Quote:
|
BAT T E R Y: Disconnect battery cables and remove the battery for storage inside, but not on a cement floor. You will find a dead battery in the spring if you store it on cement. Very low temperatures also destroy batteries. If you take the car out of storage. Use a battery tender not a trickle charger to maintain the battery.
|
In the op's case it may be moot because he mentioned that he thought the battery might already be shot, but the advice above is off the mark.
- Disconnecting the battery is unnecessary if the car can be stored with a float charger like "Battery Tender" attached
- Storing a modern battery on a concrete floor isn't a problem. That's an old wive's tale that hasn't been true for almost 20 years - certainly since they've been using polypropylene cases.
- Cold weather is not a problem for a charged battery. Electrolyte in a fully charged battery won't freeze until about -60 degrees F. Another reason to keep the battery on a float charger.
- If you can't leave the car plugged in or don't want to, it's reasonable to pull the battery and store it somewhere on a float charger, or to just pull the battery and scrap it, accepting its replacement at the end of a year of car storage as part of the cost.
The thing that causes the demise of any lead-acid battery is primarily sulfation---lead sulfate bridging of the plates causing internal shorts, higher resistance, inability to take a charge and an increased rate of self-discharge. The thing in turn that causes sulfation primarily is partial discharge or repeated charge/discharge cycles. Sulfation begins anywhere less that a full charge, but is particularly enhanced by a charge state less than 80%. Store your car for the winter without a float charger on the battery, even if you go to the unnecessary step of disconnecting it or removing it from the car, and you are shortening its lifespan to a huge degree.