What if it's been just sitting in a garage for years?

I have not yet found a car, so this question is very premature. But the first NSX I experienced (and the reason for my obsession) was my neighbor's red 1991. He took good care of it and drove it on weekends for a few years, but then he got sick and the car sat in the garage for at least 5 years, maybe more. I moved away, so I don't know exactly what happened to the car after that.

I don't really expect to find a car that has been sitting untouched for decades, but I am curious: what might happen to it, other than rats' nests? :frown: Would you look for electrical problems? General disintegration like hoses and seals?

Take it to an experienced NSX technician. Any number of things could be wrong or it could be 95% fine. Far too difficult to assess without experienced eyes on the vehicle.

depends on state and weather

Moisture when stored really takes its toll. I just did an inspection on a car and the entire bottom of the car, every piece that was metal was rusted. Not good.

If you have a car sitting for many years, the main caution I always use is to make sure you have oil pressure before it fires up. I typically disconnect the fuel injector harness then crank it with a good battery until I get the oil pressure gauge to rise slighlty. This insures the bearings are coated and not dry from sitting for a few years. This is also not a bad idea for a 5-6 month period of storage.

I have also seen many "nests". The key here is when you store the car, you put the climate control on recirculate, this will close the door located in the front fan housing, keeping little friends out. I have pulled boxes of pink insulation out of that fan housing. One car had a full running fan, but no air coming out. The little critter built a nest in the actual fan blades, and from it spinning it became a tube, not a fan. Pulled all the nest out, blew like crazy...

BTW, there are certainly other things, like gas quality, oil level check, spark plugs, that you need to look at before you fire it up.

My $.02

Regards,
LarryB

Larry Bastanza said:

Moisture when stored really takes its toll. I just did an inspection on a car and the entire bottom of the car, every piece that was metal was rusted. Not good.

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Since you chimed in - what are your thoughts on Dehumidifiers in the garage? On one hand, you are drying out rubber - on the other hand you are controlling moisture levels. I am a bit torn and wouldn't mind more of your two cents.

Larry Bastanza said:

BTW, there are certainly other things, like gas quality, oil level check, spark plugs, that you need to look at before you fire it up.

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Larry, I'm guessing you're talking about a Chasing Classic Cars type of car that sat for years, but those of us who put our NSX's away at Halloween and resurrect it after St. Patrick's Day, can we bug you for a short list of things you do for yours, like the fuel injector harness idea and other Larry magic? Thanks ahead of time!

blue_myriddn said:

Since you chimed in - what are your thoughts on Dehumidifiers in the garage? On one hand, you are drying out rubber - on the other hand you are controlling moisture levels. I am a bit torn and wouldn't mind more of your two cents.

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FWIW (and it may not be much but here goes!) the fellow who owned mine from 1994-2013 kept it in a climate controlled garage all that time (unsure if with a dehumidifier) and put a fresh bucket of Damp-Rid in the cabin every month or two. I can't say it's done anything bad after 20 years - and the interior still smells what I believe a new NSX would've smelled like in 1994 and all the seals and leather and dash materials are supple soft. I've kept up with the damp-rid strategy since May 2013 and so far so good.

My car has sat for months on a battery tender awaiting spring for many years and fires right up each spring

blue_myriddn said:

Since you chimed in - what are your thoughts on Dehumidifiers in the garage? On one hand, you are drying out rubber - on the other hand you are controlling moisture levels. I am a bit torn and wouldn't mind more of your two cents.

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To me it's about the resultant humidity level, so if it is damp in the garage, yes a dehumidifier would help. Overall I would favor dry over humid....

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Yinzer said:

Larry, I'm guessing you're talking about a Chasing Classic Cars type of car that sat for years, but those of us who put our NSX's away at Halloween and resurrect it after St. Patrick's Day, can we bug you for a short list of things you do for yours, like the fuel injector harness idea and other Larry magic? Thanks ahead of time!

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For me I know the gasoline, since I top it off end of the season, sometimes when I remember, I add stabilizer. Again I make sure I crank it over with no fuel to get oil pressure up, then start.

Thanks for the feedback

That is a lot more than 2 cents, thank you all! Clearly there is a big difference between an unplanned storage (like if the owner dies and no one thinks about the car), and a carefully planned storage.

Larry Bastanza said:

Moisture when stored really takes its toll. I just did an inspection on a car and the entire bottom of the car, every piece that was metal was rusted. Not good.

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Are you just referring to the steel parts, or was there also extensive corrosion of the aluminum parts? And, if the latter, how serious a problem is that (e.g. does it threaten the structural integrity of those parts, or is it primarily cosmetic)?

All the lucky owners who had their underbodies & suspension pieces undercoated by dealership prep managers who failed to pay attention in NSX 101 training (or ignored it just to make a quick $100 off each car) should be smiling now since their aluminum is protected from moisture under all the nice black guck.

nsxtasy said:

Are you just referring to the steel parts, or was there also extensive corrosion of the aluminum parts? And, if the latter, how serious a problem is that (e.g. does it threaten the structural integrity of those parts, or is it primarily cosmetic)?

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No corrosion, just surface rust, mostly on steel parts. The interesting thing is there was surface rust on the rear toe link, which is aluminum. Still trying to explain that to myself.......

Larry Bastanza said:

The interesting thing is there was surface rust on the rear toe link, which is aluminum. Still trying to explain that to myself.......

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Rotor wear particles?

jwmelvin said:

Rotor wear particles?

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Not thinking so......

Larry Bastanza said:

No corrosion, just surface rust, mostly on steel parts. The interesting thing is there was surface rust on the rear toe link, which is aluminum. Still trying to explain that to myself.......

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Have a photo? Was it in one area/spot or a general area? Maybe bathed in rusty water for a perieod of time?

cars corrosion levels are mostly climate and geography related esp to your local winter dot road treatment regimen..lets just say they don't use organic....

If the car sat for a long period one big concern is lack of inadequate oil film remaining on the bearing surfaces. Either very infrequent starts during the storage period or starting a car up after a lengthy shutdown without first pulling the plugs and cranking the motor over to get oil flowing can be disastrous. If you feel there was a chance that this happened I would recommend pulling the cams and checking the cam bearing surfaces prior to putting the car back into service.