On the emerg brake my suggestion ... "If you don't use it, don't engage it"
stands.  Winter stored or otherwise.  I wasn't suggesting leaving it engaged
over the winter...you're not using it.

As I mentioned earlier, our winters are very cold, very long and very salty.
      My daily driver is a 21 year old VW ... and not rusty.  The emergency
brake works too :-)  I'm feeling reasonably qualified on the winter storage
issues.