This is an odd issue. Mine stood for six months of normal winter conditions in a very exposed place on level ground with just a teaspoon of water getting in. Recently I’ve been parked on a steep road with the front jacked up. Heavy rain over twelve hours and I was siphoning over two litres out of the boot! Today, not jacked up, in light rain over a few hours and there is 60 ish mls got in?
The solution is obvious but it’s niggling me not knowing what going on. Nothing wrong with the boot rubber that I can see. I need a drip-activated spy camera.
I totally agree Mad_Malc, I bought a Lidl Battery Conditioner a few years back and it is fabulous and does the job perfectly 
Whatever position the vehicle is left in, do NOT yank on the handbrake but instead put the car in 1st or reverse and chock a wheel or two especially on a decent incline. You run a risk of the rear pads "welding"onto to rotors so to speak. Unless that is you intend to give it a wee Italian Tune Up once a week.
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Mine will be on the driveway over winter with a half cover. I anticipate a weekly (certainly fortnightly) run out on bone dry days. I should be ok without any major precautions?
I presume you know the drain filters and foam to be clear?
Easiest way to do this (on a ND) is to remove some internal trim to get at the filters. Was quite quick and easy in the end. The Mazda owners manual perversly says you should do it but not how!
There are other similar videos
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So I plan to garage mine for as long as we’re getting salted roads. Popular wisdom seems to be
- Wash and dry it. Hopefully have the underside dry too before you put it away.
- Keep the hood up
- Don’t start it ocassionally letting it idle a while (better to take it for a drive if you’re going to do that so you don’t just flush the internals with petrol)
- Keep the battery charged with an intelligent charger
- Keep the hand brake off
- Inflate the tyres to max allowable tyre pressure to reduce liklihood flat spots developing.
South of the UK I guess that could be, what, 3 months max? Is that last point re tyres worth doing? What do other folk do - go out for drive during any window in the weather?
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I’ve done similar for the last 3 winters. Half cover on (but it’s on all the time whatever the season or weather). Flipping it off whenever you can to air it. Driving it once every 2.5-5 weeks, depending on dry, but crucially no salt, so if we have a dry, cold period, but they grit every day, I wait until that period is over and we’ve had a week or so of pounding rain to wash ‘most’ of it away. Take it out then the next dry/salt ‘free’ day.
ctek it about once every week-10 days for the battery. I don’t leave it perma on outside, just charge it up and take it off when finished. Push it forward/backwards every couple of weeks for flat spots.
…but then all of this is totally and utterly pointless in many cases, as despite doing all of this, all it took was a t**t rear ending me on a mobile phone to make me thinking ‘what’s the point, when millions of idiots like him exit and share the same roads’
…and also if you’re one to eventually sell it (sometimes life or just fancying a change can come around, even if we think it won’t at the present time) and do so at dealerships etc as a part exchange, again it’ll all be totally pointless as you’ll get no more money for going to such extreme measures looking after it.
Those posters who sometimes say ‘just drive it and enjoy it’, maybe have more of a point than we sometimes gven them credit for 
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Agreed, but if there’s less rust when you come to sell it becuase you’ve not driven it in salt, that will increase its value I think.
Garages need to be ventilated really as otherwise (being potentailly warm and damp) they can actually enourgage rust. Ideally I think you need a covered ‘car port’ outside under which you can park your car in winter…
I’m in the ‘use all year round’ camp - it sits outside, it’s maintained, the roof is waterproof, turn the key (or press the button in the ND’s case!) and off we go…
Worth/value is also an interesting discussion. You could say that if you’ve limited your use of the asset during certain times of the year, that asset has been of less value/worth to you during your ownership. Is the car for you, or the next owner? Discuss
It’s also clouded by other choices. I get my '5s properly treated and under sealed - my ND is booked in shortly. Now this is absolutely linked to the fact that I want it available for use at any point of the year. I totally understand those that only use them in good weather and who garage them, may see rust treatment and underseal as an unnecessary expense. For me, it’s useful/vital now and it’s also of benefit/value to the next owner.
Cheers,
Steve
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Selling to an enthusiast maybe. But then the private selling route can have its own issues. ‘Would you take a 70,000 miles Astra and some gym equipment, mate’
If you were part exchanging an MX5 at a dealership I’d be surprised- astonished even- if a salesman would be on his hands an knees checking the underside of it, nor rewarding someone for saying they didn’t take it out on Nov 11th in any ownership years, as the salt gritters were about. Even then there’s that thing called the market value. If the salesman is seeing ‘ten grand’ on his computer screen, how much really is he going to up it to take account of all the crazy parameters an owner went to , babying it beyond comprehension. A few hundred? There’s still the market value at the end of the day. Then think, 'oh, after all the lengths I’ve went to, I’ve got £350 more than I would have, if I’d have just used it as, uh, ‘a car’.
I’m not knocking the approach, I do it myself, but I think it’s something to do with my brain, rather than common sense.
@JohnS . Just replaced a fuel pump so have access to the drains. I’m pretty sure they don’t affect the boot area; rather you get water accumulating behind the seats if they block.
Depends whether you have taxed it of course I took mine out on average once every ten days. It’s good to give the engine a workout but plenty other things need that too. Pretty salty where I live so the brakes were a particular worry.
I am going to SORN my 31 year old Mk1 at the end of October for 5 months and my only concern is the tyres. I can pump them up to the maximum allowable pressure, as mentioned earlier in this thread, or buy some tyre chocks online to alleviate the problem of flat spots on the tyres.
Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.
You could keep all the tyres off the floor with 2 sets of axle stands.
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Brake disks are another potential issue if the car is outside. 4-5 months of a winter’s rain and moisture walloping on those disks, not getting removed via braking, isn’t the best.
I roll my car back and forth every week when SORN. Also as @CBRDEANO advised lifting the car off the ground might be an option too, however I’m sure there will be different opinions regarding this method.
Personally I would not leave the car on axle stands for any period of time as having the suspension on full droop is not going to be too good for it. Better to just roll the car forward every now and then. I have never had any problems with flat spots and ‘store’ 2 cars over the winter for many years.
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I’d just move the car in some way every couple of weeks. I like it up on axle stands as you can just stop the discs getting too rusty and gumming everything up. This is the most likely problem to give grief in my experience.
Just be aware that all your suspension bushes will be permanently on full twist.
Take the wheels off too. Garage get a pit stop look… bonus
Not really a ‘bonus’ as the bushes are still being permanently twisted instead of being in the neutral position.