A DSM verified Feedback Score 3 (100%) Polygon's Avatar
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    Being that it's in a garage there's not much you have to do. Some people worry about the tires flat spotting. You can lift the car off the ground a leave it on jack stands. However, you'll find that if you have a decent set of tires it doesn't take long after driving for the flat spot to go away. I'm talking less than a mile.

    As for the battery you can leave it in the car. If you don't go out and start it and let it run periodically the battery will eventually go flat. So I would either start it every now and then or get a trickle charger like the Deltran Battery Tender. That way you just connect it and you don't have to worry about it until you pull it out for spring.

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    Senior (i.e. OLD) Member :) verified Feedback Score 4 (100%) OhioSpyderman's Avatar
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    Sta-bil keeps your gas fresh over the winter months!!!

    http://www.goldeagle.com/brands/stabil/default.aspx

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    SKADOOSH!!! verified Feedback Score 1 (100%) J_Parker's Avatar
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    I've stored all of my un-winterable cars outside over the winter months and all I do is throw some car covers tarps and maybe hoard them in. For you though, just put some fuel stabilizer in or drain the fuel. The battery, you can either diconnect and take it out to prevent it from freezing (I'm not sure what tempratures you get there, I get -30C regualrly, so I take mine out and put them inside) Or put a trickle charge on it. The tyres, unless you have good ones theres really nothing you'll have to do with them. Here for my -30 though, I jack my cars up and drain the air out a bit, or just take them off alltogether
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    Forum User Feedback Score 0 EthanS's Avatar
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    Just thought I'd say hey! I used to own your car before Eric and that hood and bumper are off my TT (front end conversion)

    Change oil before AND after storage. Take battery out and put it inside somewhere, or keep it on a trinkle charger. If you keep the car on the cement, put something under it so the tires aren't in contact with the cement otherwise the tires will dry rot. Then throw some stabil in the tank. Should be good to go for winter!

    I usually never started my cars while in storage, just a few times when it starts to warm up outside and theres still sand on the ground. I like to keep potential "dry starts" to a minimum.

    Have a good one,


    -Ethan
    Last edited by EthanS; 11-29-2010 at 11:02 PM.

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    we store both the vr4 and stealth for winter, which is usually dec thru feb . we change the oil, put stalbil in gas and keep batteries on deltron tenders, try to start them at least once a month and back out of garage and run them till up to temp. might be overkill on the gas but this is what we do. i have friends who store their show cars all winter and do nothing

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    Forum User Feedback Score 2 (100%) Maximal's Avatar
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    I give it a good wash and wax then throw the cover on it. To help with the batteries (that always seem to drain, freeze, then die) pick up a battery tender. I have a die hard one I got for Christmas one year and it works great. I always change my oil in the spring before doing any actual driving. Also, if you get the occasional warm day it doesn't hurt to start it occasionally just to get everything moving around.

    Another note, if you run a high water ratio in your coolant like I do then make sure you add some more coolant to the mix to prevent freezing.

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    Stealth owner since '91 Feedback Score 0 Steve '92ES's Avatar
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    Take battery out and put it inside somewhere
    Just a quick note on this, do NOT store your battery directly on a cement floor, like in your basement.
    If you need to put it on the floor put a piece of wood under it. Storing batteries on cement will wreck them. Also, dead batteries freeze easier than charged ones. If you leave the battery in the car start it up once in a while to keep the battery charged, or put it on a charger/tender. If you're not going to charge it then your better off storing the battery inside..

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve '92ES View Post
    Storing batteries on cement will wreck them.
    Urban myth. It's typically the fine amount of dust particles that settle on an UNCOVERED battery over time, regardless of what it's sitting on. The dust acts as a conductor, albeit a very small one, and will permit a small contact between the terminals, thus slowly draining the bat. I sat an Optima red top on concrete for about 7 months with the terminals covered. Dropped it back in the car and started it up.


    As for winter storage:
    -Stabil
    -Car cover
    -Battery tender
    -Reduce insurance coverage to fire & theft only

    Done.
    Tony M.
    2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland - There's Only One.
    1995 Dodge Stealth R/T Turbo - Gone but not forgotten . . .
    “The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails us. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.” -- Author Unknown

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    SKADOOSH!!! verified Feedback Score 1 (100%) J_Parker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TonyM View Post
    Urban myth. It's typically the fine amount of dust particles that settle on an UNCOVERED battery over time, regardless of what it's sitting on. The dust acts as a conductor, albeit a very small one, and will permit a small contact between the terminals, thus slowly draining the bat. I sat an Optima red top on concrete for about 7 months with the terminals covered. Dropped it back in the car and started it up.
    I'm with Tony on this one, I left my red top that is now sitting in my Soarer on the floor for two years, all I did was throw a peice of old rag over the top of it after about six weeks to keep paint overspray off. When I bought my Soarer, (August I think it was) I threw into the car and tried to fire it up, it was obviously very sluggish I maybe got about 1/2 a crank out of it, but threw the charger on it and voila it still lives to this day.

    Then again, it may just be the badassness of the Gel batteries that keeps them going. I've seen a couple of standard Wal-Mart batteries survive on the floor too sometimes, but I suppose if you like to keep all aspects of storeage worry and risk free I don's see why throwing a piece of plywood or cadboard under them much of a big deal
    Last edited by J_Parker; 12-01-2010 at 02:17 PM.

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