Hey guys, well the end of winter is 3 weeks away and i'm already thinking about what i have to do to get her ready for the road again. This is the first time i've put her away for the winter and i'm going on common sense for what i have to do in the spring.

When i put the car away i had the oil changed, really gave the car a good cleaning inside and out, over inflated the tires (to just under limit), pulled the battery and put it on a trickle charger, then rolled the car in the garage, put a car cover on her and closed the door.

When i take her out in the spring I'm going to lower the tire pressure, obviously put the battery back in, then get the oil changed again (is that necessary???).

Let me know if i'm doing anything wrong!!!

Thanks

It's not really necessary to change the oil again. Some will argue about shelf life, etc, but I personally don't believe this. As long as your oil is still clean, no harm done.

BTW, why do you remove the battery AND add the trickle charger? It seems to be that defeats the purpose, and you would probably want to use one or the other (personally I just remove the battery).

I had a trickle charger kicking around, and pulled the battery because i was feeling over cautious... I didnt feel like finding out in the spring that i really should have pulled it! Anyways it only took a few minutes

Sure -- but what I mean is: what's the use of putting a trickle charger on a battery that was pulled out?

its sitting in my garage in the cold... not the greatest for it but i didnt have anywhere else to put it. The charger will help keep it from going flat over the winter (i hope!)

its sitting in my garage in the cold... not the greatest for it but i didnt have anywhere else to put it. The charger will help keep it from going flat over the winter (i hope!)

and if your garage is cold and the battery does go flat, it can freeze and then its toast. it never hurts to put a trickle charger on a battery thats going to be sitting. in fact, its concidered good for it. batteries arent ment to just sit there with a full charge. they are ment to be charged and discharged on a regular basis.

as for your after winter steps....i think thats all okay. I dont really see much else you could do. i wouldnt change the oil myself, at least not right away. maybe go 2 or 3 k on the oil and do an early oil change. but oil doesnt ususally just break down just sitting there without any running at all. just think how long oil sits in a bottle before you buy it

Same here; the oil is fine. Just install the battery and lower the tire pressure. If you plugged the exhaust of course be sure to remove that obstruction as well.

Let it warm up fully and then enjoy!

btw: I too leave the battery in the vehicle, on a Battery Tender, all winter. The battery tender won't allow it to overcharge, and it's fine to sit there holding its maximum capacity. I believe a prior poster was thinking of NiCad batteries which should be regularly and fully discharged, not our vehicle's lead-acid type.

Last Friday it was 59 degf here and I had thoughts of an early spring awakening, but yesterday's snow storm dashed those thoughts. A sandy/salty mess again today. :(

It's not really necessary to change the oil again. Some will argue about shelf life, etc, but I personally don't believe this. As long as your oil is still clean, no harm done.

BTW, why do you remove the battery AND add the trickle charger? It seems to be that defeats the purpose, and you would probably want to use one or the other (personally I just remove the battery).

its sitting in my garage in the cold... not the greatest for it but i didnt have anywhere else to put it. The charger will help keep it from going flat over the winter (i hope!)

Or you could just bring it inside? lol...

Blowing up your tires to almost full - what stops them from getting a flat spot? Personally I would have started it a few times thru out the winter.

Its a bad idea to start up a car and only let it warm up in the winter, develops condensation that just sits there. The best way to store a car is to keep it stored.

As for the flat spots, by inflating the tires to their rated side wall pressure you eliminate that problem.

i pulled the battery too, but said f it to the trickle charger, gonna pick up a new optima red top this week, gotta pull that stupid clutch pedal out and get it rewelded, hopefully go for an oil change this weekend

If you are really worried about flat spots, you can leave the car on jackstands for the winter. Otherwise, slightly over standard tire pressure has worked fine for me so far.

Honestly I think you guys are way too worried about this. I've had several cars parked over winter/summer for the last 4 years now and all you really need to do is add some fuel stabilizer to a full tank. Battery dies? Boost it. Better yet, take it out and bring it inside for winter. Trickle chargers are useful if you leave the battery in the car.

I also wash the car before hand and use a car cover. When you bring it out, let it idle on it's own for a few minutes to warm up properly. That's it. Not harder than that.

i pulled the battery too, but said f it to the trickle charger, gonna pick up a new optima red top this week, gotta pull that stupid clutch pedal out and get it rewelded, hopefully go for an oil change this weekend

pros - go to costco or sams club to buy it, you have to pre-order the red for our cars which takes a week or two so go in now and order it. Also thought you were buying the clutch thing from BHR?!?!

charles said i could just reweld it, so might as well save some money that way, i'll spend money later this summer for a newer pedal.

i heard costco has it the cheapest, gotta go with my uncle to buy it, or pick up a membership

Sam's club is going under :(

On a side not, all the Sam's club in Ontario are closed now.

Ya, they closed the one down beside me, makes sense, look how huge Walmart is, and Costco is destroying the bulk market

Jay what do you drive in the winter now?

BTW, it's amazing what 2 days of continuously driving above 5500 rpm can do. It makes the engine so much better afterwards, and also drinks 3/4 bottle of oil in 2 days!! :)

I highly recommend people to do this once or twice a year just to clear out the carbon deposits and crap... high rpm driving for a few days.

Driving the ORolla, its slow, but warms up fast, and loving the gas money saved so far.

Theres a la paloma meet this thursday, but I doubt I can have the 8th out by then

Been trying to bring sexy back with the Orolla.

