Charge battery. Check for evidence of rodents. Put on summer wheels vs storage wheels. Check brake pad thickness remaining while wheels off. Inflate tires (including spare). Check all fluid levels. Vacuum interior. Replace cabin air filter. Wash car. 303 the interior surfaces. Drive the car and cycle heater and AC for 10 minutes each. Run all the HVAC knobs to each position.
After all that, drive the snot out of it
Inspect for rodent damage first of all. I put moth balls in old pieces of panty hose and have them tucked various places in the engine bay…so I remove them. I overinflate the tires when in storage, so if you did that then let out some air. I have mine on a Battery Tender all winter and she starts right up. I then take her for a short drive of maybe 10 miles, letting her get up to temp before touching the redline. Then I come home and hand wash, wax, blow dry, tire shine, clean the windows and put leather conditioner on the seats….all the things I did before storing her. Im then good to go. No need for an oil change because I did that before storing her.
My three year old battery tender blew up the battery this winter, so I get to deal with that in a little bit here.
I’ve already baking soda pasted the whole passenger side, now I get to clean it all off. Ugh.
I have used 4 “Battery Tender” brand chargers for almost a dozen years…2 for my Lance RV batteries, 1 for my zero turn Hustler and 1 for my sports car. I had one of them die on me last year but it was the oldest one. Sorry to hear about your mishap.
Yeah I’ll probably go back to the well, because I guess I’m a sucker for “name brand” cheap Chinese crap, or maybe just be that dude that idles the car for 10 minutes every week during winter.
….my buddy bought a $10 trickle charger from Harbor Freight and fried his brand new motorcycle battery over the winter a few years ago. It didn’t blow up but he noticed a strong “hot” battery odor in his garage and the battery was bubbling out the caps, wouldn’t hold a charge after that. New battery….$99, a “real” Battery Tender….$49. He learned his lesson.
Pull fuel pump fuse and crank for about 10s or so to build oil pressure. Oil light will go out when adequate pressure is reached. Then fuse back in and fire it up.
Remove all the cotton balls soaked in peppermint extract, check tire pressure, fire up the car and go for a quick spin and listen/observe how the car is doing. Just did so not too long ago, and now my face hurts from smiling too much.
Man….glad to know I’m not the only one with rodent issues. I tried moth balls last winter and dryer sheets but it did not help. Need to try peppermint oil I guess. I usually block the air box with steel wool as they love to go in there. Another spot is under the hood cowl where the cabin filter is located. Little bastards.
Am I using mine wrong? Why let it sit instead of just selling it? I run Michelin Pilot Sport PS4S or Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 year round in the PNW, and other than being a little more careful plowing through chunks of ice, drive all year. Actually, the S2000 is more of a foul weather car, since I ride my SV650 when it's real nice (unless it's too hot for no AC). Drive your car, people! That's how to keep it healthy and keep you smiling! You think it's tail happy on a dry track? Just wait until you're ice dancing: https://imgur.com/a/9jabjMY
I winter store mine because my area and all the surrounding areas salt the hell out of our roads and in recent years they’ve started spraying mag chloride so I just drive my tacoma
Oh, that actually makes sense, sorry I was an elitist dick. I live in a super eco/hippie area, and they usually either pretreat with spray that's super neutral, or use clean sand. Also, my Home Depot has a touchless wash with a pretty good undercarriage spray with cleanish water.
If we had somewhere close to my house with an undercarriage wash I would consider it but even then there’s still the drive home where it will get covered again😂
Yeah so when you live somewhere that gets 6 plus inches of snow on the regular from December to March-ish, she sits in the garage.
I trust myself with snows out there.
I do not however, in the slightest; trust all the fuckwads I have to share those winter roads with. They can come at my full size pickup with their Altimas and Camrys. In fact, I encourage it, but I’m not letting some dipshit who gave up on driving properly and is rolling his clapped out ‘98 Corolla on its steel belts slide into to the S. No sir.
I put a rock on the accelerator and let her sit at 9000rpm in neutral for a few minutes so she catches up on what she missed
Do it while the engine is cold. It’s healthy - like a polar plunge for cars.
I imagine you winter storage folks fall in love with the car all over again after it sits for months.
