|
Some things to think about with regard to removing the battery:
Once you have pulled the battery out, you won't have a way to lock the doors. Or unlock the doors. Or release the trunk lid (unless you want to climb through the rear seat which is a huge pain).
You may want to do things in this order:
- Pop the hood (don't open it, just leave it popped)
- Release the trunk lid
- Lock the doors and close them (if you don't close them with the battery connected, the windows won't roll back up after the door is closed)
- Remove the battery
- Bring the trunk lid down but don't latch it
Here's what this buys you:
- When you return in the spring, you have access to the trunk to install the battery
- If the trunk gets closed for some reason, you can open the hood, connect jumper cables to the terminal pins, and you'll be able to unlock the doors and open the trunk
The only other thing to be sure you do is over-inflate the tires. I put mine to anywhere between 42 and 45 psi and just leave it for the winter. This helps keep flat spots from forming while it sits, but it also ensures you'll have good pressure in the tires when you bring it out so driving it initially isn't as hard on them. Any flat spots that do form will go away on their own pretty quickly anyhow.
Keep your battery connected to a tender when you get it home. Make sure it's a decent one that's designed to handle AGM batteries and keep the battery itself off of concrete. The old guidance used to be to protect the battery, but now it's more about protecting the concrete (although a battery -could- still discharge because it's sitting directly on concrete). A small rubber mat under it is probably best to protect the battery and the floor.
Your car may need to "re-learn" various things when you re-connect the battery in the spring, so be ready for it to drive a run a little weird for a little while. And you may have to re-index the windows (instructions in the manual).
|