Winter storage

you'll need a battery maintainer to start with, or disconnect the battery (but you lose some memory) and pump your tyres to max sidewall.

how few months? where will it be, outside, inside, heated?

i leave mine for 6 weeks every winter in an unheated garage, runs about 40 degrees, i just pump up the tyres.

make sure there aren't any vermin.

 

the battery is under constant drain from electronics. 30 minutes a week might top it up, i'm not positive. disconnecting it takes the drain off, but batteries lose charge naturally over time. a maintainer keeps it topped up. and make sure your fobs are 20+ feet away, they communicate with the car and cause more drain if within range.

there's no need to start it, but if you can, it won't hurt. hopefully, someone else will know if that's enough to top off the battery.

 

Fill the fuel tank first. The fill the tank comment is to ensure if anything starts to go wrong with the fuel (unlikely) whatever bad is there is diluted. The fuel won't go bad even in 6 months. And it's probably cheaper now than it will be in the spring.

I use a "Battery Tender", but there are other better ones out there (Pearl S is hibernating in my unheated garage currently). It works just fine and is available just about everywhere. I connect it at the "boost point" and leave the hood open. Less enticing for mice.

I don't bother to overinflate the tires. Modern tires won't flatspot anyway. I do put 2-4 PSI more than I usually use, so 44 PSI front and 42 PSI rear. It's not really necessary either, but it's nice to know that I won't have low tires in the spring.

DO check in the dark that no lights were accidentally left on.

 

ctek makes some nice models, check amazon.

 

I've left my parents' in the garage with a battery maintainer connected, might be good that it has selection for AGM type. I like the idea of pumping up the tires, although I didn't in my case...

MT2L03 ?

 

I forgot to mention where I connected it. I connected it under the hood on the jump start points as indicated in the Owner's Manual. Not sure where the battery is in the Gen 3, but in the v it is in the trunk...


iPad ?

 

I forgot to mention where I connected it. I connected it under the hood on the jump start points as indicated in the Owner's Manual. Not sure where the battery is in the Gen 3, but in the v it is in the trunk.


iPad ?

 

A lot of the following has been covered, but anyway, what I'd do:

1. Fill the tank.
2. Air up the tires, maybe 4 pounds above usual.
3. Wash and wax the car, thoroughly dry it, drive it into the garage. If you have compressed air use it to dry the brake rotors as much as possible. Leave the parking brake off.
4. Jack up the car enough, front and rear, settle onto safety stands, so that the tires are barely touching the the slab.
5. Shim under the wiper arms, to get the blades off the glass, say with rags.
6. Fully charge the battery with a smart charger, say CTEK 3300 or similar.
7. Roll one window down, say 1/2".
8. Disconnect and securely isolate the battery's negative cable.

 

Some of that is gross overkill.

All you really need to do is:
Check the coolant anti-freeze protection level.
Fill the gas tank and treat with the proper amount of fuel stabilizer.
Connect a "battery tender". WalMart carries Schumacker and they have worked good for me.
If it is near to needing an oil change, do it before storage.

Done. Don't touch it until spring.
Starting and running every few weeks sometimes causes more trouble than it prevents........but if your storage location doesn't have power that may be your only choice. Make sure it runs long enough to get the engine good and hot.

 

Yeah that would serve for storage for a year or two, you could prune away at some of the items. Still, a lot of it is trivial to do, and stuff I'd do in the course of regular use, the wash and wax for example. And leaving a battery charger hooked up all winter, vs charging completely and then disconnecting the negative cable? I'd prefer the latter, especially if the car's going to be unattended.

And checking freeze protection level? Toyota coolant comes pre-mixed: how exactly were you going to check that, and what were you going to do? It's good, lol.

Gas Stabilizer, I'd do for the aforementioned year or two, but not for a few months, through to spring.

 

Use the 1.5 amp Schumacher unit from Walmart for the most part with good results... One time I came back to a dead battery in a '10 CTS-V so I switched to a higher model on that car.


iPad ?

 

Well if you are in an area where it might hit -40F, this could be VERY important.
You check it with a hygrometer designed for that purpose.
If it is not enough, you drain out some of the 50/50 and put in some pure antifreeze.
And you never know who might have screwed with it in the past.

 

Toyota Canada sells 55% mix. It's odd though: our climate on the west coast is very mild, meanwhile, in Minnesota... Then there's Alaska.

Hey, 'nother: make sure the windshield washer fluid is not summer mix. I think if there's any chance of freezing you should use the winter stuff year round. For us it pretty much just sits in there, until winter and salted roads.

 

What exactly did you order ?
Ctek makes a LOT of stuff; some good and some not so much.