Agreed. I'm plenty happy driving my 'boring' Toyota in the winter. It has blizzaks and is a beast. Sure there are nice clear days, but when temps are subfreezing and roads are covered in salt, there's no reason the drive the Z with it's performance summer tires. Putting blizzaks/all seasons on a sports cars defeats the purpose of a sports car. Sure you can still drive it, but it's performance isn't the same.

I saw a frs get snow banked turning off a semi-plowed road to residential road. let's just say the clearance is about the same, he has a lot less power, but all he did was spin his rears. I do not want to get into that position. Ever.

Nah. I pump the tires up to around 40 psi when I cover the car for the winter and hook up the battery tender. I always glance at those tires every time I head back to the storage garage to fire up the tractor/snowblower. If they looked low, I'd check the pressure and if it was low, I'd likely pull the tire and try to find the source of the leak. I've never had to do that - never seen them go down.

Yeah. In the winter, it's all about safety and practicality for me, especially when there's snow and ice. Both of which my other car does better.

Back on topic, I also overinflate my tires and I change the oil. I know some like to do it in the spring, but I like leaving fresh oil in there all winter. Whatever moisture that may have aaccumulated will be burned off after a good drive in the spring. I also give it a Full tank of gas, good detail, hook it up to a battery maintainer, put it under the cover and leave it alone until spring. She fires right up. Don't over complicate it, it's only 4-5months

yea that's the plan right now, pump teh tires to 40-45psi, get the oil changed, give her a wash and wax (assuming it's not freezing) possibly clay depending on the weather, shove some wire gauze into the pipes, unhook the battery.

first time storing it as i es noob owner. actually first time storing a car period so i want to make sure i cover my bases.

If you disconnect the battery, the ECM will forget all the tuning data and go back to the factory defaults. It will take a while for the ECM to relearn. In earlier models, you will need to reset the windows and you may also lose radio presets. Not a big deal but battery tenders are pretty cheap.

i put 45psi in there at 60F ambient last weekend and the weekend before for my G.

considering my garage can get to 15F in JAN (loss of 4.5psi in addition to natural air pressure loss from tires) i will be pressuring up the tires end of year to ensure that they are 42psi+

some basic science involved in tires pressure..but this all comes from actual experience too.

yea i had to reset my windows, alarm beep, radio and clock this weekend after doing intakes... not a big deal. I might get a tender though since they are pretty damn cheap and my battery is getting on in age.

no tune yet... but that's also good to know that the tune may reset since i was considering it next year.

btw, i have an ip camera in the garage and monitor humidity and temperature off my digital thermometer/hygrometer. it has night vision so i can see it any time. this helps calculate simulated tire psi, and also to prevent dew build up on my cars and tool cases on days when temp & humidity is significantly higher outside than inside the garage.

at sub 50F, cant run dehumidifier effectively (machine would freeze) so best not to open the garage door on those days, or run a fan and quickly close the garage door on trash days, etc. this also comes from experience over the years.

ive already posted about these things on this site though... :ugh:

HEY NOW no need to shoot fighting words =P i stalked your posts via google winterstorage and you said nothing about your camera!

problem is my garage is actually my parent's and i have taxed the spot of the older car so there will be in-and-out. Garage will be opened on a daily basis but i'll keep some baking soda in the car and keep an eye out for the moisture buildup inide the cabin.

:tiphat: :tup:

Mr. Kenchan cares meticulously for his vehicles. :tup:

he's definitely an influence to keep my car prestine as possible. except i drive in the rain so i have an excuse to wash my car again :driving:

I think a tune changes non-volatile memory settings and will survive a power off. You may want to verify that with some of the people that have had their cars tuned.

I was talking about the "run-time tuning" (or whatever Nissan calls it) that the ECM does which is stored in volatile memory.

I've never unhooked any battery on any vehicle...snowmobiles for summer storage, lawn tractors, cars, boats, and motorcycles for winter storage. $45 for a battery tender to maintain the health of the battery and eliminate the hassle of reprogramming is cheap IMHO.

Man, hearing about brutal winters makes me glad to live on the West coast! Worst we'll ever get is rain (hopefully) and temps dipping around 25F at the absolute coldest time of year/night

Sounds like that would make for really sucky snowmobiling. Makes me glad I live in Minnesota.;)

Just a few hours from the Sierras. We snowmobile by choice in California :tiphat:

Anyone ever come up with a convenient place to mount a powerlet connection for keeping the battery on a tender. I use them on my bikes and it makes it so simple. I was thinking about mounting one in the grill area, maybe in the tow hook cover.

"A few hours from the Sierras". That's not snowmobiling, that's a snowmobile trip. I can drive "a few hours" and be sunning myself on a beach somewhere. Snowmobiling is where you ride your machine out of the garage and catch the trail that runs 2 miles from your house. From there your choices are some nice little trailside bar for lunch 50 miles up the trail, or maybe riding up toward the Canadian border for a few days, depending on how you've packed for the trip.

Here in Minnesota, we go visit "rain (hopefully) and temps dipping around 25F" by choice. Frankly, I'd rather have 10 degrees and 3 feet of snow than rain and 25 degree temps.

Battery Tenders come with both terminal clamps, or a fused two-pin connector that can be permanently mounted to your battery. Then all you have to do is plug it in.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VwHgzEyjL.jpg

For no more current than we're talking about with a battery tender, you can mount the connector anywhere in/on the car and run 18-14 ga zip cord to the battery. Use appropriate fuses/breakers. The spare tire area comes to mind. Or the glove box. If you don't use the socket below the glove box, wire it to the battery (there is a B+ at the radio that should work).

"A few hours", that's not "sunning yourself on a beach somewhere", that's a "sunning yourself on a beach somewhere trip." :tup:

LOL. Yep. I confess, come about April, if there's still snow on the ground (and there occasionally is), I start thinking seriously about a trip to the beach.

aka just lazy... :icon17:

i could, but since i check vitals on a weekly basis in the summer, i just use the umbilical cord on the battery and keep the hood down but unlatched... in winter i just place my car cover over that with a towel between the cord and bumper to prevent scratches and any outgassing stains on the finish. i take the cover off partially every 6-7wks to turn the tires by hand.

yah, i started using ip cameras about 2.5yrs ago. :D