Well I will be leaving the states for awhile and was wondering are there any good ideas when storing your vehicle for a long period of time...(about 3 years) I don't think anyone will be able to access the vehicle so starting it up is out of the question.

Currently my car is on E85, built engine, tranny and a bunch of other goodies.

Is there anything that I should take into consideration knowing my vehicle will be untouched for this long of a period? Any help would be appreciated.


Thanks TK

 

Sell it.

 

fill the tank with gas, not e85.
if you cant put it up on jackstands, overfill the tires to 60-70psi to prevent flatspotting.
do an oil change right before storage.
disconnect the battery.
store it in a low humidity area with good pest control.
use a car cover.

 

Sell it. Cars are meant to be driven.

 

Loan it to me.

 

3 years? i'd probably sell it

 

Find someone you trust and leave it in their care.

 

Your car will go to **** without someone to maintain it. I'm sure you can find someone on the forums who can come by once a month for a small fee and drive it around the block or at least start it.

Tires don't matter, after three years the rubber will be shot anyways and you'll need new ones so just keep them inflated enough to keep the car itself off the ground

 

+1 on the above. If at all possible have someone start it at least once a month and cycle all accessories (ie a/c, heater, power steering). As stated above, I would also recommend storing the vehicle with 93 not e85. I do not know from experience, but I would think the alcohol in the E85 may cause any rubber in your fuel system to deteriorate faster. I have experienced flat spots from storage as well, so you can use the over inflation method from above (be sure to pay attention to max tire pressure on your tires), or I have seen a few products that "cradle" the bottoms of your tires. I hope everything works out for you, my Evo has been in storage off and on for three years, and right now it has been in storage for a year and has two more to go.

 

I would sell it. 3 years is a long time.

 

3 years is a long time...but even so, I'd never sell my car even if it had to sit for 5 years. I don't think you should sell it. Id agree that you should put some 93 in and try to find someone to start it up for you and drive it around every once in a while.

Any local friends could do that for you Im sure.

 

Your car will be fine. Don’t sell it because you will want it back when you return.

Three years seems like a long time for a car to sit, but it’s really not. A good friend of mine has parents with a large collection of vintage Porsche’s that have been sitting for much longer than three years. I was checking out the collection a few weeks ago. I gave him a hand putting air in the tires of many classics. One of the cars is a 1979 Porsche 930 turbo that only has 5k miles on it and it hasn’t been driven in about 20 years. It has a massive layer of dust on it, rat crap all over the place, etc... This car is being put on a flat bed truck and taken to a shop to get cleaned up, new hoses, fluids flushed, etc.. The car will be on the road again soon, then sold to a collector.

Do as the others mentioned. Oil change, full tank of pump gas (not e85), disconnect and remove the battery, etc. Another tip is to put rat repellant pebbles around the car so you don’t have animals living in your engine bay.

Hopefully you don’t have new tires, because they will get flat spots and will need to be changed when you return.

As for maintenance while you are gone, have someone check the tires once a year to make sure they are not flat with the car sitting on the rims. Just get new tires when you return.

Worst case scenario, just flatbed the car to a shop to get cleaned up and ready to drive again when you return.

 

Fuel stabalizer too

 

n2oiroc <~~~ what he said.

 

detail the crap out of it as well! do a nice 3/4 step polish and 2/3 step wax job on it among other things that have been listed above.. but 3 years!!! O_O