3 Months storage prep?

[pezho405]

Thank you to everyone for the tips!

Originally Posted by blktoptrvl

...
I also would not bother with anything else except making sure the windows are closed so no widows or recluses climb in while you are away.

Man im afraid of spiders! good tip!, i should also probably turn on recirculate so it closes the flap and turn the car off so nothing can get through there as well.

[Bayerische E53]

^I was about to chime in with the recirculate issue.

You generally shouldn't need to trickle charge your battery for 3 months. However, it might still flatten out a bit depending on age. There are two ways around this - you can manually lock your doors (meaning the alarm won't be on and drawing power - though this doesn't guarantee that the battery won't go flat) or you can use an automatic trickle charger (these sorts of trickle chargers shut themselves off once a certain voltage is reached in the battery, preventing over-charging). Regardless, you do NOT want to disconnect your battery.

Why don't you want to disconnect your battery? Well, your trunk is electrical. Sure, you can open the top portion of the hatch via the manual pull located in the trunk, but what about the bottom portion? IIRC, the bottom portion can only be manually unlocked by removing the black trim and getting to the latch with a pick. And if you can't get the bottom open, getting at the battery to re-connect it will be a royal PITA. Do you really want to haul the spar tire out of the well and over the lower hatch? Leave your battery connected and just reverse your car into the parking spot. If the battery dies, you can manually unlock the driver's door, open the hood, and pull up to the garage with another car for a jump-start. Much simpler and not back-breaking.

Flat spots also shouldn't be an issue.

Here's what I would do if I decided against an automatically controlled trickle charger:

***Fill your tires to 45psi. If you don't have an air pump in your garage, fill your tires before you pump fuel as starting your car several times will decrease your storage fuel load. Read below for the reasoning to this statement. If you have an air pump in your garage, fill your tires to 45psi after completing all the following steps.

1. Go to fuel station with as little fuel in your tank as possible. Park at the pump and, before pumping fuel, put enough StaBil in your tank to treat 26-27 gallons (you may need a bit more than one bottle of Stabil as one bottle may not be able to treat all 26-27 gallons of fuel the tank holds - yes, the tank holds 26-27 gallons ... ask me how I know). Fill the tank with as much fuel as possible. Fill it all the way up to the neck (you want as little air space as possible - less air space = less air = less condensation buildup).

2. On the way back to your garage, make some back and forth movements with the car to stir the contents of the fuel tank.

3. Set A/C to recirculate at some point before getting to your garage or at least before you turn the car off (you want to use as little battery power as possible. Put another way, you want to make sure your battery is as fully charged as possible). Don't turn the car off before setting the A/C to recirculate.

***Perform steps #4-7 as quickly as possible as you will be using battery power during this time

4. Turn off car, get out, make sure all doors are fully closed, and lock the car with your alarm (this step ensures that the gas cap flap is secured via the automatically deploying locking pin).

5. Unlock only the front driver's-side door by pressing only once on your key's unlock button. This should ensure that only the driver's side door is unlocked, leaving the remaining 3 passenger doors, trunk, and the gas cap flap locking pin LOCKED.

6. Put your key in your pocket.

7. Open driver's door, get in the driver's seat, DO NOT SHUT THE DOOR, and manually shut off the interior lights by pressing the center button on the front dome light. DO NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR AND CLOSE THE DOOR YET (because if you have to open it again, your dome lights will turn back on and use battery power).

7. Make certain the key is in your pocket.

8. Check AGAIN to make certain that the key is in your pocket.

9. Get out of the car, making sure the key is still in your pocket but DO NOT close the door yet.

10. Walk around the car and check to make sure that the remaining three doors, trunk, and gas cap flap are still locked.

11. Walk back to the driver's door and, making sure the key is still in your pocket, push the lock pin down and finally close the door. At this point, all doors should be locked and your interior dome lights should be off.

There you go - your car is completely locked without the alarm and without having used any interior lights to drain battery power.

When you come back to your car, you can unlock the front door with your key via the key barrel. If it doesn't start, you're in luck because your car is backed into the garage. Simply pop your hood and jump start it.

For what it's worth, the biggest reason why jack stands are handy is not necessarily because of flat spots (at least for short-term storage). For short-term storage, the biggest benefit to jack stands is that, by taking the wheels off the ground, you take the load off of your bushings and balljoints. While the balljoints won't deform, the bushings can. You can adopt little tricks to prevent tire flat-spotting during short-term storage (i.e. over-inflation, soft surfaces, etc.) but you can't do the same for your bushings.

Good luck!

[pezho405]

Bayerische E53- so i tried doing the door lock thing and it didnt work out becaus ethe pin on the drivers door wouldnt push down all the way and would spring right back up, i guess sort of a saftey feature.

What i ended up doing was just locking it through they key and pressing lock one more time so that the interior motion alarm was disabled.

And unplugged all accesories, such as my dashcam.

[4.8isX5]

@pezho

Never knew that... so if you lock it with bmw logo button, then press ONE more time after locked it disables interior motion?

Never heard of that before, just learned something new today if it is true.. On my audi there is a button on the B-pillar, i usually leave it off during the summer cause if my windows are cracked and its real windy it sets off the alarm lol.

[bcredliner]

Are you parking your X in your garage, a public place, at the airport--where?

[Bayerische E53]

Originally Posted by pezho405

Bayerische E53- so i tried doing the door lock thing and it didnt work out becaus ethe pin on the drivers door wouldnt push down all the way and would spring right back up, i guess sort of a saftey feature.

What i ended up doing was just locking it through they key and pressing lock one more time so that the interior motion alarm was disabled.

And unplugged all accesories, such as my dashcam.

Interesting. I wonder if you might have something of a jam going on in there. I don't think that's ever happened to me.

Well, anyways, I hope the battery holds up well and that you have a great trip!

Originally Posted by 4.8isX5

@pezho

Never knew that... so if you lock it with bmw logo button, then press ONE more time after locked it disables interior motion?

Never heard of that before, just learned something new today if it is true.. On my audi there is a button on the B-pillar, i usually leave it off during the summer cause if my windows are cracked and its real windy it sets off the alarm lol.

Correct. If you press the BMW logo a second time, it disables the motion sensor. However, it does not disable the alarm itself which still draws power.

[ake53]

Have fun in Russia.... I'm becoming like you now, bored of my X, its heavy and weak (3.0)... I want a e46 m3 or something close to that now.