This is my first winter in Chicago with a Boxster. Any recommendations on the importance of a trickle charger? My power plug in seems to be under the dash on the passenger side. Do you just plug the trickle charger in and that's it? How does it work?

I saw some on Amazon. Any recommendations on the best trickle charger out there?

Besides the trickle charger, any other issue with not driving the car in the winter months? How do you other snowbirds handle your boxsters in winter?

Thanks in advance.

 

Highly important especially for long term "storage" in cold climates. The car drains the battery quite a bit especially after 2 weeks of no use. I use the Porsche ChargeOMat (the one you plug into the cigarette lighter) on my Cayman S and it works great.

Not sure what year your Boxster is, but I know the ChargeOMat works well on 2006 and later Caymans. Otherwise, the Battery Tender (I have one for my Ford GT that's custom set up for it) and even a battery maintainer from Harbor Freight (what I use on my motorcycle) work great.

 

If you lock your car you may get 3 weeks to be safe. I have both the porsche charger and 12v car charger. I use the car charger more since it tells me the voltage before charging and when i'm at 12 volts i just top off the batery.

The battery draining and inaccurate speedo are the two things i hate about porsches.

 

We use the Porsche trickle charger, perfect for maintaining battery charge on vehicles left idle for extended periods. Also over inflate the tires a bit if it's not going to be sitting for more then a few weeks.

 

i take the negative lead off and leave it

 

Thanks, ECS. I just bought it from your company. Your price looked better than the Porsche website.

Can you tell how long the cord is? Also, do you feed the cord through the window? How do most people send it through the car to plug into my wall?

 

Porsche's manual recommends how much to inflate tires (recollection is 45 psi). I used to do this and then move the car slightly every 2 to 3 weeks to move away from the contact area. This became all but impossible as I went to storing two cars on lifts, so I now use Tire Cradles for all four sports cars I store in the winter and have used them for 4 years.

Our local Porsche dealer sells these as does the local exotic car dealer. I know a number of people who have been using them for years, with no flat spot issues.

 

Austin Tatious Thank you for the support, sorry about the impromptu response for some reason I missed this under my notifications. Not postive on the length but I know there pretty long, I will work on getting you an answer. If it's inside I would go through the window, you can go through the door just be careful when closing not to pinch / cut the cord.

 

couple other things...
keep the hood/trunk/doors ajar so the weather strips are pressed during storage - ideally, put some protectant on them to keep them from drying out. use couple pieces of foil to cover your exhaust tips so tiny creatures don't make a nest in them during winter. Fill up the gas tank, put car in gear v. ebrake. Put a check list on the steer wheel, seat or ignition key hole to remind yourself to un-do all the winterizing things before you start the car. E.g., unhook the batt charger (if it's connected directly to battery), uncover the exhaust, etc.
A lot of things happen in 4 mos and it's very easy to forget/overlook the little things.

BTW, keep the charger off the floor...water/electricity don't mix too well...and there may be times when you have water on the garage floor.

 

lithium1330 That's some great advice !! I would also consider putting some foam pads around the wiper blades. How long will it be storage for ?

 

Sadly, I have to store my Boxster in a storage unit... so, no heat, no electricity. My routine:

-Fill with gas
-Get engine good and hot, change oil and filter
-Wash & wax, and clean the wheels
-Pump up tires to 45 psi
-Drive to the storage facility
-Park it, no emergency brake, not in gear (use chocks on the wheels)
-(This way I can move the car to prevent flat spotting without powering anything up and without having to open the doors)
-Pull the battery, disconnecting negative cable first
-Close frunk hood, but don't latch it (this is largely meaningless, as I can get into it via the JNC, but I'm a bit paranoid) :-)
-Plug cable with male cigarette lighter plugs on both ends into outlet; run wire under passenger's door (there's a gap in the weather stripping to help facilitate this)
-Use masking tape on all openings - grille, exhaust, etc.
-Put 2 large dessicant paks in the interior, 1 in the frunk, 1 in the trunk
-Put cover on
-Put out mouse traps (a few) and mouse / rat bait just in case they somehow get into the storage locker

I can use my "Jump N Carry" to power up the car if I need to get into the interior (the JNC has a 12v cigarette lighter type outlet on it). (If you're unsure what I'm referring to, Google it or go to Amazon and search for Jump N Carry 660 - that's the model I have.)

I pull the wheel chocks every couple of weeks and roll the car 8-10"

The battery (NOT resting on the garage floor - it's on a couple of 2x4's) is on a battery tender for the winter.

Of course I check on the car every 3-4 days - can't help myself!!!

That's about it. Good luck.

 

I read all this and I think back to living in heavy winter snow areas in the 60s and we used to just DRIVE cars like this! You have no idea what FUN it is to learn the art of driving on ice with 6" of fresh snow on top with a rear engined car! Get good at this and high speed sweepers on a race track in the rain are a breeze. Really.

I will admit that the learning process involved a couple of trips to the body shop... and I hate to imagine what those cars looked like after a few winters. I recall new Fords had their lower panels completely rusted out within their first winter! I think a fair amount of our European brothers & sisters might use these cars in winter and enjoy these year around. P cars can be very good snow cars.

Last comment: I have used quality battery maintainers like our above sponsor sells for many years. Long use result in overcharging. Every once in a while it is good to check the battery directly to make sure [I know they aren't supposed to do this but my GT2 is living proof it can happen]. FYI, with some later cars I run a Durametric check to make positive all is well and I then disconnect the battery for long storage. You can't believe how long a fully disconnected battery holds a good charge. Depending on model/year, you have to drive a bit for the ECU to adjust to your style. It also requires about 70 [?] miles before the codes will show correctly so you can't drive out of unconnected storage right over to an emissions inspection.

These later cars have pretty good rust protection. I think a lot of people are missing some wonderful driving by storing their cars all winter.
JR

 

nice

 

You guys are great! Good info.

ECS--thanks! I got your package. I highly recommend your company. I'm very pleased.

I plugged the charger into my cigarette lighter, ran the wire through the window, and the cord is elevated all the way to the wall socket (this is inside my garage of my house). The distance is considerable, and the cord just barely reached the wall socket.

I set the charger all the way to the right to match the car icon. The manual talks about a certain battery voltage. My car is a Boxster. I assume that I have the correct voltage.

Thanks, all.

 

This is a little late to the OP but the Porsche charger is made by CTEC. You can get the same charger for less, or a better one, from Amazon, minus the Porsche sticker: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=pd_sl_1m...k=ctec+charger

They are great chargers, by the way.