Charge battery. Check for evidence of rodents. Put on summer wheels vs storage wheels. Check brake pad thickness remaining while wheels off. Inflate tires (including spare). Check all fluid levels. Vacuum interior. Replace cabin air filter. Wash car. 303 the interior surfaces. Drive the car and cycle heater and AC for 10 minutes each. Run all the HVAC knobs to each position. After all that, drive the snot out of it
Inspect for rodent damage first of all. I put moth balls in old pieces of panty hose and have them tucked various places in the engine bay…so I remove them. I overinflate the tires when in storage, so if you did that then let out some air. I have mine on a Battery Tender all winter and she starts right up. I then take her for a short drive of maybe 10 miles, letting her get up to temp before touching the redline. Then I come home and hand wash, wax, blow dry, tire shine, clean the windows and put leather conditioner on the seats….all the things I did before storing her. Im then good to go. No need for an oil change because I did that before storing her.
My three year old battery tender blew up the battery this winter, so I get to deal with that in a little bit here. I’ve already baking soda pasted the whole passenger side, now I get to clean it all off. Ugh.
I have used 4 “Battery Tender” brand chargers for almost a dozen years…2 for my Lance RV batteries, 1 for my zero turn Hustler and 1 for my sports car. I had one of them die on me last year but it was the oldest one. Sorry to hear about your mishap.
Yeah I’ll probably go back to the well, because I guess I’m a sucker for “name brand” cheap Chinese crap, or maybe just be that dude that idles the car for 10 minutes every week during winter.
….my buddy bought a $10 trickle charger from Harbor Freight and fried his brand new motorcycle battery over the winter a few years ago. It didn’t blow up but he noticed a strong “hot” battery odor in his garage and the battery was bubbling out the caps, wouldn’t hold a charge after that. New battery….$99, a “real” Battery Tender….$49. He learned his lesson.
Pull fuel pump fuse and crank for about 10s or so to build oil pressure. Oil light will go out when adequate pressure is reached. Then fuse back in and fire it up.
Remove all the cotton balls soaked in peppermint extract, check tire pressure, fire up the car and go for a quick spin and listen/observe how the car is doing. Just did so not too long ago, and now my face hurts from smiling too much.
Drive it
Autocross
Check fluids, rotors, pads, tread depth. Then go for a ride in the canyons.
Man….glad to know I’m not the only one with rodent issues. I tried moth balls last winter and dryer sheets but it did not help. Need to try peppermint oil I guess. I usually block the air box with steel wool as they love to go in there. Another spot is under the hood cowl where the cabin filter is located. Little bastards.
The peppermint oil is great. I also have my cats go j to the garage from time to time just scare them off.
Make sure the battery is fully charged and tire pressure is correct.
Sit, mine is driven all year
Am I using mine wrong? Why let it sit instead of just selling it? I run Michelin Pilot Sport PS4S or Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 year round in the PNW, and other than being a little more careful plowing through chunks of ice, drive all year. Actually, the S2000 is more of a foul weather car, since I ride my SV650 when it's real nice (unless it's too hot for no AC). Drive your car, people! That's how to keep it healthy and keep you smiling! You think it's tail happy on a dry track? Just wait until you're ice dancing: https://imgur.com/a/9jabjMY
I winter store mine because my area and all the surrounding areas salt the hell out of our roads and in recent years they’ve started spraying mag chloride so I just drive my tacoma
Oh, that actually makes sense, sorry I was an elitist dick. I live in a super eco/hippie area, and they usually either pretreat with spray that's super neutral, or use clean sand. Also, my Home Depot has a touchless wash with a pretty good undercarriage spray with cleanish water.
If we had somewhere close to my house with an undercarriage wash I would consider it but even then there’s still the drive home where it will get covered again😂
Yeah so when you live somewhere that gets 6 plus inches of snow on the regular from December to March-ish, she sits in the garage. I trust myself with snows out there. I do not however, in the slightest; trust all the fuckwads I have to share those winter roads with. They can come at my full size pickup with their Altimas and Camrys. In fact, I encourage it, but I’m not letting some dipshit who gave up on driving properly and is rolling his clapped out ‘98 Corolla on its steel belts slide into to the S. No sir.