Drive in winter or not...?

i DO drive it .. and it is a blast
good anti-rust and winter prep and your ok for the funiest winter of your life

you have no idea how much fun it is to drive in the snow lol

what sort of winter prep do you guys do? What about the anti rust?

ya, how do you go about rust "proofing" your car. Prairie winters can be pretty brutal

i sugest an oil spray before the winter. if you can squeez getting 2 coats in before the snow hits even better. but atleast one heavy coat. grease all your hood/door/ hatch hinges/ lube your locks and all that jazz. and a good set of winter tires and your all set. i sugest the pirelii winter carving edge tires. alittle pricey but are they ever incredible. by far the best winter tires i have ever driven on with any of my vehicles. drift on guys.

mine gets put away for winter. something about me doesnt want to subject my japanese pop can panels to any sort of winter

ya but for some we dont haver that option to put our cars away for winters. as much as we all would love to do.

on a side note with all due respect... GTIR are sub 10k cars... I find it funny that you drive a 30+k brand new car in winter, but your scared of using a easily replaceable car. (GTIR can be sourced very easily and had anytime for less than 10k.)

my 0.02$ :P

I just did a rad flush, changed the thermostat to a hotter rating (195, maybe too hot!) and added a magnetic block heater... all I need is a tranny fluid change, then bring on the cold and white stuff!

Ty

where did ypu get your magnetic heater from? and what sort of money was it

Sorry, I can't say specifically how much the magnetic block heater was, I had my "personal" (AKA "cheap") mechanic put it in along with the rad flush and new thermostat, the whole bill was $220 and he hardly charges me anything for labour. I would guess it was around $100- $120? He was originally going to put a frost-plug block heater in for me but "didn't want to take apart half the drive train". He mentioned the oil pan is aluminum (I guess it wouldn't hold the magnet), so he attached the heater just above the pan / under the turbo manifold and fabricated a little bracket to help hold it on.

Sorry I can't be more help.

Ty

gtir done, can you post any pictures of the installation or finished product?

Cheers.

wow, holy crap you guys are right, that is super fun. Gtir done will know what i am talking about, we just had some really crappy snow/rain here in winnipeg. Me and my brother went out for a rip to see how she does and man is it ever fun. I was ripping around the gateway community centre parking lot gtir_done, if you go by there in the near future check out my tracks. It was so much good classic fun, some guy was there with his little truck ripping around too, so much fun. Definatly keeping it through the winter... Hope to get some video of the fun, i'll post it up if i do get some.

i run 185/60 hankook icebear w300's on 15x6.5 13lb rims for winter. I have dumped my clutch from 5k plenty of times in snow and took off as if it was raining. i drive her daily and will until she's toast. hopefully my stocks recover to give me back my s2000 fund money.

185 something blizzaks on 14" wantanabes.... and yeah laughing in the snow if sweet, dohnuts are even better

it might be a sub 10k car...but i'll have nearly 20k into it by spring..winter is the time for rebuilds and lots of pampering..the r's are not designed with canadian winters in mind. i had no rust on mine at all...not even rusty bolt heads and had it sprayed before last winter and it still rusted. i spent most of spring removing and wire wheeling rusted bolts and washing inside the rockers door bottoms etc. i was fun in the snow but so is just about anything with a set of snow tires and a good tight e brake.

Mine goes away for winter.

I`m gunna rock the winters with no spoiler or arch trims, keeps salt from getting into all the nooks and crannys. Plus i wanna see what it looks like without the trims. So far it looks like i am gunna have a fun time taking them off.

Originally I was going to, but now that my brother has decided to buy a truck and give me his winter beater to use, the R gets the winter storage and modified treatment. I want to spend some time underneath it too with a wire brush getting rid of the rust and maybe get it coated on the bottom with rust inhibitor or a similar product.

