Hi everyone. I guess this is a general topic for any but I'd like to know why everyone puts their 7s away for the winter and drive it again in the warmer seasons. My experience with winter is that the rotary always has a tough time starting in cold weather - in fact it happened to flood and then lose its charge and so I was two hours late to work - great lol. I did however have plugs that were nearly 10 years old. That's what I'm presuming, fingers crossed, can't find any other entries on a tune up or plugs in the "ships log" the original owner had. I sure as hell changed the plugs and wires out as soon as possible lmao.

Anyways, just wondering, in case I'm not taking care of my car properly! Thanks.

 

I store my 7's in the winter. No winter driving unless absolutely necessary. I've driven them in the winter and they can be a hand full. Plus, the road salt just destroys these cars and as you mentioned, they're hard to start, take some time to warm up, and generally return even worse gas mileage in the cold months. Though who drives a rotary for mileage, lol. I prefer to preserve what I have and no put any more stress on the car than need be. I have one 7 that's almost 38 years old and the other two are 32 and 29 years old...

 

Personally I store all my old/classic cars in the winter months because of the salt on the roads. Here in NJ they like to drop an over abundance of salt and spray the roads with "brine". The brine is a salt water and magnesium chloride solution that gets into every nook, cranny, crevice etc and will turn your old car into a pile of rust in short order.

 

For me it's preservation, once they salt the roads, I'm done. And even acid rain in the warmer months can leave spots on the paint. I wait for a soaking rain storm to wash away all the road salt in the Spring.

Back in the 80's I drove a GS as my sole transport, East Coast Winters and all. I guess the 51/49 balance helped it to spin around it's midpoint rather than off center .

 

My 7 was a DD from 84 - 90 in all kinds of weather in Pittsburgh PA. Its not the cold or the snow thats a problem, its the salt on the roads. After 1990, I would put my car up in the garage from about Nov - April. Even though I did that I still have some rust in the rear fenders that will need to be addressed someday. I've had the car for 35 of its 37 years of existence.

Stu (7aull) has some real good advise in a thread about how to store a 7 for the winter. He should know, he used to live in Alasks until this year.

 

It's salt and snow. When I did drive my RX-7 in the winter I would have to watch it for the snow. It didn't take much snow to loose traction. Rear wheel drive, wide tires, and a light car, it didn't take much snow and the
back end would get real squirrelly.

 

daily'd my first several FDs in the nineties.. snow tires didnt seem to cut it in the northeast and developed an appreciation for them as the years went by..
so it became preservation for me...they also never saw a shop unless it was for tuning so the work was reserved for winter and for the same reasons already mentioned.. avoiding salty roads

 

Thank y'all for your replies!

I should really do the same - only issue is that it's how I get to work lol. Maybe I'll buy a cheapo winter beater w AWD. Well, that's if we get much snow, MD has this bizarre weather thing going on where in the winter you could be freezing your a$$ off in the morning and sweating by the late afternoon!

 

SALT SALT SALT


I have two RX7's, one was subjected to salt and daily driving, and it has holes in the floor/doors etc etc, my nice one was not(from the same area) and it has no rust, great shape all around....i'm not willing to put my nice car through that ever....

now on the flip side I do have a 2018 STi as a DD, bring on the salt!

 

I can think of 4 reasons why I store mine in the winter:
-salt and snow make rust
-people can't drive in the snow and I don't want it getting hit
-it sucks to drive in the winter- hard to start with the Weber, doesn't get traction, rear defrost doesn't work, window seals are toast, etc.
-if I had a garage, now would be the time I tackle any major projects for next year, but I don't, so it sits under a tarp