I recently lost my father to a heart attack. He left behind an RX-8, which was his pride and joy. I want to keep and maintain it to preserve his memory. He put a lot of work into it to keep it reliable and running perfectly. It has around 70,000 miles on it. I already know a few things, like revving it out to prevent carbon buildup and premixing the fuel, but I’m unsure how to prepare it for the New England winter. Does anyone have tips to ensure nothing bad happens while it sits this winter?

Edit: its either an 06 or 04 I can never remember

 

garage it, fill gas tank, overinflate tires, put battery somewhere warm and put on trickle charger, some guys change the oil before storage (i always do it in the spring), some type of rodent repellent. normal car storage stuff

 

I thought in general you’re supposed to drain the gas because it goes bad after about a month. Is that not true?

 

nah gas is fine for the winter. You will probably top off the tank when you take it out of storage so you'll be fine.
sorry for the loss of your father

 

Sorry to hear about your father.
Where exactly will it sit? Don't drain the gas but add gas stabilizer. Disconnect the battery. If rodents are likely, see what repellents you can deploy. There are moth *****, but if it's in a garage attached to your house, you probably don't want to smell them all winter.

 

i prefer a full tank with stabil. i know the 8 tank is different but have seen way too many bikes end up with rusted tanks from long term storage

 

Im up in NH and just stuff dryer sheets in nooks and cranies. Unless you have other gaping holes. I have found mice getting in two spots primarily. Either into the airbox....because manufacturers still dont know how to put grates over the intake. The other is through the rear fenders.

So make sure you have you cabin filters in so they cant go deeper. Otherwise getting dryer sheets behind the carpet and shoved into the rear fenders through the trunk can help.

To avoid rust I highly recommend NH oil undercoatings. Almost every car up here has the rocker pinch welds rust out.

 

im in nepa and never worried about rust cause i always stored it well before the brine/salt/snow

 

Nepa?

I mainly ran into the issue of rusting from swinging humidity and temps. Bouncing between 0-1000% humidity and 80deg to 30deg within a day can happen. One day Ill have a climate controlled garage.

 

sorry its a regional saying. NEPA- north east pa

 

ahh thats what I was guessing. googling nepa isnt the easiest thing.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your loss. As they said, stabil in the gas tank, charge the battery. IMHO I like to start my car up and let it warm up every now and then. It's not too long but I prefer to. Clean it before putting into storage so anything on the paint won't etch into the clear coat. A good detail and wax, clean the inside just in case there's anything in there that the rodents might try to get to. Food, ect. My condolences.

 

This is not recommended, cold starts are where most of the wear, carbon accumulation and cat saturation happens. A cold, dry car is a preserved car. Just unplug the battery negative cable, and it will last all winter.

 

Oh, very well. I just hate the feeling of the car sitting for months at a time and not at least running it a couple times. My jetta sat for a year and I always had someone Take it for a spin every now and again to keep the rotors from rusting so bad, and cycle the fluids. I will change my practices

 

Either way its gonna scare you with some random problem every once inna while and then jus smile n say "ahhh rotary" 🙂🔫

 

Sorry to hear about your father.