Leonard1818

Well, I joined this forum to say THANK YOU! I've been reading on here for the last 4 hours or so and almost ALL of my questions about winter storage have been answered!

About me:
Please don't hate right away! Read on and *then* judge.

I have driven nothing but Hondas my whole life. My wife and I currently own a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am SE (hers), a 2004 Saturn VUE V6 AWD the one with the Honda engine/transmission (ours) and my daily a 2009 Honda Civic Si (MINE!)

Anyway, 3 cars and 2 people mean that one car is going to need to sit for the winter. Might as well make it be the newest one and one that is most prone to rust or "Honda rot".

I'll be driving the VUE to and from work and the wife will drive the Grand AM since she drives about 3 miles roundtrip a day and I do about 60roundtrip.

Winter storage:

So being that I'm a bit obsessive and I love driving and detailing my car (I know, it's no corvette, but there's nothing wrong with someone taking pride in taking care of their car!) I decided to store it for the winter. I've never stored a car in the winter time and the only person I know who has was my dad who stored his 1976 Laguna S3 in the winter. I love my pops but as I learned to detail I learned that pretty much everything my dad taught me about detailing was not a very effective method... OK, it was flat out WRONG. That said, I took everything he said about winter storage with a grain of salt.

Now as you can imagine, I'm probably one of 12 people in the world who is going to store their cheap econo-box civic for the winter. With that in mind, you can imagine how much help the Civic forums were. There was some decent info on the S2000 forums but nothing like what was found on the forum catering to the "store me for the winter" corvette. So here is what I gather and what my plan is so far:

Need to know:
-- This car will be stored from ~Dec. 20th through I'm guessing April. So 4-4.5 months.
-- It will be stored in an attached, unheated garage.
-- I will NOT be starting it up.
-- Either the VUE or the Grand AM will be sitting next to it.

What I plan on doing:
-- Washing exterior, cleaning interior
-- Oil Change before, oil change after
-- Sta-bil fuel stabilizer with a full tank of gas
-- Inflate tires over recommended PSI
-- Purchased and will be parking on top of a tarp. Heavy duty, from Wal-Mart.
-- Purchased two schumacher chargers from walmart for $20 ea. (one for lawnmower) and will be hooking car battery up to it.
-- These will be on a surge protector.
-- steel wool for exhaust and possibly intake if I can find it down there.
-- Car cover from my dad.
-- sticky, snap, and poision mouse traps
-- lots-o-controversy but I'm going to try dryer sheets around the engine bay and car in general.

That's all I can remember. Please let me know if I've forgotten anything critical.

And once again, THANK YOU!

Leonard1818

Oh btw, I'm from Ohio but I didn't post in the "Great Lakes" section even though I REALLY like their beer. Great Lakes Christmas Ale is awesome. But I didn't post there cause I got most of my info from this section as it seems this region stores and gets hit with winter weather the worst.

Ol'55

Good on you Leonard! I'm sure your cars will be good to go this Spring because of your attention to detail for their Winter care. A pennies worth of time spent before there is a problem is worth a dollar (the clique used to read a dime) spent afterward.

capevettes

If you change your oil before storage and don't start it there is no need to change it again in the Spring. It will not deteriorate from sitting.

Leonard1818

Thanks!

My only other concern is mice. I live in the middle just between city and country. There are fields around me and houses about 30 - 50 yards apart. My wife said she saw evidence of a mouse chewing a bag she had in the garage. I cleaned EVERYTHING out of the garage (since mice like clutter) and I'm setting sticky traps and snap traps. I'll probably put some of the poision blocks out too.

Other than that, I feel comfortable with the process. It's hard since there are different things that need to be done for long-term storage vs. short term and I seem to fall in between. There are also a lot of differing opinions (start it occasionally vs. leave it, jack it up vs don't, etc). Seems most of those were put to rest once I read around here.

I'm interested in the post that said if I change the oil now, I don't need to do it in the spring. I read several places that said it is a good idea to do it prior to storage since the oil that is in there has all kinds of junk in it that could either bond with the internal parts of the engine or could "gum things up" and it's just not good to let it sit for that long with bad oil in it. Mine has about 30% life left and needs changed soon anyway.

Then, I read that it should be changed in the spring since it's been sitting all winter and will likely have moisture and any other contaminants in it. I certainlly don't want moisture in my oil for the first 5000+ miles of spring.

any other inputs?

Leonard1818

Also, for what it's worth here's a pic of my Honduh:
2008 Honda Civic Si coupe:








-- Honda HFP underbody "lip" kit
-- Custom retrofit headlights (Acura TSX projectors/Acura MDX shrouds)
-- Optional Honda OEM Navigation


That was my fun car... till one day... 17 ton dumptruck.

