10 Procedures To Take If You Must Park Your Car For A Long Time

Do you have plans of embarking on a journey that you have no other option than to store up your car? Or you just don’t want to drive one of your cars for a very long time for reasons best known to you? There are procedures you should take to ensure your car remain in good shape when you’re back to it.

You should not just leave your vehicle like that if you must leave your car for a long time. If eventually you leave it anyhow, you’ll return to see your car in an ‘anyhow’ condition – dead battery, rusty car body, ruined tyres, and hood overtaken by rats.  I bet you would not like that.

If you neglect doing these proper things, you may have to spend on your car to get it back to its optimal operating conditions.

If you must leave your car unattended to for a long time for some reasons, here are some tips to preserve your car so that it remains hale and hearty when you return to it.

1. Give your car a proper wash:

Wash your car you intend parking for a long time properly including the undercarriage. If you can’t do the proper washing yourself, just take it to a good car wash. Ensure that there is no mid gathering on any part of the car. Waxing your car afterwards is a very good idea.

2. Drain the used engine oil and replace with fresh oil and filter:

Changing oil and filter is a good approach to take because used oil contain moisture, metal filings, sludge and some other corrosive elements. After changing the engine oil and filter to a new one, drive the car for a while so that the oil will circulate inside the engine.

3. Fill up your fuel tank:

This is yet another important tip if you want to store your car for a long time. If you fill up your tank, it will help prevent moisture from entering your fuel tank thereby preventing rust in there. You can also add fuel stabilizer to prevent ethanol build up.

4. Park the car inside a garage or under a shade:

The best place to park your car is inside a garage; it will be safer and clean in there. If there is no garage handy, you can sort for a shade to park under. Doing this will protect your car from direct impact of rain and sunshine.

5. Take down the battery and store in a safe place:

After removing the battery, you can use grease on the terminals and wire ends of the battery to prevent rusting.

6. Do not engage the parking brakes:

It is a good thing to use the parking brakes, but leaving it that way for a very long time is where there is an issue. If the parking brake is engaged for a long time, it will make the brake pads and rotors be in direct contact for a very long time. This might cause the brake pad to get stuck with the rotor.

7. Inflate the tyres properly:

This will enable your tyres to be in proper conditions when you get back to your car. Proper inflation prevents cracking of the sidewall and flat stops.

8. Jack up your car and to save your tyres:

Instead of leaving your stationary car to rest on the tyres for a very long time, you can just jack it up. This will prevent your tyres from developing flat spots. You can use four jacks or block of woods to do this.

9. Use otapiapia inside your car:

Place rat poisons in some strategic positions in the car such as the engine bay. This is to prevent rats from feasting on your wires. That can be a very big problem.

10. Use camphor inside your car.