I'm getting ready to put my car away for the winter and it most likely won't run again until there is a nice spring rain to wash the roads. I only have about 1500 miles on the odometer.

I've been around a lot of other car owners that store there car and they pump up the tires, hook up a battery tender, run the tank as low as possible with stabilized fuel in it and not start it until spring. My concern is, should I leave the batter in, hooked up with a tender on or should I just go ahead and disconnect it completely and hook a tender up to it?

 

You should fill the fuel full full full and add a bottle of stabil to avoid condensation in the tank, i leave the battery in all year with the tender on it, never had a problem

 

I also fill the tank full to avoid condensation issues. I pour in the bottle of stabil at the gas station and then fill up making sure the stabil is mixed in. I leave the battery in the car connected, with the tender connected. Put carpet squares under the tires and cover goes on. I do not start it until I bring it out.

 

I do what others have said. I also put steel wool in the exhaust tips. Another thought is to put a thing (not quite sure what to call it) that sits on the floor of the car and draws moisture out of the air. They can be picked up easily at Target or something. I also put moth ***** in the engine compartment and dryer sheets in and under the car. Only had a problem with rodents before I did that.

 

Thanks everyone! Another issue is, I have a gravel, garage floor. Should I park the tires on something other than carpet squares? I also, thought of buying a tarp to put under the car to block moisture.

How do you put the moth ***** in the engine compartment and under it? On tin pie pans or something?

 

Battery in with a tender.
Fresh oil change.
And I also assume you're storing it indoors or under a car port.

There are 2 schools of thought regarding the fuel:

1. Top it off with Sta-bil and run it long enough that the treated fuel gets thru the fuel system. Some folks claim that the moisture in the fuel will cause problems. I'm a proponent of filling the tank but I prefer to use non-ethanol fuel for that fill-up.
2. Leave the tank as low as possible with treated fuel (again, fule run thru the system) to prevent the moisture issue above. However, an empty tank allows the air inside and the associated moisture to condense with temperature changes and, IMO, allows MORE water to accumulate.

Other things to do:

1. place carpet or carpet or some form of moisture barrier between the tires and the concrete.
2. to prevent rodents from getting into the pipes, place steel wool in the openings of the tailpipes
3. place 1 or 2 dryer sheets inside the car to keep the cabin from getting bad odors
4. car cover

 

A tarp might not be a bad idea with the gravel, but parking over an asphalt driveway outside with only a car cover gave me no problems last year. Thankfully it's got a garage spot this year

For the moth *****, I cut off the top of a 1 gal milk jug, placed them in that, and ziptied it to whatever was stable enough in the engine bay. I also used the bottom of the jug on the otherside. I also put them on the inside of the wheels resting on plastic bags, but that might've been overkill.

 

This is an odd one, but it works...
If you think you have mice, or had them in the past, do all the things above and also put a roll of toilet paper in the trunk and passenger compartment. It does two things: The mice will go after the paper instead of your interior fabric to make nests and it will alert you that they are in your car.

Don't ask how I know this........