LR4 not garaged - should it be covered?

[Justin Allen]

Hey guys. My LR4 is not garaged, but sits on a portion of my driveway with crepe myrtle trees overhanging fairly significantly, so will occasionally get tree debris on it if it hasn't moved in a while. I've read all the sunroof leak stories. I'm worried all this debris will eventually contribute to that. Not to mention the rain and (occasional) snow that sits on it. Think I should cover it? Keep in mind, it gets driven about once a week currently.

 

[cperez]

All personal taste here, but if I were forced to park outside and only drove it 1/wk, I would cover it. We have a couple of huge crepe myrtle trees in our driveway area and during the blooming season they drop a ton of blooms.

But that said, some people take more of a honey badger approach to car care...

 

[Quijote]

I prefer that my cars be covered. I don't get people who have garages but they use them as storage and have the car live outside.

If you cannot garage it, covering it is a good idea but I have grown to dislike car covers that are used "frequently." I bought a custom-fitted, high-quality car cover for my first car. What I found was that it was a PITA to use all the time (3+ times a week) and it didn't work very well. First, it was something else to remember to do when I needed to use the car. But more importantly, unless the car was freshly washed, the cover would get dirty and some corners saw friction wear from all the rubbing (likely exacerbated by some dust/dirt). So for me, covers best for protecting your clean car for long periods of time. And my experience is based off of when I was quite young and with a small sedan. Covering up the tall LR4 must be a bigger PITA. But I will admit that the cover was a weather-proof, custom-fitted cover, which was thicker and wrapped tightly around the contours of the car.

For a semi-regularly used car (or more), I'd recommend some kind of carport.

If you must go with a car cover, I suggest a very light and loose-fitting cover.

 

[DaytonaRS7]

I have a 1 car garage, and the LR4 is not lucky enough to be the car that gets that space.

So that leaves my wifes car and the LR4 that are always outside. I routinely wash and make sure the paint has a protection coating on it.

As far as the sunroof drain, my new to me LR4 (purchased with 140k) had the drains clog shortly after purchase. while it was a PITA to clean up, it was a simple fix with a piece of fish tank airline taped to the tip of a compressor blow gun, on low PSI... slid it in the drain hole and blew it out in 5 seconds.

to alleviate the possibility of cleanup, I will be cleaning out the sunroof drains in spring and fall.

 

[cperez]

To @Quijote’s point about a light and loose-fitting cover, I am pretty sure that someone makes covers out of Tyvek material. I would look for something like that.

 

[Justin Allen]

the PITA part is what I'm afraid of. It's simply not feasible to have to clean the car thoroughly every time I need to put the cover back on. I'm in a similar situation @DaytonaRS7. 4 vehicles and only a 1 car garage. Typically keep the wife's SUV in the garage for ease of getting children in/out, groceries, sheltered from weather etc.

Idk. I may just buy one to have, and if it turns out to be a massive pain, I'll just use it before vacations, snow storms etc

 

[DaytonaRS7]

the PITA part is what I'm afraid of. It's simply not feasible to have to clean the car thoroughly every time I need to put the cover back on. I'm in a similar situation @DaytonaRS7. 4 vehicles and only a 1 car garage. Typically keep the wife's SUV in the garage for ease of getting children in/out, groceries, sheltered from weather etc.

Idk. I may just buy one to have, and if it turns out to be a massive pain, I'll just use it before vacations, snow storms etc

I think your overthinking this. plenty of cars are left outside. clogged sunroof drains are not selective to Land rovers.

the amount of time you would spend putting a cover on/off, and the amount of damage said cover would do to the paint...is not worth it.

youd be better off cleaning the drains once a year. takes 5 minutes. even once a year is probably more than necessary.

If i had to guess, it takes many years of dirt and pollen build up to clog the drains.

 

[Quijote]

the amount of time you would spend putting a cover on/off, and the amount of damage said cover would do to the paint...is not worth it.

youd be better off cleaning the drains once a year. takes 5 minutes. even once a year is probably more than necessary.

If i had to guess, it takes many years of dirt and pollen build up to clog the drains.

Agreed.

 

[Justin Allen]

Thanks for the reassurance. I'm sure I probably am overthinking it and honestly felt the same way initially. But it just seemed that leaking LR's is something I've heard about more frequently than other vehicles. I guess my anxiety comes from the reputation of these trucks. Fragile, delicate, expensive to own etc. I just didn't want to end up with $1k of water damage because of my ignorance.

 

[johnnwalters]

Mine has been outside at times under crepe myrtle trees and oaks and others and has been fine. If you have a hand held leaf blower, I'd just use that to clear off debris.