Winter storage

[Bobry]

My wife and I just bought a 2002 T-Bird and we are wondering if anybody out there stores their T-Bird for winter? Do you remove the battery? Do you put it on jackstands? Is it hard to start if the battery has been removed 6 months?

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[Windeybird]

Storage

I store my boat every winter. I pull the battery and hook up the trailer every month to move the tires. With my motorcycles I just put a trickle charger on every few weeks and again move them around. The big thing is you must put stabilizer in the gas or your fuel system will be a mess. Good luck.

 

[FEsTbird]

Winter Storage--

Most people use a battery tender for keeping the battery charged, various rigs are used for the cord entry into the trunk. If you are in an area where you can drive the car every other week or so, I think that would be OK for the fires. Be sure to park on wood, not concrete when you are storing.

 

[greggmendel]

We stored ours for three winters. Left the battery in the first year, but it was completely discharged by spring. After a good charge it was fine. The battery in a Mustang we stored for the same three winters died and suffered freeze damage, so I started removing the batteries the second winter.

I put the batteries on wooden blocks and hooked up tenders and they did fine.

The cars both started very easily with the well charged batteries in the spring.

I also put in a dose of fuel stabilizer and stored the car with a full fuel tank (less oxygen in the tank to promote oxidation and varnish formation).

 

[Jimbo]

Hi guys, I'm new to the site. I just bought my wife an '02 Thunderbird Blue T bird on Saturday with only 6,800 mi. on it. We will store it in her dad's antique car garage for the winter and I will put a cover on it and fill the tank and put fuel additive in the tank. One question... when I put the additive in should I run the engine a little to get it in the system or doesn't it matter? She's happier than a hog in slop with her Bird. It's 10 yrs. old and it still smells like new in side. Jim B.T.W. great site you have here.🙂

 

[George]

Hi Jimbo and best of luck with the new ride.
Yes, run it 5-7 minutes. Two things, you want to make sure that the additive is well mixed in the tank and that the new mixture is also in the fuel lines as well.

If the garage floor is concrete, it's good to park on slabs of plywood. Better for the tires.
Finally, a battery tender is almost essential. It not only will maintain your battery, but will extend it's life. My 2002 is 10 years old (17,000 miles) on the original battery. I have used these on my antiques in the past and always got 10+ years on batteries. A worth while purchase for the $50-$60. In fact, if her dad has antiques cars, he probably uses them.