Winterize For Winter Use - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

Okanebm · 10-08-2012, 06:44 PM

So with my day off today, my wife and I watched the DVR'd episodes of "Elementary". In one of the episodes, Sherlock wrecks a car into a Boxster with a hardtop. After my initial shock, this got me to thinking about the winter. My plan from the beginning was to drive the Boxster as much as possible; of course my dearest plans to drive it much more. Got a good lead on W/D/S tires and will be picking up within the week if the deal doesn't go south. I did a full tuneup on the car when bought, plugs, tubes, oils, tb cleaned, coolant flush/fill, poor man's tranny rebuild, basically an Italian tuneup if a German had done it... Oh wait, that's right, I'm half-German. But my nagging thought has been the convertible top. So, here it is, is there anyone out there that will vouch that the Boxster soft-top will survive four-season use? And/Or is there anything else I should do to prepare the car for winter use?

wawa · 10-08-2012, 07:47 PM

I did not had any problem with my top after one winter in Quebec City. But I was always scare that too much snow on it would be hard. I clean the top every day. One morning there was 2 feet of snow. Still no problem. The top was change by PO with a glass window so no worry on that too. Often lots of ice on it but after a half hour drive with heater on, all was gone.

Still this year I now have a hard top ready and waiting for the snow to come in. Even Better, I now have a garage, so no worry at all this winter. Getting ready to put the snowboard on top and go for a joy ride to the mountain

Later all
Chris

Okanebm · 10-08-2012, 08:13 PM

That's what I needed to hear. Hardtop will be a future purchase, softtop should be fine for a Virginia winter. Now if I was still up in Mt Vernon, Washington??? Still not as far north as Canada!

2003S · 10-09-2012, 04:12 AM

My Ragtop is headed into it's 2nd Chicago winter -- no problems last year; save for a slight leak by the driver's window which was rectified by a convertible top adjustment.

Make sure you've cleaned & sealed it with something like Raggtop or that Aerospace stuff...

Winter tires are required, summers turn to hockey pucks when its cold outside.

smagerstein · 10-09-2012, 06:29 AM

6th winter here in Slovenia.. We have snow about 30 days a year so quite a bit. I use the box year round since 2006 when I bought it.

Absolutely no problems at all. All I do every year is the following.

1. Anti freeze in the wiper fluid
2. Snow tires (which are required by law) between october to march.
3. Treat the soft top with some scotchgaurd or equivelent.

No leaks.. No deteriation of anything. Easy to drive on the snow, just dont have a heavy right foot and dont accelerate into corners

All good. Cheers

Okanebm · 10-09-2012, 04:37 PM

I'll be looking Forward to a good soft-top cleaning and scotch guarding before the winter. Not to mention the snow tires. Chicago and Slovenia... Have not seen a Chicago winter since 1992. Slovenia was seen from the deck of a Cruiser back in 1995.

Okanebm · 10-09-2012, 04:46 PM

Do you all have the winter tires in staggered sizes also? Or do you run same size all around? Just wondering in case Virginia has a Snowmageddon this year...

2003S · 10-10-2012, 05:02 AM

Yes, I run a 17" staggered setup in the winter (I'd run 16s, but they won't clear the calipers) and 18" for summer.

recycledsixtie · 10-10-2012, 05:20 AM

No you should not have a problem with your conv. top in winter. Ideally your Box should be in a garage but if not brush snow off with a soft snow brush.

I bought blizzak snow tires secondhand and a spare set of Porsche rims that came off a 911. They are 16 inch rims/tires but they were cheap enough I did not care. Unfortunately there is less body clearance than with my 17 inch summer tires but the snow tires work well in winter. My 2001 Boxster base has no psm. I have driven one winter so far with no problems so certainly do not push the limits like I do in summer especially cornering. The car feels more substantial than my previous 99 Miata MX5. I now have heated seats for our Can. winters. Starting is no problem. No block heater needed. If no snow depth is a problem - more than say 3 inches, I use my wife's Camry. Enjoy!

Ghostrider 310 · 10-10-2012, 05:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smagerstein

6th winter here in Slovenia.. We have snow about 30 days a year so quite a bit. I use the box year round since 2006 when I bought it.

Absolutely no problems at all. All I do every year is the following.

1. Anti freeze in the wiper fluid
2. Snow tires (which are required by law) between october to march.
3. Treat the soft top with some scotchgaurd or equivelent.

No leaks.. No deteriation of anything. Easy to drive on the snow, just dont have a heavy right foot and dont accelerate into corners

All good. Cheers

Your long winter is an upstate NY fantasy, we have winter from about Nov - Apr and have won the golden snowball award for maximum snow accumulation of 149" in 2009, they are saying this year will also be snowy.

Topless · 10-10-2012, 08:36 AM

A good set of snow tires make winter driving much better. All Season tires are weak sauce in comparison if you get regular snow. If I were to shoe up my Boxster today, it would be on 205F/225R 16s.

For reference: Some drivers believe that we don't actually have snow in Calif. They would be mistaken. This is 45 minutes from my house:
JUST A LITTLE SNOW | LOCAL CELEBRITY

Ghostrider 310 · 10-10-2012, 09:45 AM

During some months, my brother could ski in Cali and go to the beach the next day. I love Cali, I really do.