How to prep your car for long-term storage.

Are you planning on storing your car for a long period of time, or maybe you’re buying a car that you’re going to drive every other weekend or every once in a while? If you are leaving your car for weeks, to prevent problems such as the fuel injectors having issues, or corrosion happening within the fuel tank, the common way to combat this is to fill up your tank to the maximum level before putting it away for storage. It is also recommended to use a fuel stabilizer as well, it’s just about five dollars and it will help out in the long term, even if it’s a weekend car it’s a good thing to do. Also the battery will drain over time and it can cause major problems especially when you’re trying to start it up again, sometimes this will reset the radio, there’s a catastrophic amount of problems that can happen, but what you want to do is to put your battery on a trickle charger. You can just get the basic one and that will really help you out in terms of the battery life, and not having to deal with all these other electrical issues that can come up.

Oil can also have moisture just like the fuel moisture explained before, (this happens also with the brake lines).Your engine needs to continuously be lubricated, so what ends up happening as the car has been sitting, eventually oil will drain down. It takes a long period of time, it’s usually pretty well lubricated but over time it will drain. If it’s a long-term storage vehicle, use an oil that’s ester based oil. The reason for it is ester will basically adhere to the walls of the engine cylinders a lot stronger over time, so that when you go back in and do what’s called a cold start after a long period of time, you won’t have that metal to metal situation. 

Another big piece of advice is about the exterior of the car. If the car is going to be sitting outside you should get a car cover, but car covers will eventually get dirty and there will be dirt that can get underneath. When the wind hits, it basically becomes like sandpaper, so you want to keep your car clean the day you decide to put it in storage. If a bird pooped on your car and you’re gonna go put it away in storage even for a weekend, that will basically eat away your clear coat and could eventually get into your paint, so keep it clean. But what about the interior? Keeping your interior clean from food and all that stuff for long-term storage, it will help prevent rodents and other animals from getting inside the car, that actually happens a lot. Using baking soda is a great option, just put an open box of baking soda in your car. This will absorb odors before they set into the fabric, which will help keep it fresh. Last but not least, your wiper blades can also get destroyed over time. A quick easy way is either just remove them, or if you want to leave them on just wrap them up in a plastic wrap. That will basically help keep them from the elements.