Winter Storage Procedure?

[topless360]

With my 360 I tend to give it a thorough clean before winter and then warm it up every 2-3 weeks only when dry.

You can find out accurate gritting details on Twitter by following the relevant hashtag (for me its #wmgrit). If there is a period where the roads haven't been gritted for a few days and it's dry, then I'll take it on a 10-15 mile route to get everything warmed up properly.

Otherwise I'll let the engine warm up mainly by idling on the drive, and then taking it for a spin around our ungritted residential estate just to get the wheels rotated and use the brakes.

In my opinion it's better for the car to do this than to let it sit for 4 months. Plus I think I'd go mad if I had to go 4 months without hearing it fire into life

[allister]

Thank you for your schedule, sounds like good advice.... As you say, I do agree that it's probably a good thing to get all components moving whenever possible.

[Behemoth]

topless360 said:

If there is a period where the roads haven't been gritted for a few days and it's dry, then I'll take it on a 10-15 mile route

I don't agree with this. There are some winter periods where it's been cold and bone dry and even after a few days you'll still see plenty of grit and sand by the kerbs and central reservations.

You need to wait for a good drenching of rain before venturing out again if you want to keep the car salt free.

[70proof]

https://mobile.twitter.com/hashtag/grittertwitter

[andrew]

wtf is "winter storage"
don't those round things at the corners suggest what the car is for ???

[topless360]

Behemoth said:

topless360 said:

If there is a period where the roads haven't been gritted for a few days and it's dry, then I'll take it on a 10-15 mile route

I don't agree with this. There are some winter periods where it's been cold and bone dry and even after a few days you'll still see plenty of grit and sand by the kerbs and central reservations.

You need to wait for a good drenching of rain before venturing out again if you want to keep the car salt free.

Yes you're right, I forgot to add that the ideal situation is rain followed by dry non gritting weather.
If grit is still visible on the road then I definitely wouldn't take it out.

There are sadly only a small handful of opportunities to really take it out in the winter without exposing it to the harsh elements.

[DevonPaul]

topless360 said:

Yes you're right, I forgot to add that the ideal situation is rain followed by dry non gritting weather.
If grit is still visible on the road then I definitely wouldn't take it out.

There are sadly only a small handful of opportunities to really take it out in the winter without exposing it to the harsh elements.

You need to move down to Devon.

We've gritted once this year, and nothing penned in for next week.

I'm just about to pop home and bring my washing in

[allister]

DevonPaul said:

You need to move down to Devon.

We've gritted once this year, and nothing penned in for next week.

I'm just about to pop home and bring my washing in

Although the occasional Palm Tree may have been planted down in Devon, it doesn't mean you're going to convince us all that it's tropical.... And if you're wandering round in your Speedo's coated in Factor 30, a word of advice, cover up, you'll catch a chill

[DevonPaul]

allister said:

Although the occasional Palm Tree may have been planted down in Devon, it doesn't mean you're going to convince us all that it's tropical.... And if you're wandering round in your Speedo's coated in Factor 30, a word of advice, cover up, you'll catch a chill

We've been pretty lucky down here, on Fri/Sat I winterised the car by filling it with fuel, checking the tyres and fluids, then driving a 300+ mile round trip to Wokingham so the Mrs could collect her Z4M Coupe.

Sadly it hardly rained at all, so the protective covering of roadgrime won't be completed until next weekend.

[allister]

DevonPaul said:

We've been pretty lucky down here, on Fri/Sat I winterised the car by filling it with fuel, checking the tyres and fluids, then driving a 300+ mile round trip to Wokingham so the Mrs could collect her Z4M Coupe.

Sadly it hardly rained at all, so the protective covering of roadgrime won't be completed until next weekend.

I was only pulling your leg Paul - The weather you get down there is much better than ours - Having previously lived in Surrey I do miss the much milder weather the South has to offer - Enjoy.

[dang2407]

Anyone here been unfortunate enough to suffer damage to their pride and joys from the flooding in Cumbria?

[zipperkarting]

Well I live in France in the summer where I keep my 360 but move back to Jersey for the winter where I am retired.
So I have no option but to winterise my car.
I give it a good run, wash it and vacuum the interior then after a day standing in my garage put a winter cover on it.
I have a C-Tec battery conditioner that I connect directly to the battery and I have also invested in a rodent protector that I leave inside the car as I have also had experience of rodents getting under the bonnet and nesting or eating sound deadening material.
Unfortunately the rodent protector is mains but I connect it to an alarm battery and back it up with a charger connected to the mains. The alarm battery will surprisingly deplete in about a month otherwise!
I ensure the car is sitting on a large mat so preventing flat spotting of the tires and damp getting to the car.
I'm hoping this is all good but will post if I find any problems.

[allister]

berksboy26 said:

I can see you laughing as I write this but I keep a couple of humane mousetraps in my garage (and not just in the winter) as a few years ago now a mouse managed to find its way up and under the dash on my brand new 328GTB and eat its way through a main loom insulation.It could have caused a serious fire and was luckily repaired by a very sympathtic main dealer.
ATB
Alan

It seems that rodent damage from Rats & Mice is not at all unusual while cars are in storage, as pointed out in this post and the one above. I myself have also heard this several times before, often becoming quite costly if they start nesting.

I've bought some rat glue traps, mouse glue traps and rat and mouse poison from this company to cover all eventualities: http://www.pest-expert.com/