My wife has a 2007 CTS which is in great shape mechanically and otherwise, and has about 35,000 miles on it with all but about 500 miles occurring in Florida. We plan to leave it parked in our co-op’s outdoor parking lot in Nyack, NY, which is about 25 miles north of NYC, for 8-9 months. It gets cold (very cold) there and it snows, - which is why we now reside in Florida for most of the year). What measures should we take to maintain its condition and insure that it starts up next Spring?
The ice and snow will melt by the time you ge back to it; I wouldn’t worry about that. I would put a gasoline stabilizer in the tank before you leave. At your last fill-up before departure, add stabilizer for a full tank and then fill it. When you park the car, the gas will be stabilized for the winter. I would also remove the battery and put it on a trickle charge in a utility room or in you co-op unit if no utility space is available. If it has been a while since the oil was changed, do that before you leave too.
Be forewarned that removing the battery may cause problems with computers/modules when the vehicle is put back into service.
You can read about it here. http://www.aa1car.com/library/battery_disconnect_problems.htm
It would be better not to remove the battery and place the trickle charger under the hood while the battery is still connected.
Tester
I thought about the trickle charger with the battery still in the cr, but that will be at least difficult to do if not impossible with the car on an open parking lot. Even if it can be parked next to a building, the likelihood of it remaining plugged in for 9 months seems low.
Pay a neighbor to start the car once every two weeks and let it idle for 10-15 minutes to keep the battery charged.
Otherwise the battery will die while you’re gone and you may have the problems Tester mentioned above caused by loss of battery power.