Storing NSX for the Winter

[NovaScotiahalifaX]

I'm just wondering if anyone would have any tips on what I have to do for storing my 1997 NSX in an unheated garage for the Winter months. Do I have to jack it up and take the tires off? Fill the gas tank and add a fuel additive? What other areas of concerns are there?

thanks for any info.

Kevin

 

[butter78]

It's ways good to jack up the car unless you have the time and space to roll the car etc. This avoids "flat spots" on your tire. This being said however most newer or brands of higher quality and make tend to be ok. I park my NSX around mid November and I live in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) in Ontario Canada. It's usually parked until April/May but this year I got to take it out earlier. Another thing you definitely want to do as our cars tend to eat away at the battery is when left in storage for extended periods of time is to disconnect the battery and place it somewhere warmer like the basement or another temperature controlled area of the house. I also do an oil change shortly before the car goes into storage and do one when the car comes out of storage to get rid off all the deposits it would have collected when sitting over the winter. The battery lesson I learned the hard way this year as I didn't have it on a tender, start or disconnect it.

 

[DeVinci13]

I live in Winnipeg and store my NSX in an insulated, but unheated garage from about November to April. I fill up the tank with gas and add stabilizer. I remove the battery and put it in my basement with a tender. According to the owners manual you put the car in reverse (if manual) and do not use the parking brake. I do not jack up the car, just over inflate the tires a bit. I also wash and wax the car just before storage, and I leave the windows down about an inch and put on a loose fitting car cover (not the OEM one, that one is too heavy and tight). That is all I do. Been 3 winters like this and I have had no problems. Put the battery back in and it starts up right away. I change my oil in the spring.

 

[nsxtasy]

For 21 years, I kept my car in the garage unused for 6-8 months a year. The ONLY thing I ever did was to keep it on an automatic battery charger, so that the battery never ran down. You really don't need to do anything else.

It's ways good to jack up the car unless you have the time and space to roll the car etc. This avoids "flat spots" on your tire.

Not necessary. The "flat spots" are only temporary. The car seems lumpy for about the first block or two driving it in the spring, then the tires are back to normal.

disconnect the battery and place it somewhere warmer

The downside of doing this is that you won't have the protection of the alarm. And you'll still want to keep a charger on it (as noted above).

Nothing else is necessary. I never did an oil change before or after the winter unless the car needs it then anyway, and I never used any fuel stabilizer. I never had any storage-related problems.

 

[06_typeS]

I've always lined the floor in bounce sheets. I wwas always told it kept away the rodents.

 

[Bram]

Good advise give above...here are some additional tips for Winter storage.

- Put a tarp on the garage floor, this keep the cold and moisture away from the underside - $10.00 @ CT
- Use dense foam or carpet and park the car on these items, this way you don't have to worry about flat spots or removing the wheels.
- Cover the wheels with Winter tires bag or garbage bags, so water don't get onto the Rotors and causing rust
- Put plastics bags over the exhaust openings
- Inflate the tires 2-3 PSI higher
- Change the oil before storage, fill-up with gas and add stabilizer
- Place bounce sheet inside the car, trunk, engine, and hood
- Leave the battery in the car and add a battery tender, the alarm would now enabled and usable
- Put an old blanket on the seats, this will help the drying out of the leather causing cracks
- Leave the car in neutral, and don't set the parking brake

These are the things that I do for my NSX for winter storage.

Bram

 

[GECKO]

Far too complicated the Guys way................SIMPLY:

gas it up, put in stabilizer, park it - heated or unheated won't matter
put on jack stands ( I use them for all toys since I already own them)
cover
plug in the battery tender ($35) not a trickle charger
put in neutral
lock and set alarm
if you have varments put rags in the exhaust pipes
remember where you put your keys
wake her up in the spring


** There is absolutely no sense changing the oil if the oil is clean - BIG waste of money.
** Don't pull the battery, disconnects clock, alarm etc. and just buy a tender if worried
** with today's quality tires the sidewalls won't flex much so flat spots are non existant, but you can always fill the tires since you loose 1 lb for every 7 degree drop in temp.
** covering seats will not prevent them from drying out, a good leather conditioner will

If it was a winter like last year, then don't worry about it - drive all year long :>)

 

[NovaScotiahalifaX]

Thanks for all the valuable infomation. I have nitrogen in the tires, and it will be in an insulated unheated garage at the in-laws house (2 hours away).

Kevin

 

[nsxtasy]

** with today's quality tires the sidewalls won't flex much so flat spots are non existant, but you can always fill the tires since you loose 1 lb for every 7 degree drop in temp.

The Tire Rack says 1 psi for every 10 degrees F temperature difference. I've observed that even that is high; I find it's more like 2 psi for every 30 degrees. Still, if you're going to put it away in fall and take it out in spring, there may not be any temperature difference at all. But I have found that tires lose about 1 psi per month, even if the car isn't driven. So you can pump them higher in the fall before putting it away, or you can add air when you take it out again in spring, either way.

 

[GECKO]

Hey..........I screwed up, my mind was on bike racing when I posted and in bike racing you gain 1 hp for every 7 lbs of weight.........ha, ha, so you're right - should have typed 1 lb for every 10 degrees.........Too funny, thinking bikes and typing on a car forum, silly me!!! Bikes loose air faster for some reason - even weekend to weekend no doubt because of the heat they create, but the car tires on the NSX will loose several lbs over 5 months - always best to check them BEFORE you drive out the first time, something most forget to do...........

