buellrunner

Hey all,

I have the opportunity to store my 964 with a mechanic, in a heated storage facility with other Porsches over the ice and snow months...

Cost is around 600.00...

The other option is to keep her in my garage through the winter month, which is not heated, and is quite damp....Here in Toronto, it frequently gets to -30C.

Is cold storage hard on these cars? I don't want to drive my car through the salt and ice....its always beaten up my other cars, and I love my first Porsche

In your opinion, is it worth spending the $$ on the heated storage?

Cheers,

Jack

springer3

Cold should not be a problem as long as the gas is winterized, and you put in a fresh charge of washer/wiper anti-freeze . Moisture is a problem, and freezing water is a worse problem. Can you spend the money on a dehumidifier, and perhaps a small heater for inside the cabin? Gettning the tires off the ground is not a bad idea. Otherwise they will bump for a few miles until you work out the flat spots.

ltc

Yes.
FWIW, my cars are stored in my heated garage (45deg) over the winter.

If not, here is a link to suggested winterizing tasks/options:
http://www.porschenet.com/winter.html

Bearclaw

Don't forget the Prestone !!
j/k

Change to fresh oil. Stor-n-Start in the gas and top it off, remove the battery and keep it charged. I'm a fan of an upper-cylinder lubricant like Klotz Uplon in the last tank before you store it. You could get the weight off the tires if possible, but not mandatory.

I like to use a Dri-Z-Aire pot inside the car for storage (sold at home centers, people use them in stored RV's), the calcium chloride crystals that absorb moisture. The big thing to hopefully avoid is rapid cold-warm cycles, that really lead to a lot of condensation.

jgrosjean

I think the best is a cold garage. It's the same as keeping anything in cold storage. I just park mine and disconnect the battery or connect a charger once in a while to keep it charged. In your case, it gets so cold, it might be good to take the battery out. The biggest problem is the mice.

andrew911

If you have an electrical outlet in your garage, you can get the porsche "charge-o-mat" which plugs into the cigarette outlet and charges and then maintains the battery charge. It's low power so it's normal to take a couple of days for the battery to get fully charged- you know it's fully charged when the little red light on the charger goes out. Sometimes I even plug it in if I'm not using my car for a few weeks in the summer just so the alternator doesn't have to work as hard when I get her out...

As others, I fill the gas tank and add stabil (pink colored gas stablilzer- many other gas stabilizers on the market as well), and I throw a few extra PSI in the tires & put a post-it on the steering wheel to remind myself to asjust the PSI back down in the spring.

I've never had any problem with this method storing for 4 months or so...as others said, sometimes you fell some small bumps from the tires for the first few miles, but usually I take her on the highway for a couple of miles and the tires get back to round (they will get flat-spotted much worse if a car is sitting for say a year or more).

If you have a dry garage (i.e. no water/snow leaks) and access to an outlet, I'd just do that as opposed to paying $600 every year. Unless you need the garage space for another car you have...

For years I didn't use the stabil in the gas when storing my cars for the winter and never had any issue starting the car or with it's running. I started using it since it's so cheap I figured it can't hurt, and also because I had a mower with over a year old gas and added the stabil after the gas was already sitting for a year. Once that stuff got to the carb the mower cleared up and ran great. I figured it worked well enough that I'd use it in the porsche too being as I guess it would be possible to get gas that had some moisture in it or was a "bad batch of gas"- this would help in that situation when starting it up in the spring.

A last note- do these things to prep the car and don't go out and start it in the middle of the winter to just let it idle for 10 minutes. That creates moisture in the system that doesn't burn off until the car is fully warmed up. Being as you're storing the car I assume you'd want to keep it clean and off the salty roads, meaning a full 30 minute drive is out of the question. Just leave the car in the garage until you're ready to take it for a full run in the spring.

hawk911

I just take mine out once in a while during the winter months. I pray for the warmer day and go have fun. Now that my starter issues is cleared up, I'm really good to go.

Greg964

+1, my biggest problem is also the mice. In my last car stored in an unheated garage(1990 BMW 325is)I found mice nest/remnants underneath the hood insulation-what a mess.

buellrunner

Thanks for your suggestions everyone

Cheers,

Jack

rodtds

you can ship your car to california and I can drive it for you!

jimq

I usually just put the top back up around the end of December for the winter

stevepaa

I'll fly to you and drive your car to California.

TR6

Every fall I see these kinds of posts and they sound so depressing. Being without your sports cars for months. How do you do it? I just thank my lucky stars I live in Texas where ice and snow are so rare, its not worth even worrying about. I'll be driving my sports cars in January and February, and on the occasional really warm days, even with the top down (only on the TR6, of course).

C4Russ

It's really your preference. The nice thing about the car being off-site is the space you gain for other things. The bad thing is it's fun to look at them even when they are parked...