Tops off for venting? I thought all batteries made today are sealed. Can someone verify that the caps are removable?
As for suspensions, I can help. I did suspension/alignments for 10 years. The springs will last longer (it may take 25 years before your springs start to sag vs. 15 years without doing it) if you jack up the car and remove most of the weight from it, as they will remain unloaded for that portion of the year. However, you must jack it up such that the springs are unloaded...you can't jack under the lower control arm and get any benefit from it. In addition, if you jack the car up, the frame will flex ever so slightly. Because of this, it is recommended to "crack" the doors slightly so that they are not in a "bind" condition for 6 months of winter. When I say "crack", I mean just about 1/4"....in other words, they still should not open when you pull on them....the door mechanism has like a 2-position lock. Now you're probably thinking..."but if I crack the doors, my dome light (and potentially courtesy lights) will be on and drain the battery". Read the next paragraph to address this.
As for the battery, there are several schools of thought. In the old days, guys removed the battery because when they stored their car with the doors cracked, it would drain the battery. They removed the battery so they could more easily keep it on a trickle charger or charge it periodically on a bench rather than draping cables over the header panel on the car. If you can figure out a way to keep any electrical drain from the battery while the doors are cracked, I'd recommend leaving the battery in the car and simply starting the car (while it's jacked up on stands) about once per month, letting the engine run, let it warm up, shift carefully through the gears and let the rear tires spin, manually spin the front tires, operate all the dash controls such as flapper valves for the AC system, emergency brake cable, etc....then shut it down for another month. Here is a web site with more info....note they say EITHER remove the battery or keep it charged. I vote for keeping it charged....it's not that much work. Running the engine for 10 minutes once per month will do this. Here is more info:
http://www.inct.net/~autotips/battstor.htm
One other suggestion. Air conditioners have an additive in the refrigerant that lubricates the seals in the A/C system. If you don't use your A/C all winter, this lubricant never circulates, and the seals will dry out prematurely. It doesn't happen fast, but nonetheless it happens. As a result, you should run the A/C each month for 1-2 minutes when you start the car. Note that you don't have to have the A/C control on "COLD" for this to work, you simply must have the A/C compressor running. As a matter of fact, when you use the defrost cycle in the winter in most newer cars, it automatically turns the A/C unit on...which accomplishes the same purpose.
I'm tired of typing...hope this helps.
Dave
