Time is come to put away this amazing car after my first 4 months of ownership. This car is a blast and I've had so much fun just driving it around normally and just crusing. It's about to go into storage until April so about 5 months.

So after searching the forums, I'll be disconnecting the negative terminal on the battery as recommended in the owners manual, page 8-13,

"If the vehicle is not to be used for 30 days or longer, disconnect the (—) negative battery
terminal cable to prevent discharging it."

Now there is a step by step procedure to prevent damage to the window and roof panel that says to close the windows, open the hood, close doors, disconnect negative cable, close hood. This is no problem...until I start it up in the spring. The procedure to reconnect the battery cable is...

To connect the negative (−) battery terminal, perform the procedure in the following
order. Otherwise, the window and the side roof panel may contact and be damaged.

1. Unlock and open the driver side door.Do not close the door.
2. Open the hood.
3. Connect the negative (−) battery terminal.Then close the hood.
4. Fully open the driver side door window.
5. Close the driver side door and the window.

Here is my problem, the car will be stored with the drivers door pretty much against the wall to allow as much room for us to walk by with stuff, groceries, recycle bins, garbage, etc. So I will not have access to the drivers door, will be exiting and entering the car through the passenger side. Any way around this? Can I follow the procedure but use the passenger door instead? Will I be damaging anything using the passenger side? Any thoughts on how to get around this?

 

Back in.
It has to be drivers side since drivers side is the only side with an exposed keyhole to manually unlock the door with unless you are willing to leave it unlocked.

 

Leave the battery connected and run/use the vehicle once a week. Much better for the vehicle than letting it sit for months without being used.
Check tire pressure also

Telcoman

 

It will be backed in but the drivers door will be almost touching the wall. I plan to hop over the passenger side and exit the car that way. I can leave it unlocked if I need to just confused as the owners manual procedure says to 'open drivers door' which wont be possible until I actually start it. Just curious if the passenger door can be used instead of the drivers for this procedure. If there is no power to the car how can the window drop upon opening the door??

Can't do that the car will not be plated or insured for the road and I won't be around for a month at least. Not sure that is a good idea anyway. The car will not reach proper operating temperature at idle enough to burn off condensation or raw gasoline that gets into the oil and exhaust system on cold startups. It gets pretty cold up here the next 4 months.

 

Hey bud what if you get a smart battery charger... It won't over charge.. It like a battery tender. I keep my Infiniti M and my Kawasaki zx10r.. The M is been on it for the last 2 months.. Works great...

 

I would have gone that route, but I won't have access to a power outlet where it is being stored.

 

You disconnect the battery while the door is open, this way the window is already dropped and won't hit the top beam when you open/close it. It will still seal just fine and keep stuff out of the car with the window slightly dropped, but just won't seal as tightly as it does when you have the window up that extra 1 or 2 mm (used to basically seal out wind and rain at highway speeds). It's fine for being parked though.

Just do the normal procedure but on your passengers side door, but make sure you don't lock the door at all when closing it. If you lock the door before you shut it, you will be unable to get back into your car unless you climb through the trunk since there won't be any power going to the electrical system to open it with the fob and there is no exposed keyhole on the passengers side door to manually open it with. If it's in a garage, you could always just keep the window rolled partially down anyways in case you forget to unlock it prior to buttoning it up for the winter.

I've stored mine outside in my driveway every year since I bought it new in '04 through harsh-a$$ed Massachusetts winters and no water ever came in through my drivers side door with normal procedure. Most years I put it under a cover, but sometimes I didn't (due to not being able to properly wash the car prior to snow arriving, and not wanting to have dirt scraped into my paint all winter long by the wind blowing against the car cover).

If you want to use the drivers side door, you'll have to flip the car around and park the other way so the passengers side door is up near the wall, which I assume will make it tougher for you to get your battery out given the location in the corner near the passengers side door. You could always just put it on a battery tender with the battery in the car too and it would simplify the whole thing for you. Personally, I don't feel comfortable leaving my stuff 100% of the time on a battery tender but that's only because I don't like to take any extra risks of fire or electrical damage, etc.... but I've never heard of anyone I know personally ever having a problem doing so.

 

Yeah, that's a good idea regarding the passenger door. Only thing I'm worried about is insects getting in through the unsealed window. Oh well, I guess I don't have a choice, this needs to get done at the latest tomorrow since I'll be gone for a week. I'll just open the passenger door, let the window drop, disconnect the cable and then close the door.

If anyone is curious, the reason I don't go front in is because if there's a problem and you need to get to the engine you are basically screwed. This happened to me with my old RX-7. When I connected the battery to start, it wouldn't and there was no way to get to the engine. Had to hire a tow truck driver with dollies NASCAR style to maneuver the car out of this mess which was a delicate operation that took over an hour and cost me $250. So lesson learned, always reverse in to have unencumbered access to the hood and engine. I'll try and post a pic when I get this done.

 

The procedure listed will work just fine with the passenger door. The manual states "driver's side" simply because that's where the keyhole is and they didn't plan for the one scenario where someone leaves their car unlocked the entire time it's stored. Basically you don't want to shut the door if the window didn't drop, as in opened with disconnected battery. My windows drop almost have an inch, moisture and bugs can certainly get inside if left "dropped."

 

So I'll just follow the owners manual procedure using the passenger door instead of the drivers door. One more question, in the spring the manual states to open the door before I connect the battery cable. How is the window suppose to drop to prevent damage to to the roof panel if the first step is to open the door before there is any electrical power?

 

It kind of slides out from underneath due to the shape and curve of the glass. If you were to then try to close it, there's a chance it might catch the roof panel instead of sliding into the rubber molding.

Personally, I would try to carefully test it in your driveway before storing it, just to make sure it does work as planned.

 

Dang, missed your post. Oh well, too late now. Tried calling a couple of dealers to ask about this procedure, I may have well been speaking Chinese. Totally useless, "just follow the manual in order..'.

I just finished parking it, had to be done as I'm leaving for a while. Attached a couple of quick photos to give you guys an idea. I left a 1/2 foot of space on the drivers side, can always squeeze one of the kids in there to get to the drivers door lol. I guess we'll have to wait until spring to find out but surely someone here has done this procedure? Still curious how the window will drop with no power if opening the door is the first step.

 

You could also just not latch the hood down all the way after pulling the battery... this way you can fully lock up the car and when it's time to use it again, just open the hood, put the battery back in, unlock it and go.

 

Yeah, if you look at the photos closely this is what I did, you can see the hood is closed but not latched. Will give me more options in the spring. Sounds logical enough, just attach the cable FIRST then open the doors. Maybe the owners manual is assuming the car will be left unattended in some facility and needs to be all locked, hence their procedure.

 

Because the window is still down slightly. You close the door with battery disconnected so the window does not automatically go up to seal to the weatherstrip.