Hey gents I’m potentially moving out of country for a few years and wanted to know if its possible to store my C7Z by simply disconnecting the battery or buy a new battery?

I’ve heard these cars have an internal battery behind the infotainment system and if that battery drops offline its an expensive tow to the dealership and factory tune needs to be loaded back into the ECM.

Does anyone have any experience with this? If I store the vehicle in a location without power than I’ll simply disconnect the battery and keep on a tender.

The next thing is if the car isn’t started for 6 months or a year or so that could bring up other issues. Any inputs are appreciated.

 

Fuel will not last 2 years. Can pump out but generally cars don't like to sit, seals dry out. Would it be easier to sell and get another one later? Economy might favour that timescale also.

 

How about a very close friend or family member that can babysit/start the car say once a month? Possibly take a short drive?

 

So which is it, is car going to be stored for a few years or 6 months or a year or so?

 

OP is correctly surmising that some issues can begin to occur after 6 months or a year of storage, and would like to know what might be expected after a few years

 

weird

I think it was 2.5 years an old BMW sat outside with a quarter tank of e10 gas, no stabilizer.

fired right up when I put a new crank sensor in it. didn't even smoke, like my lawnmower does with 1+ year old e10 gas.

 

Would likely be a few years. Could possibly get back once a year or maybe even 6 months or so would be most frequent.

 

Correct. and to follow up on the battery. Is there a battery in the infotainment system? Like an internal battery? Would the car have to be towed to dealer if that one goes dead?

 

I wish, I do have some friends on the other side of the country. Would be a mission to tow it to their local area to make it convenient for them to watch. Its a consideration though.

 

I have never heard of a secondary battery in the infotainment (or anywhere).Unless this car has some sentimental value I also suggest you sell. Save on storage, insurance, depreciation etc.

 

Pull the battery out, pump up the tires 5 psi, put in some gas stabilizer. Not much else you can do and it should be fine. You may also want to place some glue traps near by in case of any mice, etc. There are no secondary batteries to worry about.

 

I prefer the "sell it now, buy another when you get home" option. If it's financed then you're not paying interest and insurance for two years. If not financed, put the money in a CD (~4% at the moment) or pay down other debt.

Refresh my memory ... is the rear hatch opened mechanically with the key? The doors aren't. Thus, if you disconnect the battery and close the hatch, to provide energy to unlock and your battery is disconnected, you'll need to supply power via the starter bolt and ground. Better to put it on a tender if you can.

Fill it with pure (non-oxy) fuel and stabilizer, drive it to get it good and warm and all that circulated through. When you park it, do it with as little fuel as possible so when you go to fire it up you can add more fresh fuel and not have to drive hundreds of miles with old crappy gas. The key is to use non-oxy fuel.

Change the oil too, so it sits with fresh oil. The old oil will have a lot of acids etc. in suspension, you don't want to store it two years with that.

Put a thing of Damprid in the cabin to avoid mildew odors. Steel wool in hte exhaust and air intakes to keep rodents out. Not much you can do about keeping them from chewing on wires and building nests if you're storing in a place you can't control them (use traps, don't want a poisoned mouse dying in your dash). Clean and condition your leather to prevent it from drying out.

If you can put it on jack stands that would be ideal. If not, overinflate tires a little.

If you do start it, don't just let it idle; take it out and get it to operating temperature so it gets properly warmed up and volatiles are boiled out of the oil.

 

This. With stabilizer there's no reason the gas won't last a couple of years. It may not be ideal, but it will be OK.

 

Storing a Corvette for 6-months to a year is not really an issue as have done it many times only taking minimal precautions without issues, now 3 years is a different ball game.

 

If it is your dream car - store it with the above info.
If you can get a great price then sell and get a C8 when you return,

 

This should get you by for the storage period. If a couple of years, I tend to agree with the others on selling and getting another one when you are back permanently.

 

Say, a quarter mile at a time?

 

I personally would sell it. Storing for that long of a time is not good for any car. It's better for the car to be driven. Who knows how many generations of mice could have lived in it being stored for 2-3 years.