Recently the weather has been appalling by South East England standards. My old cover has ripped and the new one I got (Halfords all-weather cover, size S) is fine but the wind is blowing it off one of the corners.
In short, I am getting fed up of mollycoddling what is a £7k car while my other, more expensive metal is just left to the elements and does not complain.I am happy to not drive the car in the rain but dealing with covers and straps is driving me mad. My garage has other things in it so I can’t use that. On the other hand I am not excited at the idea of discovering and having to deal with leaks, such as around the boot, roof or footwells.
So, the questions are:
Do others just leave their MX-5s out in the elements
What precautions do they take
Do bad things happen?
By way of background, I have had the underside professionally Waxoyled including the arches, Autoglym fabric waterproofed the hood, run trombone cleaners through the x2 drain holes at the back, replaced the perished grommets and applied silicone seal to the drain holes under the windscreen wiper plenum, UV-protected the exposed plastic elements and turtle waxed the painted body and alloy wheels.
Thoughts and (polite) general observations welcome.
Hi julesmx51. I have a had 2016 ND Icon for 4 years now and that has sat outside all that time with no covers and just a wash when I get a chance. It does get a bit of mildew around the edges of the hood but I scrub these off when I wash it, it doesn’t suffer from any leaks. I do have a double garage but the 25,000 mile Mk2 sits in there with a cover on. The reason the ND doesn’t go in there is because it is our everyday car, although we are retired now and as our garage is behind gates in the back garden it would be a faff having to get it out just to run to the shops. It was used daily up until I retired about 18 months ago, it is also used to block in my Land Rover Defender which is worth a lot more than the MX5.
My ND gets left outside all the time as my garage is full of bikes and tools etc. I use a half cover made by Cabrio Shield. It is very easy to fit and does not flap about. It stops the roof from getting mildew and prevents debris from going down and blocking the roof drains. These covers are specific to the type and model of car. I have tried and given up with full covers as they flap about and can scratch the paintwork.
Mine sits outside 24/7.
Like you I did the wiper scuttle grommets and the drain tubes.
I used Nikwax tent UV protector and proofer ( always been my go to because it doesn’t require time to dry before effective )
Underside has been done with dinitrol.
I would humbly suggest that the ND is a little more ‘robust’ for leaving outside just because the design is that little bit more modern and expectations of practicality are higher. Or look at it this way, few people leave their NAs or NBs outside. NC is the cusp of when these cars just started getting easier to live with so it’s interesting to see CBRDEANO’s nice blue model outside without a cover…
Yep, agree with that. My 2009 NC2 is tucked away in the garage over the winter. It’s Dintrol coated underneath which is checked and recoated as necessary every year.
My 2007 NC1 has been left outside for the last three years. It’s not been treated underneath but I did renew the scuttle grommets, and always maintain the roof drains regularly.
The only problem I’ve encountered is condensation on the inside of the roof, and that was just this winter, presumably because it got really cold. The condensation was so bad it was dripping onto the seats.
I had that even with a cover over it…any residual warm air from the heating system will turn to water on contact with a cold surface like the roof. Can’t be helped really.
My NC1 stays outside in all weathers and as others have said, clean drainage holes and sealed scuttle grommets are a must. I’ve had a bit of algae growth on the hood (outside) which is easily removed with a small squirt of glyphosate and a scrub a day later.
I leave some of these (link to Amazon) in a device I made to hold them which consists of a chinese take-away container (edges slightly trimmed) with small holes drilled in the bottom suspended inside a litre ice-cream container. The granules deliquesce into a liquid which collects in the outer container.
The ice-cream lid can go back on when you’re driving the car to prevent spillage of the granules.
This really seems to work as I’ve had clear windows and no water drops on the roof since I’ve been using it.
Suppose you could empty the garage and get a decent hut in the back yard for all the “stuff”.
I’m sure it’s proper Mancave stuff mind…
Garages are for CARS.
Harrumph…
Rustles Guardian with vigour.
Thinks…" Man is a disgrace…never happened in my day as I greased my nipples."
It depends how long you want it to last.
My NB sits outside all year long. Inevitably there will be repercussions over a long period of time.
It should last a winter.
“any residual warm air from the heating system will turn to water on contact with a cold surface like the roof.”
Not if you have just been out on a run in sub zero temperatures and 20-mile visibility. The heater draws air from outside which on that day will have a sub-zero dew point and low moisture content. So it won’t subsequently condense at temperatures above zero. Mopping up your condensation on a freezing cold morning and going on a spirited drive or just leaving it parked with the top or windows down is the best thing you can do. Cold air tends to be dry air.
Cars rotting away in a garage? If you have an integral garage with an internal door to the kitchen then it’s air will tend to equalise with the living space, typically with a dew point approaching 14C. Park over a ton of freezing cold metal in there and you will get massive condensation - unless you open the garage door and delay parking in there for 10 minutes until all the moist warm air has gone.
Don’t park up for the winter on grass. I used to be the groundsman for the village cricket team. I could never put down loam after the end of September (in the north Midlands) as it immediately turned to wet clay and became unworkable because the pitch never dried out, even during the day. Couldn’t do a thing on it before April.
I also have a Cabrio Shield for my NC. Absolutely love it. Good quality fabric, not that thin stuff a lot of covers are made off. Locks behind your door and trunk lid. Magnetic strips with fleece. Very tight fit in a positive way; it means it barely moves even when it storms. This will protect your roof from a lot of gunk in the wet seasons and from UV (from what I understood the biggest enemy of soft tops) in the summer. Top product!
You’ve done everything I would probably do if keeping a soft top car outside in terms of protection. So treat the rest of the car, the metal basically as you would any other car. Regular cleaning and waxing is favourite if you’re that bothered about protecting your car, some don’t.
So cover the soft top and leave the rest to the elements, lifting (if not in regular use) the cover periodically for airing the top of the car.
We had our old NB sitting outside for 17 years and never had any problems. As we did not use it over winter I fitted a generic “full” cover which I then used a couple of undrebody straps on to prevent it from blowing off. As and when we had a decent day I would get the cover off to check it matbe twice over the Winter period. Our ND also sits outside and as we do not “put it away” for the Winter I got a dedicated half cover for it from MX5 parts. This has lasted 4 years and is now going to be replaced.
I noted that the current price for the same cover now s £100 which is way overpriced for what it is, (and is not waterproof), so I have opted to buy a similar cover from “Custom Covers”. This has only just arrived and is basically the same price as the MX5 parts cover but on the face of it appears to be vastly superior quality and is supposed to be waterproof…
Is a half cover like the photos here something that you would all recommend for a brand new mx5 that sits out in my driveway. I would like to avoid problems further down the line…