Yeah, Peg_Pulsar, that snow-bomb that went off in Winnipeg last week has DEFINITELY resulted in some fun driving! I didn't realize how slippery the roads actually were until I got into my wife's Mazda 3 and couldn't pull away from a stop sign... These R's find traction in the slickest conditions, yet if you WANT to let it loose it's just a matter of getting into the boost.

Right now my R is rust-free and I'm going to do my best to keep it that way; I know the odds are huge that it's going to rust at some point, but I'd much rather suffer the consequences than not have the most fun imaginable in a car that's basically built for the winter!

I winter-stored my Miata and RX-8, but I'll NEVER store my R...

Ty

my 2c

i dont see the point of buying a car not to drive all year, cars werent designed to be summer cars unless its a ac cobra or something along those lines

the only suggestion i have for trying to keep the rust off it, oil spray the opooh out of it, and rinse after every drive if you can

gtir done can you post some pics of the heater you installed?

cheers.

I found this block heater:Gspec performance Block Heater http://www.gspec.com/images/PRODUCT/large/7306.jpg

Well I wasn't going to drive it in the winter.. than the last Detroit regional SCCA Rally cross came up and:

I couldn't help my self...

Thats solid, is the the gti wing on the back? By the way, anyone ever used one of those heaters that you attach to the lower rad hose? I'm pretty sure my car doesnt have a block heater, at least in all my searchings i cant find one. I've heard that these ones that go on the rad hose is pretty good, cuz it kinda circulates the fluid too. Whats the word?

I think it is the gti wing yes.. I bought the car that way.. it needs to be painted one colour lol

the only issue I would have with that rad hose heater is that it makes another point of failure in hard driving conditions and may restrict coolent flow?

one solution might be buying a new hose and using your old one for the heater... when summer comes... swap em.. and vice versa next winter...

the oil pan heaters I've heard burn the oil if it sits too long b/c it's not circulating...

there is an OEM SR20 block heater available.. probly not easy to install

If you don't mind the head ach you can always wedge a battery heater around the rad... and take it out when you want to drive it...

i just buy mine last week , i live in Sept-iles .

we have lot of snow here ...
and a cold climat

synt 5w40 is a ideal , and a ( realy good ) batterie with 860CCA

Buy the best winter tire with stud and go drift in the snow

really good winter car for sure

Also dont forget to change your thermostat gti-r : open at 76°C

bumping a thread almost 3 years old:

1. Where can we find a hotter thermostat?
2. I've ran 5w40 royal purple oil the last two winters. This winter, I am thinking about running 0w40 though.
3. I have an oil pan heater. It is nice.
4. winter tires are excellent. Nothing like taking off as if it were a rainy day as nick commented before.

5. when you guys wash your car in winter, how do you keep your locks from freezing? I have some silicone spray to spray in mine, but I am unsure how much to spray in? Last winter I was late for work a few times because of the locks freezing - even after I had left the car in underground parking to "dry" out!

I parked my Pulsar for the winter. As fun as it was last year I really don't like driving it in crappy conditions. Also I want to clean it up and restore it and keep it for a long long time. Plus it's kinda fun to go back to 95HP for a few months :-)

Heated storage for a winter daily driven car = death
I ran RP 5W40 all winter and it was good.
Not sure if washing your car in the winter accelerates rust.......

i use wd40 in the locks, seems to keep mine from freezing, i run 0w40 for pretty much most of the year, except from june-sept.

neways, i find driving the pulsar extremely boring in the dry, and in crappy conditions is the only time i enjoy driving it.

HELL NO!!!!!!!

Krown + rockerguard on trouble spots.

New set of snow tires on some rally wheels.

Back to stock ride height.

Hotter t-stat: Stant Part #  13968 or GATES Part # 33748

has anyone fabbed up some mudflaps?? wanna make some before snow flies!

You can get mud flaps on ebay uk but its freaking expensive. I almost ordered a set last night but I just had to hold off on it.

http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=508

make your own.  I did.

I wanna be complaining in my gtir this winter about how sweaty my feet are
did you achieve that with these? do you have a different part number that i can find something at crappy tire or part source?

get them to cross reference it...?