A110 winter storage - tips?

[Portti]

I'm planning to put my A110 in storage for the winter starting from October and I'm looking for tips on what should be done to ensure the car will start and run properly next spring.

The car will be put on a (half)warm garage for about 6 months so it will stay there quite long time. I have no experience on storing a car for such a long time so any tips would be welcome.

If I understand correctly some kind of a trickle charger for the battery could be a good idea? I think there is some discussion on trickle chargers buried somewhere on the huge A110 owners thread but that discussion is quite difficult to find. Do I understand correctly that CTEK MXS 5.0 might be a good trickle charge for A110?

[Portti]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I think I'll order the CTEK MXS 5.0 charger. How tricky is it to install that on A110 since the battery is hidden somewhere in the front?

Jacking the tyres off the floor is probably not realistic option in my case but perhaps I'll just overinflate the tyres instead.

[Portti]

Thanks biggles330d!

Would anybody have pics/videos on the A110 charger installation?

[Portti]

Miserablegit said:

It’s trim panel 1 in this guide - you don’t need to do any more than move trim panel 1 to access the battery - ignore the rest as that is for removing the front boot tray

https://e-guide.alpinecars.com/eng/Alpine-A110/LEV...

Quite useful info, thanks. I have ordered the CTEK charger and should get that next week. I'll look into how to remove this panel once I have the charger.

MondeoMan1981 said:

Watch humidity levels and make sure the interior is spotless. Seen a few videos now of cars parked up for a few months and the owners opening them up to find mould growth....

Hopefully that will not be a problem in my case. The garage is heated and temperature in there should stay well above zero degrees Celcius. The humidity outside will be relatively high in October and November but from December to April air will mostly be quite dry...and cold. Temperatures might drop to minus 35C in the area where the car will be garaged.

[Portti]

Thanks for tips end especially the pics bram070! We'll see next week if I manage to set up the charger myself.

[Portti]

I have now received my Ctek charger and I just tested if I can install it and get it to charge.

I did manage to remove and reinstall the panel under which the battery is located. I put the clamps on the positive and negative terminals on the battery and the charger seemed to start charging.

So far so good. However here's the question. When putting the panel back on it seems like there is no space to route the charger cable/wire anywhere near where the battery is located. How have others routed the cable?

I was thinking that perhaps through the hole around the bonnet hinges next to the base of the windscreen. That way the cable could come out and routed outside of the car. Anybody else done that?

Note that I'm planning to install the charger only temporarily for winter storage and removing everything in spring.

Looking at bram070's pictures it seems like his is routed through the hole next to the base of the bonnet strut.

It seems like some kind of extension cable is needed anyway.

[Portti]

A110Dordogne said:

I have a CTEK and bought myself an extension lead for it.
Mine is now fitted and appears under the washer bottle flap - (When not in use it sits in that space) - I then connect it to the charger that basically sits on one of the windscreen wipers....

Routing the cable from the top of the washer bottle might be a good way to do it. It looks like it might be fairly easy to get the cable through there. Then running the cable so that it comes out from between the rear end of the bonnet and base of the windscreen.

I was also thinking that the charger could sit next to the windscreen wiper.

Thanks A110Dordogne!

[Portti]

I would assume that it would be better to not have the handbrake on when leaving the car for winter storage. The handbrake seems to turn itself automatically on when parking the car and I've not tried to turn the handbrake off until now.

However when following the instructions on the Alpine user manual (see below) the handbrake still stays on. What is the correct procedure for leaving the transmission to park and handbrake off?

"To park the vehicle without applying the electronic parking brake (if there is a risk of freezing, for example):
– stop the engine by pressing the engine Start/Stop button 1;
– check that the N switch indicator light comes on in red and that the P indi- cator light for the parking position is displayed on the instrument panel;
– depress the brake pedal then re- lease the electronic parking brake manually."

Edited by Portti on Wednesday 28th September 17:18

[Portti]

Thanks Miserablegit! I will try this procedure. Does this mean that the engine should still be running when starting the first step? So first step = Foot on brake while engine running.

Quite interesting that the user manual gives incorrect information.

Miserablegit said:

Foot on brake
Press N twice to move to park
Push handbrake button down to ensure handbrake off and, at same time as holding it down turn ignition off
There will be beeping when you open the door and a warning “apply parking brake” or something similar. Then you know the handbrake is off

[Portti]

I tested the option which Miserablegit and the one which Hoofty suggested and also retested what the user manual says.

Results:

- Hoofty option = success, I can get the handbrake off this way.
- Miserablegit option = no success, the problem comes at a stage when I press N twice. It doesn't move to Park position by doing that. It only goes to Neutral position. I have engine still running and I have foot on brake.
- User manual option = no success. I still can't get the handbrake off following the instructions on the user manual.

I wonder what I'm doing wrong when following Miserablegit's instructions or user manual instructions. Or could there be something different on 2022 car versus previous versions.

Well, anyway now I have one procedure which allows me to have the handbrake off and that is the most important thing for me.

[Portti]

The long press/holding down N button seems to do the trick. Thanks everybody for this info and no worries Miserablegit, now the info is correct and all is good.

To confirm, this procedure allows the car to be left on Park with handbrake off:

- Put foot on brake pedal while engine still running while car is stationary
- Press and hold N button to move gear into P position. Make sure P is shown on the cars main instrument panel
- Push handbrake button down and keep it down and push start/stop button simultaneously to turn engine off
- Release handbrake button and lift foot from brake pedal

[Portti]

Now my A110 is in winter storage. The car is plugged into CTEK charger, extra pressure on the tyres and handbrake off. Plan is to take it back on road in April 2023. Hopefully it will start and run without problems then.

[Portti]

Miserablegit said:

As it’s being stored in a garage I’d be tempted to lower the windows a bit as well to allow some airflow into the interior.
I had an issue many years ago with an old car stored in a garage where the interior became damp from condensation and became mouldy…

Lowering the windows sounds like a good tip, thanks! I might do that next time I visit the car although that might take a while since the car is 400 km away from where I live. Although hopefully the moisture will not be a problem in my case. October and November are usually months where air humidity is high in Finland but during the proper winter months from December to March the air is mostly very dry.

jm8403 said:

What a shame. They seem like perfect winter cars.

It is certainly possible that A110 would be fun in the snow. However like Miserablegit pointed out I'm from FInland and our winters are pretty harsh for any car and I don't want to subject my A110 to the winter conditions here.

Even though I think that A110 might survive Finnish winter conditions pretty well, I do think that the frameless windows might cause issues. When temperatures drop to below minus 10 C and up to minus 30 C the ice on the windows could be very solid and that might be problematic for the frameless windows and their automatic lowering function when door is opened.

Personally an issue with A110 in the winter would be that I often have a need to carry cross country skis on the car. A110 is not an ideal car for that kind of scenario.

[Portti]

I put tank full of 95E10 fuel before putting my A110 to winter storage. We'll see in spring if everything works or not.