Do you park in your garage with the roof down?

Without doubt every single time in the garage the roof is down, unless it's damp/wet in which case it's allowed to fully dry, then dropped.

Allows the car to air, allows the soft-top area between roof and rear seal to dry, runs the roof motor, keeps the hinges and joints moved.

Leaving it down imho has more advantages than disadvanteges and I cite my 2003 on original motor and near perfect roof as an example (albeit with hardtop in Winter).

To the question re chargers - Pointless putting trickle chargers on batteries unless being left for several days and alarmed as 1) car shuts down almost completely after 15 mins if not alarmed 2) altenator will keep it in perfect condition.
 
benlumley said:
Does it keep the battery in better condition or something then? Wondering why you'd go to the trouble, however little effort!
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Just a habit I've got into. My wife and I used to have 6 cars between us, so flat batteries were a perennial problem, especially for those cars that weren't used very often, or with complex electronics that drained the battery quickly (Porsche 928S4, E34 M5).

Lead acid batteries don't like going completely flat - it shortens their life considerably and can kill them stone dead. Hence the investment in trickle chargers.

The charger ensures that you always have a fully charged battery (some cars are quite sensitive to battery voltage) - and the XS7000 (now replaced by the MXS 7.0) also has a "recondition" mode for deeply discharged batteries.

Yes, it is a bit unnecessary to always put the car on a charger, but often when I park a car I have no idea when I'll be driving it again (my daily commute to work is by train), and the electronics in the CTek chargers ensures that they are not going to do any harm to the car/battery, so why not.
 
Nosa said:
bigdog said:
I just don't like the thought of being in a confined space with a house/wolf spider that can run like Usain Bolt.
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I wonder if said spider managed to do a full lap of your garage without being squished if it would also milk its celebrations for 2 hours afterwards boring everyone to tears.

For me car in Garage, roof up!!
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To be honest. If I caught a Primadonna :winner: spider doing that. I'd have trapped it in a jar and pulled it's legs off one by one. :evil:
 
My cabs always roof down (in a well secured garage). Never get wet (and never use the windscreen washers :D).

Batteries disconnected if I know they won't be used for a while.
Not a big fan of trickle chargers.
 
I'd be worried about spiders if I lived in a country like Australia where the little buggers' bites pack a punch... Possibly one of the few reasons to own a coupe!
 
Bing said:
Also, we have had mice in our garage in the past - I have no idea how they would get up into the car, but my paranoia knows no bounds :cry:
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You're not the only paranoid. I wouldn't even call it paranoia. I've discovered turds in some very unlikely locations. Buggers must be miniature flying squirrels to get there. And Mrs. Workz is even worse! I'm admonished any time I leave a window down! :roll:

So top up always, unless going out again the same day. CJ makes a good point of top down allows airing out, but for me, it usually smells pleasantly of leather conditioner. If it smells like dirty laundry, I know it's time to clean the seats. :oops:
 
During summer months leave roof down with cotton cover over to stop dust and fly sh.t . every week or so raise and lower roof - never taken car out in rain so roof never gets wet but would certainly never leave down when wet/damp.
 
Roof up in garage to keep dust/spiders off my napa leather. :) Dust sheet if being left for a few days or more.
 
I leave mine down if it's been nice and will continue to be nice otherwise it's up. Also depends how long I am going to be leaving the car for.
 
If it came into the garage with roof down, the roof stays down. Same thing if the roof is up, I'll leave it up in the garage. My garage is pretty clean, and gawd - we don't have any wolf spiders here - only the occasional black widow, just for fun.... Never seen one in my car.
 
Always up to keep the fabric stretched and to ensure I regularly use the roof motor ,read somewhere to use regularly
to minimise pump issues :?
 
wegras said:
Always up to keep the fabric stretched and to ensure I regularly use the roof motor ,read somewhere to use regularly
to minimise pump issues :?
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Agreed.

I don't have a garage so the roof always goes up after a trip. However, if I did have a garage, the roof would still go up - I don't think having the roof fabric folded is a good plan.

Cheers
Kav
 
Just did a search to see if it was ok to leave the roof down and of course didn’t think about people with hardtops, the roof would be down for a considerable amount of time with a hardtop fitted.

I tend to do as above, if I arrive home with the roof down it stays down, if I arrive home with the roof up it stays up. I very rarely use the car with the roof up though, so it’s down most of the time.

My last garage was so small it was easier to get out of the car by lowering the roof than opening the door and as the naff roof dripped I always put the roof back up again, so the roof motor got plenty of exercise! My new garage is lovely and modern, a good size with a proper pitched roof and plastered ceiling. I’ve carpeted the walls to prevent scratches and laid carpet tiles on the floor to keep the dust down. Seems great so far, every now and then I run the vacuum over the carpet tiles to get rid of any dust or leaves.
 
Once left it down overnight when in the garage only to find numerous small spiders had taken up residence the next morning so roof is always up. During winter months car gets very little use so I also put a car cover on :thumbsup:
 
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