2017 Challenger R/T Shaker, 5.7, six speed, 23,400 miles. Erie, PA, which means the car goes in the garage the week the city puts the brine trucks out and comes out in april, and in between we get somewhere around a hundred inches of lake effect. the brine went down friday. so here i am.
this is my fourth winter putting it away and every year i read something that says the opposite of what i did last year. so i am writing down what i do and you all can tell me which parts are folklore.
what i have done every year: fill the tank with 93, pour in Sta-Bil, drive it ten miles so it gets through the lines. change the oil. wash it, dry it, park it on carpet scraps. bump the tires to 45. tender on the battery. cover on. and then every two weeks or so i go out, start it, let it idle until the fan kicks on, and shut it off.
two things i am unsure about. a guy at the parts store said idling it every two weeks is the worst thing i could do. and the garage is detached and not heated, and last year in february it hit minus 4 in there. is that hurting anything?
parts store guy is right, for once. i am a Mopar tech in Macomb County, nineteen years, and i see the spring results of the every-two-weeks crowd.
a cold start makes water. combustion puts it in the crankcase and the exhaust, and it only leaves when the oil and the whole exhaust get hot and stay hot. idling in a minus four garage until the fan comes on does not get the mufflers anywhere near that. so you are making water twenty times a winter and leaving it in the oil and the cans. i have pulled valve covers in april with mayonnaise under the fill cap on cars that "got started every week."
either drive it twenty minutes at real road speed, which you cannot do on brine, or do not start it at all. not starting it is fine. the 5.7 does not care. the fresh oil you put in will still be fresh in april.
battery. your Challenger's battery is in the trunk, under the floor on the passenger side, but you do not need to dig for it. there are remote jump posts under the hood by the passenger strut tower and a tender clamps right on them. the car pulls a small parasitic draw all the time with the modules asleep, maybe 30 to 50 milliamps. that kills a battery in about six to eight weeks by itself. tender is correct, keep doing it.
and while it is parked, run your VIN on nhtsa.gov for open recalls. if anything is open, winter is when the dealer has a slow schedule and you are not missing a car you are not driving anyway.
or move to Vegas and drive the thing. 141,000 on my SRT8. no tender, no cover, no carpet scraps.
ok i will be useful. the 45 psi thing is fine but it is overkill on a car parked five months on concrete with modern radials. flat spots from storage mostly roll out in the first ten miles anyway. the tires that do not recover are the ones that sit on a slab for years at 20 psi.
mice. nobody said mice yet. that garage of yours is the warmest thing in the neighborhood to a field mouse and the engine bay is a hotel.
my Chevelle sits in a shed in Lincoln and the first winter i lost the heater core hose insulation and found a nest in the air cleaner that had dog food in it. i do not own a dog. somebody down the street does.
what works for me: steel wool loosely in the tailpipe tips, and a big note taped to the steering wheel that says STEEL WOOL so i do not start it in april with them still in there. traps along the walls, the old snap kind, checked every couple of weeks. the dryer sheets and peppermint oil are for making the garage smell nice. the mice do not read the label.
the cold itself does not hurt the car. minus four in a dry garage is easier on it than 35 and humid.
agree with reggie on not starting it. i have stored a 1970 Road Runner in a pole barn outside Kokomo for 31 winters and the only years i had a problem were the two i let my son "go turn it over for you."
one thing about the fuel. 93 with stabilizer is fine for five months. if you can find ethanol free in your area for the last fill it is better yet, the alcohol pulls water out of the air in a half empty tank. fill it to the top either way, a full tank has less air in it to breathe through the vent.
and on the cover. make sure it is the breathable kind and the car is bone dry under it. a plastic tarp over a damp car in an unheated garage is how you get mildew on a black interior. ask me how i know, 1987.
update for anybody finding this later. took the advice, mostly.
it is not getting started. i taped a note to the wheel that says DO NOT and my wife thinks it is very funny. tender is on the underhood jump posts, which i did not know existed until reggie said so. four years of opening the trunk and lifting the floor. steel wool in both tips, two snap traps behind the tool chest, cover is the breathable one already.
i also ran the VIN on the nhtsa site and there was nothing open, which was a relief, i half expected an airbag letter. timing worked out. we got 22 inches the weekend after i finished, and the plow guy buried the garage door to the handle.
reading this from Tucson in a t-shirt with the windows down on a monday. i feel for you guys, honestly. it was 71 today.
for the record the desert has its own version of this. june through september the problem is the sun eating the dash and the rubber, and a battery here lasts maybe three years before the heat cooks it. nobody gets a free ride.
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