[Chet for short]

Any general tips for winter storage? Where is the preferred location for the battery tender connection - under the hood on the jump posts?

[RockCrusher]

From my M2 owners manual:

Long stationary periods

General information

The vehicle battery permits stationary periods of approx. 6 weeks. If the vehicle is stationary for a longer period, charge the vehicle battery every 6 weeks to avoid excessive discharge.

Low battery charge

If the battery charge is very low, the vehicle battery is automatically disconnected from the vehicle electrical system.

And there's this:

Taking the vehicle out of service

When the vehicle is shut down for longer than three months, special measures must be taken. For more information, contact an authorized service center or another qualified service center or repair shop.

General storage advice is to put the car away with fresh oil in the engine, full tank of fuel. Ethanol free or E10 is fine.

(A fuel stability additive test found the test engine fueled with just pump 87 (E10 IIRC) started with the least amount of effort. Test engines filled with 87 and a proper amount of fuel additive fared worse.)

As an aside a family member's vehicle (Infiniti EX35) was parked for 6 months. With her permission I drove it and all was fine except the engine was a dog. But the engine ran well enough for my needs. And did not manifest any other issues. I drove the vehicle enough it needed fueling and I filled it up with Shell V-Power (same fuel the family member used). With fresh fuel the engine was no longer a dog.

Tire pressures should be raised to "shipping" pressure. Which is close to if not at what is given as the max pressure on side wall. (This to prevent flat spotting.) 'course, tire pressures must be adjusted before the car is put back into service.

Ideally the car should be parked in a garage with no junk. Mice love junk along the floor of the garage. When I put my Dodge Scat Pack up for the winter -- and the same will be the case for my M2 -- the garage is bare of stuff. For the Dodge I put out baited spring mouse traps. Over two winters (2020, 2021) not one mouse was caught. No traps were even tripped.

In my case I was able to use the Scat Pack during the winter when weather and road conditions permitted. So it would sit a few days or more then the roads would become clear (dry) and the temperature above freezing -- car came with high performance summer tires -- and I drove the car and drove it enough to get engine up to temperature -- including the oil temperature -- oil temperature could be displayed on the dash. Oh, because I was able to drive the car I left the tires at the recommended inflation pressure, IIRC 32psi. But pressures were set to account for temperatures falling to below 32psi down to even 0F. (Garage was detached and unheated.)

But see what you learn from the dealer.

[Tag]

Originally Posted by Chet for short

Any general tips for winter storage? Where is the preferred location for the battery tender connection - under the hood on the jump posts?

...

[Chet for short]

Also from the manual:

Only connect battery chargers for the vehicle battery to the jump-start terminals in the engine compartment.

[Chet for short]

Originally Posted by Tag

...

Thanks for the details!

[KCuv]

Good info.
All of my bikes at home I throw the trickle charger n every couple weeks for a day or so and never had an issue.

This year I'll be storing the car NOT at my house...are any of the trickle chargers good to go to just leave ON for 5 or so months? Do they kind of self regulate well enough to where theres no harm done that way?

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by KCuv

This year I'll be storing the car NOT at my house...are any of the trickle chargers good to go to just leave ON for 5 or so months? Do they kind of self regulate well enough to where theres no harm done that way?

The key thing is to use a smart battery maintainer that goes through a proper storage cycle, not a constant voltage trickle charger, as long term use of them will damage the battery. BMW in their charging SIB also specify a maximum charging voltage of 14.8V, the CTEK unit I use has a maximum of 14.4V and is safe for continuous storage use.

[KCuv]

Originally Posted by aerobod

The key thing is to use a smart battery maintainer that goes through a proper storage cycle, not a constant voltage trickle charger, as long term use of them will damage the battery. BMW in their charging SIB also specify a maximum charging voltage of 14.8V, the CTEK unit I use has a maximum of 14.4V and is safe for continuous storage use.

Kinda what I had figured. Thanks- I am good to go then- what about car covers- anyone find a reasonably priced car-specific one yet?

[Tag]

Originally Posted by KCuv

Good info.
All of my bikes at home I throw the trickle charger n every couple weeks for a day or so and never had an issue.

This year I'll be storing the car NOT at my house...are any of the trickle chargers good to go to just leave ON for 5 or so months? Do they kind of self regulate well enough to where theres no harm done that way?

Originally Posted by aerobod

The key thing is to use a smart battery maintainer that goes through a proper storage cycle, not a constant voltage trickle charger, as long term use of them will damage the battery. BMW in their charging SIB also specify a maximum charging voltage of 14.8V, the CTEK unit I use has a maximum of 14.4V and is safe for continuous storage use.

+1

Being that CTEK are 'smart chargers' you can leave them plugged-in in indefinitely because they go through multiple charging steps and constantly monitor the battery and adjust the charging so that it doesn't harm it. I've used CTEK chargers for years, they drastically extend the lifespan of your car battery.

[RandomBro]

Can yall throw up some product links for referenced chargers that you are using or will be using for your G87s? Please and thank you.

[Chet for short]

Originally Posted by RandomBro

Can yall throw up some product links for referenced chargers that you are using or will be using for your G87s? Please and thank you.

I've used the Battery Tender brand for years on powersports stuff. Here is a url for a review by Autoweek:
https://www.autoweek.com/gear/g45550...tainers-tested

[Ravenseal]

Here is what I used last winter with my M240i. It worked well and seems to be self regulating. Will be re-using it with my M2.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[aerobod]

I generally use this charger for winter storage, as it is light enough to hang from it's cord when plugged in to the power socket I have in the ceiling in the centre of the garage: https://smartercharger.ca/collection...ts/ctek-us-0-8

For a short term boost, I use one of these: https://no.co/genius10

[Albator_IIII]

Originally Posted by aerobod

The key thing is to use a smart battery maintainer that goes through a proper storage cycle, not a constant voltage trickle charger, as long term use of them will damage the battery. BMW in their charging SIB also specify a maximum charging voltage of 14.8V, the CTEK unit I use has a maximum of 14.4V and is safe for continuous storage use.

So AGM mode I assume?

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by Albator_IIII

So AGM mode I assume?

Yes

[Squidget]

Originally Posted by aerobod

I generally use this charger for winter storage, as it is light enough to hang from it's cord when plugged in to the power socket I have in the ceiling in the centre of the garage: https://smartercharger.ca/collection...ts/ctek-us-0-8

For whatever dumb reason, that direct link now kicks me to the smartercharger home page. This worked tho, replacing .ca with .com:

https://smartercharger.com/collectio...ts/ctek-us-0-8

(probably because I'm in the US) :shrug:

[Albator_IIII]

Speaking of batteries, this is my first AGM battery. On my other vehicles I change the battery every 5 years to avoid any systems potentially starving of any power creating a cascade of failures.

Should I do the the same with this AGM battery? The car will see low miles and be stored hooked up to a CTEK MXS 5.0 all winters.

[aerobod]

Originally Posted by Albator_IIII

Speaking of batteries, this is my first AGM battery. On my other vehicles I change the battery every 5 years to avoid any systems potentially starving of any power creating a cascade of failures.

Should I do the the same with this AGM battery? The car will see low miles and be stored hooked up to a CYTEK MXS 5.0 all winters.

As long as it hasn't been fully flattened at any point, in the cooler temps typically seen in Canada you can easily get longer than that from an AGM battery. Our 2017 M240i at 6 years on the original AGM battery still started fine in the coldest winter weather.