So I sold it and bought this one:
(the day I got it)






-- Custom retrofit headlights (Lexus SC430 projectors/Honda S2000 shrouds)

So I lost my navi and my lip kit but added a couple extra doors. It's officially "family" oriented. Added a wife too so now I won't get to buy anything fun for it. Oh well, I'll just save for a *real* car.

Also, for what it's worth my father-in-law has a vette. but he bought an auto which I'm not too big of a fan of. I drove my uncles CTS-V once and holy crap was that a blast.

I think if I could, I would pick up a CTS-V. I think it's along the lines of what I like. Power, luxury, and sounds mean with a Magnaflow exhaust

vcam

You could also lube all the weatherstripping and very slightly tap the windows to take the pressure off the seals. Also use a dessicant in the interior if you're worried about moisture. Nothing wrong with taking pride in your car and wanting to treat it right, maybe someday you'll come over to American muscle, there's nothing like a V-8!

basicstrategy777

VAROOOM.....VAROOOOM......VARROOOOOOOM.. .....are you talkin' to ME...VAROOOOOM.

Show me what you got big boy.....VAROOOOOOOOOM...POP-POP-POP-POP.

777

tomc8at

plmkrzy

Sounds like you've got almost everything covered. I had a problem with mice one year. Now I have a "Car Bag" that I use. Autoanything.com.
I cover the car and put it into this big car cover/bag and zip it up. All done! No mice since. As for your battery charger, you can run an extension cord out of the zippered corner and put tape around the small hole the cord leaves. Those mice can get in the smallest places. UGH!!!!

Leonard1818

dammit. I had a whole reply typed out then hit "submit" and it said something like "basic maintenance page" and didn't submit my reply...

It was funny cause just as I was reading the few additional updates to this thread, I had read the owners manual for my honduh (RTFM) and it had mentioned that if you are going to store the car to apply silicone spray to the weather stripping.

All around, people rave about the shin-etsu (sp) grease that Honda uses/sells. I've heard it's expensive but I may inquire next time I'm up there, tomorrow. I did some more reading and an overwhelming amount of people use 303 aerospace protectant on the weatherstripping. I just went out and did the saturn Vue with 303 and found several areas where the weatherstripping was cracked Nothin horrible but still...

I also have some GM SuperLube which I'm not sure if it would be any good. I'm sure my "silicone" spray isn't genuine or is petrolium based or something of that nature so I probably shouldn't use it.

So any further insight as to exactly what to use? I currently have:

-- GM SuperLube (may be the best that I have)
-- 303 Aerospace protectant (2nd best?)
-- Silicone spray (probably no good)
-- White lithium spray (definately NO)

I know it sounds stupid to get hung up on what to put on the weather stripping on a Honda that I may or may not have in a few years... hell, it probably will be stupid when I look back on it lol. BUT I like to think of this car as "practice" for when I get a "real" car lol.

Another LOL that happened yesterday... I was working in the garage, cleaning the inside of the Civic and the VUE and giving the VUE an ONR bath when I hear a scream inside. My dog took a step in the door and plopped a dead mouse down in front of my wife So there is the presence of mice around my house.

Anyway, I ramble... I'll be doing some more research and seeing what else needs to be done. I want to make sure I've taken EVERY precaution and checked and re-checked EVERYTHING.

plmkrzy

Another good one for the weatherstripping is BMW's Gummi Phledge. Sounds stupid but works great. Comes in a tube with an applicator sponge attached.

Leonard1818

I read about that... expensive?

ED77KATR

Remember to disconnect the battery!!! Both posts. If you take it out & store it on a wood surface in a warm place you wont even need the battery charger in the spring.

Leonard1818

Thanks for the input!

I'm actually planning on leaving the battery in. I'm going to disconnect my HID headlights (I have an HID retrofit that has it's own fused/relayed wire harness) and leave it on a schumacher charger I picked up for 20 bux at wal-mart. I just put my lawnmower batter on one yesterday so I'll be putting one on my car as well. That way I don't have to hear my wife complain about batteries and/or cords all over the house and I don't have to clutter up the garage.

Wicked Weasel

Mothballs under the car will help with rodents and any bugs. Although people say put them inside I would rather take my chances than smell mothballs all year.

In the exhaust and under the hood would be fine.

plmkrzy

I bought mine a few years ago and it was less that $10.00 I don't feel that was expensive. I have 4 cars and use it every year. Still lots left.