Winter Storage
 

For those of you who store your C5 during the winter, what do you do? I'm in Minnesota so I will be storing my car. From reading other articles, I've gathered the following:

• Battery tender hooked up all winter
• Dryer sheets inside to reduce the chance of critters

Anything else? I plan on washing and waxing her before putting a cover on.

Before storage I try to use all the fuel and then fill the tank with ethanol free marine gas (90 octane) plus I add a bottle of TECHRON during fill up. If it will be stored over six months I add fuel stabilizer.

Stick something like plastic bags around the tailpipes or steel wool up inside to keep critters (mice, insects, etc) out of the exhaust, to prevent them from building a nest inside and clogging it up. Don't forget to leave yourself a reminder, like a note inside the car, so you can remove that in the Spring.
Inflate the tires a couple of extra pounds so they don't get too low in the cold weather.

I take the battery out and store it in the basement on a tender where I can keep an eye on it. You never know when a battery or a tender might fail. Better not to have battery in car when that happens. I put mothballs under the hood and by each wheel. I over inflate tires by 5-10 lbs and park on memory foam seat cushions. Techron in fresh tank of gas. I apply protectant on all vinyl and rubber, stuff stainless steel pot scrubbers in tailpipes and wax car and cover it..


This winter I am trying this.
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Put in a bottle of Stabil at half full, fill with my usual 94 octane with Techron, ethanol free. If not available for you I'd definitely try for the ethanol free part if you can.
Clean the car throughout, then back her up onto some low ramps (as far to wall as possible on PS to leave room in garage for winter) to make my spring oil change easier.
On battery tender.
Tires to around 3-4# over, as they lose that in the bitter cold.
Chock tires, leave out of gear and emergency brake not engaged.

Pretty simple for me, stored in unheated garage.

Car wash
Oil change
Full tank of gas, 91 ethanol free.
Over inflate the tires a couple of #s
Dryer sheets in the trunk and interior
Indoor car cover
Car in neutral, emerg brake off, wheel chocks
Windows down half an inch
Battery on tender out of the car, in the basement.

List pretty much covers what I do... Clean, detail, change oil, fill w non-ethanol, park neutral on carpet squares, tarp under car, tennis balls in exhaust, dryer sheets & Irish Spring in engine bay, cockpit and trunk, battery pulled and on tender in shop, cover. oh and little blocks to slightly lift the wipers off the windshield.

We have been lucky the last couple of years in the Mid Atlantic region. Only a couple of snow falls. Was able to take the Z06 out once a month after a good rain to clear the roads. I keep the car battery hooked up to a Ctek. I bought this small heater and keep it at its lowest setting. The garage temperature stays constant at 50 degrees.Make sure to weatherproof your garage doors.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fahrenhe...UH54/202043073

Yep, when I had to put mine to sleep for winter I put steel wool in the tips and covered them with baggies held on with rubber bands. Invariably, I forgot to take 'em off before firing it up in the spring. Got to be kind of a game to see how far they'd shoot.

I always filled the tank and put Stabil in and I ALWAYS run 93 oct. The stabil probably isn't really needed with todays gas but... Made sure the tires were up to pressure, cleaned it, put dryer sheets inside and mothballs around the engine. Put a Battery Tender Plus on it, covered it with a good Covercrest cover and waited 'till the weather broke.

Thankfully, those days are over for me. :D

Gonna do something new this winter. I always do the same as most others, with the Stabil, Techron, Good cleaning Wax and Cover, but in addition, I plan on storing elevated on my QuickLift for the first time this season. I'm hoping that taking the weight off of the suspension for several months, does no harm. Make it more difficult for the small critters to get to her.

There are pros and cons for taking weight off suspension for long periods of time. You might want to investigate.

Change the oil, fill up with no-ethanol, connect battery tender.

Drive it....

I was at Bloomington Gold this year listening to Paul Koerner and someone asked on storing their C5 in the winter time about fuel. He advised to store it with less than a quarter of a tank. He advised condensation wasn't an issue because of the tanks being plastic/composite and you wouldn't have to worry about sulpher deposits on the fuel sending unit, because there wouldn't be fuel on the sending units. At least this is what I gathered. If someone else was there listening to him speak about this please jump in and correct these statements.

I thought about that. There would still be condensation. Ever see condensation inside a plastic water bottle? Just don't have to worry about tank rusting, but the water in the gas might cause other problems. As for the sulfur deposits, exposed only to air for long periods, the sulfur already on the sender might just solidify. I don't know. Full tank of gas has worked for me for almost 50 years. Not sure I want to change because of what one guy says.

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Something others haven't touched on that happened to me - self inflicted at that...rodent control is important. Look around the storage location and make sure to remove any food source that might draw mice. Case in point - I'm fortunate to have a 30x30 garage at our lake house where I rotate the cars throughout the year and generally park for the hard winter months (Dec - March). A couple of years ago we started seeing deer tracks so I put out a couple of game cameras and a small deer corn feeder. I loaded the feeder and stored the rest in the garage. There is a lot stored in the garage in the winter...boat, jet skis, Corvettes, and a fair amount of "projects" ...always something at a lake house! At any rate, I forgot about the excess deer corn and two years later discovered some nice had moved in. It was sort of cute at first - finding their little stashes of corn in nooks and cubby holes everywhere (they actually stored corn inside my shooting headphones...crazy). It was no longer cute when I found corn in the engine compartment of both Corvettes. Game changer and I went on a mice killing spree that lasted months. All my fault but I'm now extra careful to ensure no food source is in the garage. Fortunately their was no damage to the cars other than droppings and half eaten corn...the little buggers were gorging themselves. All good now!

I'm not making fun of anyone but man does that suck having to put your car away for months and months at a time..

It's just a sacrifice one must make for the privilege of living in God's Country.

:iagree: Also having a high HP car with a short wheel base does not work on wet or frozen roads. Salt crap on the roads does not do the aluminum under our cars any favors.