Thread: Storing the car?

Who has experience storing their car? I've got a few options and need some opinions. The storage period would be a little over 4 months.

I'm considering driving it home (~6 hours) to keep in my brother's garage and fly back. Once I returned from my deployment about four months later, I'd fly back, visit a while, and drive my car home. He kept it for me in great shape while I was in basic training and part of tech school. He drove it every couple of weeks to my parents' house (about 15-20 minutes one way) to get it out and refreshed. Otherwise it stayed garaged.

I could leave it here in a parking lot on base. Have someone as yet undecided come by and check on it, perhaps taking it for a spin. Not sure who I trust around here with my car.

Third option, this being a military oriented city, there are plenty of automotive storage options available to me. Whether they're covered or not, I'm not sure. I found one for as cheap as $35 a month and goes up from there. I'd shop around. If I went this route, I'd probably go without a car cover and maybe have someone come by every couple weeks to start it up to operating temperature, a few revs here and there to get the oil warmed up and flowing, and shut her down.

Here's my dilemma. I'm very anal about my car. If you don't have any business driving it, you don't. She's my baby. I trust my brother with it. I'm perfectly happy letting her sit untouched for four months as long as it won't hurt her in any way. Things I'm worried about:

Tires? Low spots from not moving for six months?
Engine? Condensation? Ideas here?
Transmission? Similar concerns as engine.
Anything I'm not thinking of?

Please share your experiences and advice. Prepping the car for storage? I know to change the oil as soon as I get her out of a long term storage if she sat the entire time. What else? I hear stories of people leaving their car sit for much longer periods without a start or anything and it's fine. I just don't want to cause any issues down the road.

My tires dont seem to have any problems and they've been dormant for about 6 months now. You wont have to really worry about any condensation in the transmission, its not as much of an issue there as it would be in the engine.

The only thing I can think of short of having it drove around some periodically while you are gone is to just park it after you have drove it around enough to get it fully warmed up. That way any moisture and/or fuel is evaporated out of the oil. What little will be left from the cool down cycle wont be that significant and you could always change the oil and filter before you start it up again.

I suppose you could always squirt some type of lightweight oil in each cylinder after shutting it down and then manually cycling the crank to distribute it, but that would be a lot of work. I have seen fogging oils that are intended to be put in an engine that will be stored for a long time but Im sure that is for periods much longer than what you are talking about.

I think, overall, you are going to be fine for the period of time you mentioned though and you really shouldnt have to take any extreme measures.

The storage place I'm leaning towards ($50 a month, 24/7 surveillance, covered parking, and very well recommended) is several miles away, so I could detour a lot and get her good and warmed up on the way there.

i've always heard its a good idea 2 change the oil before a start up from it sitting for awhile!



makes sense if u think about it.......

I was planning on removing the battery and storing it in a climate controlled place. No chance for draining.

That is, if I find I'm going to leave it sit the entire time.