Winter and 480's

[jifflemon]

Thanks to Sylvia's recent problems forcing her to break out dehumidifiers, I thought I'd add a few random musings about "winter proofing" a 480.

First and most obvious, is to make sure your 480 is water tight. Yes, we've all heard the jokes, but its actually not as hard as it seems. Obvious ones are door vapour barriers, the rear hatch wiring loom. Check the under bonnet drains too. Just because everyone screams rear light seals, don't jump there (and this is speaking as the man who SELLS the damn things!). If you're struggling finding the leaks, consider the simple task of removing the boot carpet. I swear any village struggling with floods could probably saved by lobbing a 480 boot carpet in their direction - Nothing absorbs water quite like one! Car covers? Well, not if you like your paint. Car covers will blow about in the wind and rub against paintwork. Sure the car my stay dry but now a respray is on the cards.

Next up: Use it or park it? My general rule is that if the gritters haven't been out, its safe for the 480. If you are parking up for a while, always try to park "nose up"; Any water ingress would hopefully go down hill to the spare wheel well out drain out. Don't forget about your battery too - If you're parking, you should consider either disconnecting the earth clamp, or buy yourself a battery charger/conditioner (honestly, they should be in every 480 owners tool kit!). My preference is for something that does at least 5 amps and can preferably do some form of "smart charging". I'm a fan of Ctek stuff as they have handy connectors (but will confess to owning 9 different battery chargers!).

If you have the luxury of garage, do remember to leave the windows down a little - Air flow through the car is very important. If you're still driving, having the windows down a touch (and heater blowers going full tilt) will do wonders. If your parking and it's going to be dry, consider cracking the window slightly for a few hours. Or, you could break our the dehumidifier if you've got one (or two!)

Finally, another VERY important thing to do, is NOT forget about it. Check the car at least once a week. You're wanting to check for damp carpets, wipe down any condensation from windows (Karcher window vac's are cheap and super handy for this!) and considering rolling the car forwards and backwards (clears surface rust from brakes and stops tyres from flat spotting).

[Martin63]

Great advice Jeff - thank you so much.

What about the fuel tank? Does it really matter or is it better to leave it with just a minimal amount of fuel in it over the winter period?

Glad you mentioned the windows. I am lucky enough to have now found a garage, but I would not have thought of leaving them open a crack to help with air circulation.

Thanks again!

[jifflemon]

Fuel tank is plastic so now chance of it rusting. I'd leave as empty as possible, so that you can then add plenty of fresh stuff come the summer months

[Martin63]

[triumphtoledo]

I parked mine nose-up for a week and water came through the front (possibly via fuse box/wiring), filled the plastic snow trays and created puddles in the rear floor

[Baxter]

Thanks for the good advices, IMHO with an empty tank there are more choices of rusting the fuel pump.

If there are also big changes on temperature there are also more chance of humidity inside the tank.

I always heard that the pertrol deteriorate with time but my experience with a 6 years parked SAAB 900 was an stucked fuel pump but the remaining petrol still usable.

[jifflemon]

Valid points; my thinking is that modern ethanol laden fuel is not very good (utter shite would probably be my description).it doesn’t like to stand. I tend to only put E5 in mine.
Your experience with the Saab is probably due to it having real fuel!