Storage Advice

[Jbbravin123]

Hey guys, I'm heading off to NROTC training in only a matter of weeks and then I'll begin my 4 years at Yale University as soon as it ends. Between school and my Naval commitment, the Camaro is going to be staying here in California and there will be long gaps (3-4 months) where I will not be home to wash/drive/keep it in top shape. Any recommendations for how to store the car and how often it should be driven while I'm away? (e.g. Car cover, have the family drive it every few weeks, etc?)

It's been a great Senior year and summer with my 2012 1LT/RS, and its been awesome to have such a solid online community to find answers to all my questions here on camaro5! I might not post a whole lot but I definitely do a lot of reading on here, so I can't thank you all enough.

[davista04]

full tank of premium, some sta-bil fuel treatment, put it on blocks to keep the tires from flat spotting and find a good place you can trust while its out of your presence

[United_727]

Rent a storage unit,and put a big padlock on it.

[pincoin]

Stabil and a good battery tender should do it. Dont start it unless it will get driven and really warmed up.

[OHIOSS]

I store my Camaro SS every winter for 5-6 months since I don't drive it in the winter.
I have done this for the past three years I have done none of the things I've seen others recommend. You will get flat spots on the tires but it goes away within a couple of miles of driving, my battery has never lost a charge and the car starts as if I drove it the day before. The only thing I do is fill it up b4 going into storage but that's because the fuel is usually cheaper than it is when I get it out of storage.

If you were going to store the car for maybe a year you would probably want to do what the others are recommending. I'm proof that you don't need to do a thing to the car for a 4 month period of storage.

Think about how long a car sits on a dealer lot from the time it's delivered to the time it gets sold. I've never seen a dealer put a car up on blocks, or put a battery tender on the battery and I doubt very much if they would put Stabil in any of their inventory.

Store it and forget about it, no need to go through all of the effort to jack it up to put it on blocks, or try to find power in your storage place for a battery tender.

Russ

[squat]

Originally Posted by davista04

full tank of premium, some sta-bil fuel treatment, put it on blocks to keep the tires from flat spotting and find a good place you can trust while its out of your presence

Wouldn't putting it up on blocks wreck the suspension?

[5cents]

Originally Posted by OHIOSS

Store it and forget about it, no need to go through all of the effort to jack it up to put it on blocks, or try to find power in your storage place for a battery tender.

I have to agree with Russ on this one. For 3 or 4 months of storage, you don't have to do anything. I store my Camaro evey winter for 4 - 5 months, only thing I do is top the gas tank off and add stabil. I store my Camaro in a non-heated, well insulated garage, but you live in California, so there's no need for a battery tender for that amount of time. Cold weather will drain a battery, warm won't. I've been told that covering a vehicle with a car cover can actually do more damage than good. Moisture can be trapped underneath, damaging not only the exterior, but the interior as well.

[midnighter]

Originally Posted by davista04

full tank of premium, some sta-bil fuel treatment, put it on blocks to keep the tires from flat spotting and find a good place you can trust while its out of your presence

FYI my tires never got flat spots when I stored it for a whole year w/o any blocks.

[Ozzie RS]

Stabil with the gas tank topped off (keep moisture from forming inside the gas tank)and change the oil, use Mobil One or some type of good synthetic oil. I am a firm believer of using nitrogen in my tires because it has almost zero moisture but the jury is still out on nitrogen. Also less fluctuations in pressure with temperature changes using nitrogen. Mainly moisture is the enemy inside of the tires. That is what Commercial and Military aircraft use for their tires.

[black79ta]

I agree for 4 months or so nothing is needed. Mine is at storage generallymost of the time, good thing about that is not much dust acumulates in storage. No on the car cover unless extremely dusty enviroment

[Caswell239]

Fuel is only considered to be good for 1-2 months. And after 2 months it's considered bad. So I use a fuel preservative like sta-bil if I store it for more then 2 months

[Baba]

I picked this up from the Saturn SKY forum when I owned my SKY Redline Roadster. I believe this came directly from Saturn.

I found this quite helpful. You can ignore the points made for the convertible. Pls. see the attached PDF document.