Getting ready for winter - what to know and do?

SAC#1 - Wash it, wax it, air up the tires and wait for the next beautiful day with dry clean roads to drive it. Don't forget your regular maintenance schedule for oil changes and the like...

Next!

 

I do this every year in MN.

If you are looking for full shutdown couple months of storage

Wash and clean
fresh oil
full tank of gas with proper amount of fuel stabilizer
battery tender
cover exhaust inlets (rodents)
count down the days


Only run it if you can get everything uo to full operating temp

 

It does not really get that cold all winter in Dallas...there are many nice driving days in the winter here.

 

Ken…I don't have a Ferrari (yet!) but my poor Porsche lives outside all year round here in DFW.

From my reading and talking with folks here, I think a major concern is what kind of tires you have (mine are summer performance), since they degrade in performance in the 40 - 50 F range (depending on who you talk to), and if you do drive, make sure you let the tires warm up before going wacky on the back roads of north Texas. As for me, even with this weather, as long as dry, I like still taking the Porker out on our great back roads for my own sanity, but since the weather cooled down, I'm a bit less F1 and a tad more gran tourismo, keeping the speed and RPM down.

Weather.com extended forecast says it'll be in mid-upper 60's the mid-end of next week, a perfect excuse to sneak away from the office next week & enjoy your awesome car…T

 

Hey Ken?

It's a car. Park it in the garage. When the sun is shining and it's warm and dry in January, take it for a drive. When there's ice and crud on the roads, leave it parked.

This is Texas, it really is that simple.

 

+1

 

I'd qualify that by saying if there is ice & crud on the roads, keep anything parked! Ferrari or not. It does not snow much down here, but when it does, it's bumper cars out there!
…T

 

I will confess that I once drove my Testarossa on fresh snow, because my Porsche was in the shop and the ZR-1 Corvette had a flat tire.

 

dallasite here, I just park it, hook up battery maintainer, and cover it...

If you haven't had a battery maintainer installed, get one. that to me is the most important thing for winter storage...

 

At the risk of committing Ferrari heresy, I'm going to recommend the following. Buy this cheapie battery maintainer from Wally World. Use the cigarette lighter adapter. Plug it in to the lighter socket when you want to use it, unplug it when you don't. I've been using something similar for years on my car and it works great. Nothing to install.

Stanley 1.5-amp Battery Charger - Walmart.com

 

Hey Ken?

This was the morning of the last Toy Run. It's a car, treat it like one
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Its that a pick ax & a post hole digger? Wow, by DFW standards, you're more prepared for frozen precip than half the municipalities around here. ...T

 

What ferrari model do you have? It's Not easy getting to my battery on my F430.. so I installed the battery connectors and then just plug into that. That is the part that is installed. .

 

Kind of funny that you guys are in Dallas, with the weather this week.
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Also don't worry it will be back in the 70s within a couple of weeks the way the weather changes around here