Well as usual I have a completely different opinion (lol). I have a 22 year old car that spends 99% of its life in storage, and this what I do. Inflate high performance tires to 50-60 lbs when storing your car. They wont blow up or anything like that. When you take your car out of storage each year that is a great time to swap all the fluids out. I am assuming this is a car you love, not just an appliance to drive of course. I change ALL the fluids everyspring and I mean all of them. Engine oil, coolant, brake fluid, power steering, trans and diff. Its expensive yes, but I have 22 years on the same engine etc to prove it works. You don't have to any of it, its called preventative maintenance! (lol) Just my opinion so dont castrate me!

charles said i could just reweld it, so might as well save some money that way, i'll spend money later this summer for a newer pedal.

i heard costco has it the cheapest, gotta go with my uncle to buy it, or pick up a membership

seeing that I'm no longer a part of the living dead... I can take ya to get the battery if you need it... got a membership.

damn, maybe i should wait till spring to pull the 8 out then, too cold for me to bleed the brakes

I'm tellin ya you have to pre-order, least I had to, so got stuck paying Walmart price :(

F***in BS Mazdas engineering. Trying to get the clutch pedal off, managed to get everything of but the last remaining clip and nut.

The clip wont budge, dont want to be to aggressive, cause I think its the start switch, and since the weld snapped, its sitting on top of the last bolt preventing the socket from getting a grip on it, and of course it has to the be bolt thats tucked at the top by the footrest side.

BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

shitty deal....can you take a pic and post it? You can always try posting a thread in the maintenance part of this site and see if any one else has come across this problem. New to me. An opened wrench can't get a hold of it?

I managed to get the last clip off. My socket wrench is too short to get the the top bolt, realized I have 2 bolts left. And its hitting the starter module when I try to take it off. Searching for my screw driver socket. But the last bolt is gonna fuck me. The area is too crapped to get a pry bar in with too many expensive modules that I dont wanna mess up. Will post a pic in a sec.

and a socket won't fit over it? if you can get it to fit, use the bendable socket elbow you could then use a breaker bar, without worrying about hitting a module.

well good news and bad news, i got the module off the clutch pedal assembly in one piece, its a fucking ford piece, aholes

the last bolt, looks like its staying there, the welds broke off the last bolt, so i dont know if my pedal is reused, I HOPE IT IS, so just that last bolt to get at, had to come inside to get warm, Ya, Im doing this outside on the driveway.

FU MAZDA CANADA

pictures!!! no idea, but as long as you can blot it back together is should work?!?! Why not in your garage? That's where we pushed it to, and warmer!

no work space, wall faces the driver side' i had to bend more than I ever could

got IT OFF THOU!!!

but maybe fucked, the piece that broke off fell behind the firewall along with the bolt, no worres about the bolt, dont know if i need that piece thou, might have to go fishing with a magnet

post pics of the wonderful pedal

did u get the battery last night?

ya, costco does not do speicla order, and sams club is gone, went to walmart, my sister has hook ups at partssource, so might see if they can get it for me, if not, her friends mom works at walmart, so employee discount at 15%, just need to hand her the recipiet

maybe i should go and dump my clutch pedal off at mazda canada

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u58/prospectjtaz/IMG_6146.jpg
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u58/prospectjtaz/IMG_6147.jpg
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u58/prospectjtaz/IMG_6148.jpg
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u58/prospectjtaz/IMG_6149.jpg

That above is my wonderful pedal.

ouch.

Seriously what a POS of pedal, theres only two weld spots on it. BS!!!

Not sure about part source, weird costco can't order it.

Yup that's the same place I saw on another posting where they break. So gay, that should be a recall man, so unsafe. Easy welding job tho. Take it to any shop and they should be able to weld it back together in 5 min.

You could always try duct tape :)

Hey guys, well the end of winter is 3 weeks away and i'm already thinking about what i have to do to get her ready for the road again. This is the first time i've put her away for the winter and i'm going on common sense for what i have to do in the spring.

When i put the car away i had the oil changed, really gave the car a good cleaning inside and out, over inflated the tires (to just under limit), pulled the battery and put it on a trickle charger, then rolled the car in the garage, put a car cover on her and closed the door.

When i take her out in the spring I'm going to lower the tire pressure, obviously put the battery back in, then get the oil changed again (is that necessary???).

Let me know if i'm doing anything wrong!!!

Thanks

Hey Man, I have been storing my car since '06 this will be my third year storing her. However with that being said I store her at a place that specializes in storing exotic sports car so they charge the battery and take it for laps around the lot. I basically just ensure that the tires are properly inflated and warm her up the first time real good and then take it out. This year I plan to take her in to get all fluids changed after I take her out.

Still too early to take out of hibernation for me. There's always big dumps in April. I'll wait till May.

^ Thats true! But over here in the GTA we prob just have to wait like two more weeks before we're safe

Besides that i'm going to get her ready in a couple of weeks, but keep my winter beater insured till the end of april. That way i'm covered if we get more of the "white death" in early april!!!

pros what's goin on with the clutch? get it fixed?

Well it's done, my 8 has been woken from its long winter sleep. Took the cover off, lowered the tire pressure, popped the battery in and......... SHE FIRED RIGHT UP!!!! Just got back from an hour long drive!!!! Ahhhhhhh thats better

^ You lucky SOB lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Damn it!!! only driven her that one time this year, went out to my garage today and I HAVE A FLAT TIRE!!! ARGH.......