 

[NovaScotiahalifaX]

Thanks DaVinci

 

[NovaScotiahalifaX]

Thanks for the info GECKO..... There seems to be some common things that are being suggested. It's going to be staying at the in-laws garage (attached to the house). I appreciate your advice.

Kevin

 

[GECKO]

BTW - Battery Tenders (buy this brand name not the knock offs) are available at Canadian Tire and most Automotive stores for under $35 CAD, they put out approx .5 amps and "tend" the battery only when needed - not charge and discharge it. I keep my bikes and ATV on them yearly even when using them since the batteries are small and takes a full charge to crank them up esp. the Harley.......There are some that you can buy i.e an Harley Davidson one rolleyes but the name on the unit still shows Battery Tender, but obvioulsy HD made a deal to have their name put on for marketing purposes...........very small, about the size of the telephone plug in device thingy - name escapes me and I want to sa transponer but that's not correct...............google them for a store near you.

 

[NSaneXr]

Kevin, I hope you don't mind if I ask a tire related question on winter storage using your thread. If it's a problem I'll post it somewhere else.

I recently got a set of Dunlop Direzza tires and I didn't notice until now but they say not to store them in near-freezing conditions.

From their website "The Dunlop® Direzza Z1 Star Spec is not intended to be driven or stored in winter or near-freezing conditions."

I see the above recommendations on just leaving the tires (which I did last winter on the old rubber) or over inflating them but does this recommendation change based on the tire?

Thanks,

Edward

 

[GECKO]

With air in the tires you should be okay.........same as bike race tires, very particular how you store them in winter when NOT mounted.......

 

[nsxtasy]

BTW - Battery Tenders (buy this brand name not the knock offs)

Actually, any brand of automatic charger should work. There are other brands (including Schumacher) that work the same way - charging the battery when it draws down, and not charging once it's fully charged. They all work fine.

If you have a specialized battery, you may want to consider a charger that's specially designed for it. For example, Odyssey makes chargers that are designed specifically for their batteries.

I had two different setups on my NSX. For many years, I used a Schumacher onboard charger, which was bolted next to the battery. When leaving the car for a while, I would take the spare out (for access to the charger) and plug it into an extension cord draped along the floor under the car. More recently, I installed a cable wired from my battery to my front air dam, with pigtails on the end for easy connection to the matching end of the cable from my battery charger. (The folks at Portable Power were happy to sell me that setup, including the pigtail cable, when I bought my Odyssey charger there.) With either setup, I was able to leave the charger connected while the car was covered.

 

[GECKO]

The battery tenders all come with 2 type of extensions - direct wire to keep the leads onthe battery full time (I use this for the bikes since same lead for my heated clothes) or a pig tail which clips onto the battery like booster cables........guess any similar type works and highly recommended.

 

[nsxtasy]

The battery tenders all come with 2 type of extensions - direct wire to keep the leads onthe battery full time (I use this for the bikes since same lead for my heated clothes) or a pig tail which clips onto the battery like booster cables........

The clips that clamp onto the battery are usually called "alligator clips", for their resemblance to the jaws of the reptile.

"Pig tail connectors" are plugs that fit into each other, such as the one on the item in the photo below. It doesn't really matter what kind you get, as long as you get matching ones on both cables so they fit each other.

 

[lithiumus]

Don't jack up your car as it will leave your suspension hanging. As everyone has mentioned, pump the tires up with additional PSI to compensate. i.e. 5-10 PSI. I do that every winter and find that in the spring, the PSI is approx. at the right level unless it was an unseasonably cold or warm winter.

Also put your climate control into recycle to close the vents to the interior of the car. There are bunch of other things you can do but the main things have been mentioned.

If you put a full fresh tank of gas in the car, a fuel stabilizer is likely not necessary. I put it in my car because I've left my car in storage for over a year and have had stints of longer than a year with maybe one outing.

 

[GECKO]

my battery tenders all have both pig tails and the battery connect options with both on one wire, then that pigtail goes to the actual tender......it;s all compatible with most things today i.e. heated clothes gloves have the pigtails like you show in the picture and they all fit, even my thermostate I use for the bike clothing - a great system that interconnects with everything so you don't have to keep buying the parts. What goes on the other end of the lead you show with the colors? Or is that the charging part illuminator? Not seen that before.

 

[nsxtasy]

What goes on the other end of the lead you show with the colors? Or is that the charging part illuminator? Not seen that before.

That's not a part for the batteries; I was just using it to illustrate the pigtail connector.

 

[GECKO]

:biggrin:

 

[Mr. Fuji]

Is it just me, or does it feel WAY TOO EARLY to be talking about this? Out here we had over 30C no so long ago, but it is Calgary so we should be in -30C soon enough.

I find there are 2 camps for winter storage: the "do everything under the sun to prevent all possible & potential issues" kind of folks, and the "park it and do what needs to be done" people. i am trying to strike a happy medium.

 

[NovaScotiahalifaX]

Hi Edward...no problem tagging on to this thread....the more info the better...Also, thanks to Bram, NSXTASY, Lithiumus, and Butter87 for the imput.

Kevin

 

[Shinebox]

Last winter was the first for me and my NSX. I was concerned about what to do for storage too....(read alot),So I greased all the rubber seals with shin-etsu grease,covered the tailpipes with plastic bags and rubber bands,relaxed the roof,covered the car, and most importantly, put a pie dish filled with moth balls under the front of the car. Of all the things that could damage your x during the winter, critters are #1.