winterizing the ti
 

Hey guys, getting ready to store up my ti for the winter. Just made it to North Pole, AK from Spirit Lake, IA last couple days. Little cramped ride with all my crap and my step brother from spokane to here but wasn't bad : ). Rather keep her off the roads for the winter up here as I keep hearing their kinda on the colder and snowier side : ). Been trying to find information on a frost plug heater? something that prevents either the radiator or the engine block itself from cracking due to fluid expansion under cold temperatures? Found some reference to block heaters but from my understanding those are more to keep oil in a more liquid state vs a thicker slime kinda crap. Anyone done this work any notes/reference would be cool. Checked out the bentley manual and can't find any mention of it so yeah, help would be appreciated : ). Thanks in advance.

Any other winter preperation suggestions would be really cool. Thanks everyone. Take care.

this thread might help you out:
http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=4371

search for "winterizing" for other prep advice, i know i've posted a few times on this.

Not sure where you'll be parking but when I stored my ti I made the mistake of leaving wool sweaters in the car for dry cleaning and parking near some birdseed. Not surprisingly in April I found a few mouse turds in there. Not bad at all but if they had gotten into my wiring (which they had not, removed some panels and checked, etc) it is possible to ruin a cars wiring. Just remove the creature comforts from the garage and you'll be better off.

hey I drive my TI in the winter I got some snow tires with the car I make sure the ANTI SWAY is on and I spin the tires. I am getting pretty darn good at driving out of skids. There is the occasional un-plowed parking lot which always sucks but it all makes it more entertaining lol

First of all thanks for the responses guys. Checked through that thread link, guess I'll see about getting a hold of that Town Line Autowerke and see if they have some specific information for me.

*winces* Mice in the TI? that had to be a welcoming fact when you opened her up for spring. My dad and I are actually putting together what should work out to be a big a-frame tent to park it in till the snow starts clearing up.

As for the winter driving, gave it a shot last year in IA, thought I had started to get the skidding down myself and then ended up with a ticket for failure to maintain control of my vehicle after I ended up parallel parking in some ladies yard at 15-20 mph facing the opposite direction I was going. Managed to get the ticket changed too a seatbelt violation but not gonna try that up here : ). Also figure with my dad telling me about the number of accidents out here, I'd just assume have a beater truck that gets plowed into, hopefully no doing the plowing with, than have the ti get knocked out of commision. Feel too bad hearing about other people losing theirs. Don't think I could handle it being my own : ).

a truck might get you going, but all the 4wd in the world isn't going to help you stop any faster. furthermore, the sheer weight of those things make them even MORE of a liability in snow.


get a snowmobile; the ski-doo summit 800 is quite nice.

Are you kidding? some 40 below? on a snowmobile? guess it's done up here so maybe, suppose that's what layers are for. :biggrin:

ASC+T and Snow Tires
 

I drive my 98 TI year round in Canada, cold -40 (at times) snow and ice. The ti with snow tires (BF Goodrich Winter Slaloms) and ASC is the test handling car I have driven in the the snow, it easily out handles a subaru outback in the snow. I drive it weekly to the mountains to go skiing. I have had the summer tires on a couple of times when it snows and it is like wearing dress shoes on a skating rink. As far as frost plugs & block heaters. All engine blocks should have frost plugs if you have good anti-freeze coolant in the system it shouldn't be a problem. The block heater just makes it easier to start when it is -30.

About freeze plugs... they're NOT there to prevent the block from cracking. The only reason for having them is for when the engine is removed from the mold when it's made, the holes allow the sand to empty from the block, then the 'core plugs' are insterted to just fill the whole. The probability of the plugs popping out before the block cracks is almost non-existant.

I drive the car in the winter,. it sucks in the snow but if you like doing doughnuts and stuff like that it's great! The thing about driving it in the snow is that without a LSD, when you spin, it sends all the power to the wheel that's spinning,. you can get stuck on a very small patch of ice,..,

i agree with calgary, a good set of snows and ASC+T (even pre-LSD) worked quite well in the snow. haven't driven in snow yet since the LSD install, be interesting to see the differences.