Jimmy WS6

I live in illinois and as im sure everyone knows, it gets COLD here in the winter. Therefore i park my ws6 in my garage in the winter. I apparently left the door open and the battery was dead, so i went to start it and if failed to start. i charged it for a few hours anf then tried 2 more times to start it and i got it started on the second time. I have a corsa catback exhaust on it and when the car started it was super quiet and then it got loud like it should be afer a few minutes, but it was backfireing and sounding like ****. My dad said he thinks the engine was flooded. How could my engine have been flooded if i didnt pump the gas pedal at all and i havent been driving it? we fired it up later that night again and it was running amazingly like it should. We backed out onto my driveway and let the car run for a bit and revved it after it warmed up and things are great. But there was a small oil puddle under my car and i was wondering where it could be coming from? possibly my intake? does anyone know why my car was running like ****? or why there was oil/ where it could be coming from?

(p.s. i start my car every 2 weeks in my garage in the winter so it doesnt just sit for 3-4 months)

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Wimp.

Wimp. Seriously - get your Dad to OK a spin in an empty parking lot after it snows and learn how to control your skids. You'll be a much safer driver on wet and dry pavement as a result. The car has so much power, its possible to get it really bad skids during the summer! BTW - My stock car does fine in IL snow up to 8 inches.

Since your battery drained, the PCM reset and needs to re-learn the engine control settings. If you take a drive on the highway and maintain 55mph or above for 3 minutes, everything should be close back to normal. Without this calibration, your air/fuel ratios will be all screwed up as you idle in the garage.

FiredUpZ28

So if you had a choice of keeping your F body in the garage or driving it through Chicago winter, you'd drive it? With all the salt, broken roads, potholes, and stupid drivers that we have around here? You can't go anywhere without getting some sort of damage. Some people would just rather not drive their sports cars when weather is sh!tty. Why by a dick about it? My Trans Am hasn't moved in three months, doesn't mean I can't drive in this ****, it just means I prefer not to. I still like my car to still look good once its not sh!tty out.

99FormulaM6r

iTrader: (2)

I'm with FiredUp....I have two cars, why would I want to take my Formula out of the garage (never seen road salt btw) and drive it when I could drive my 20 year old heavy FWD car with all-seasons? I don't think anybody is saying that you can't drive an fbody in the winter, but if you have an alternative why would you?

Although, I do agree that it's probably just the PCM needing to relearn so it's back to normal.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

If Jimmy has two cars, I want his Dad to adopt me!

BTW - I was suggesting driving in the snow. (Not salted roads - I take the bus over that, but I don't miss driving in the new snow.) I also live in the city, so I don't have to deal with the broken roads or crazy drivers...

Jimmy WS6

ya i have a lincoln navigator for the winter. i prefer to keep my car free from salt, if you didnt know wwssix99, salt destroys cars, so y would i drive mine if i dont have to? i just share navigator with my dad in the winter. and dude u shud really not make ur name wssix99 when you have a formula. ur a total clueless dick and your a poser off the ws6, ur car will never be a trans am or a trans am ws6, its a firebird.

Jimmy WS6

no offense to firebirds, im just sayin that wssix99 is a stupid dick

99FormulaM6r

iTrader: (2)

Ummm....have you ever heard of a WS6 Formula?

Look here

There are only 175 WS6 Formula's from 1999....he has a rare/kickass car.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

Relax. I wasn't meaning to be a . If I was, I wouldn't have injected "seriously" in my first post. Lots of people go on and on about how these cars "can't" be driven in the winter, which is a load of rubbish. (In the end, there is nothing that road salt will do to one car more than another.) If you have a garage and have access to a car wash with a salt wash, the car will preserve just fine. (I had a friend who never took his Firebird out in the rain, so he could say it never got "wet." But he did wash it... with water... so kind of crazy.)

Please disregard the looks of the ******* that I've pulled over my head with my earlier sarcasm. In all seriousness, locking the car up in the garage 100% all winter because you live in "Illinois" is a bit extreme. (Some winters it doesn't even snow.)
If you are really worried about the car and want to keep it in pristine condition, you may want to take the following things in to account:
- Are you the first owner? If not, are you sure the first owner took the same care of it? (If not, you already have salt eating away at the insides of the frame rails.)
- If you are going to rest the car all winter, why not take the battery out and properly put it in storage? Idling the car in the garage every couple of weeks will do more damage to the engine than properly putting it in to storage. Either way, once the PCM is reset - you will need to take it for a drive or use a special scan tool to get the thing to re-calibrate.