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Battery and winter storage.

Discussion in 'Technical Q&A' started by johnk..., Apr 8, 2015.

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  1. johnk...

    johnk... F1 World Champ
    Owner

    Jun 11, 2004
    11,278
    CT
    Full Name:
    John Kreskovsky
    #1 johnk..., Apr 8, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    I read a lot here about what to do for your battery during winter storage. I have been storing various cars for 6 months of the year for the last 30 years. I have never used a battery tender or charger of any type. I park the car, disconnect the battery and forget it.

    This morning I went out to the garages and check the battery voltages in my 355 and 308. The 355 battery read 12.63 V or about 90% of fully charged. I don't know how old the 355 battery, but I have owned the car for 2 years. The 308 batter read 12.26V or about 60% of fully charged. Still well in the green and should be more than sufficient to start the car. The battery in the 308 is now 14 years old. It's Sears Die Hard.

    Considering the hard winter we have had in the northeast, CT in particular, I'm please with the data and it is what I have come to expect. Disconnect the battery and forget it works fine for me.
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  2. f355spider

    f355spider F1 World Champ
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    May 29, 2001
    18,055
    USA
    #2 f355spider, Apr 8, 2015
    That certainly works fine. The reason is you have a set schedule of down time, that is predictable and pre-planned. For many of us, we cannot plan for specific down times. I might not drive my car for up to 3 weeks at a time in winter, and repeatedly starting the car with a partially depleted battery is not ideal for long life. Plus disconnecting the battery and losing the clock and radio settings is inconvenient if performed on more than an annual basis. Thus the battery tender is the ideal solution for the majority of us.
     
  3. Mr. V

    Mr. V Formula 3

    Oct 23, 2004
    1,247
    Portland, Oregon
    #3 Mr. V, Apr 8, 2015
    I use a CTEK and have no worries.

    I drive my Ferrari year round, when the weather is worthy, and want a fully charged battery ready to go at all times.

    Here in Portland we are lucky in that it rarely snows, so we usually have good weather all year long, i.e. occasional clear days even in January, so there is no need to put it in hibernation til the spring thaw.
     
  4. finnerty

    finnerty F1 World Champ

    May 18, 2004
    10,406
    #4 finnerty, Apr 9, 2015
    Disconnecting the battery is a fine alternative for pre-360/456 Ferraris, and other makes of the associated MY before the "intelligent" ECU. But, for those cars, disconnecting the battery erases a lot of learned info in the ECU ---- and, it takes a lot of drive cycles (with poor running along the way) to get those parameters re-established. So, for those later cars, it is not such an elegant solution --- keeping the battery connected and charged is preferable.
     
  5. abstamaria

    abstamaria F1 Rookie

    Feb 11, 2006
    2,668
    Full Name:
    Andres
    #5 abstamaria, Apr 9, 2015
    The 458 manual says that if you haven't driven the car in a week, connect the supplied battery charger (a CTEK).
     
  6. finnerty

    finnerty F1 World Champ

    May 18, 2004
    10,406
    #6 finnerty, Apr 9, 2015
    Yepper.

    A lot of modern ECUs (like the 458's) don't have the functionality of a "sleep" mode. So, even with the car not running, the ECU draws quite a bit of standby power. The Lotus Esprit V8 is another example of this ---- that car will draw a healthy, fully charged battery down to well below 11 V after sitting for about 2 weeks..... if not on a tender.
     

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