How Long Can A Car Sit Unused?

[Midpack]

There may very well be nothing I can do, so FWIW. Please reply WRT the car, and not the circumstances (mentioned that in another thread).

My sister’s low mileage (once) perfect condition Subaru Outback hasn’t been driven since February, and I’m concerned at what point it will be seriously damaged - battery, fluids, rust, pests, etc. While it could have once easily fetched trade in value, I may have to wholesale it now, and even spend on repairs to wholesale.

It is in her garage at least, though unconditioned. I’ve pled with her to have someone drive it once a week (she lives 1200 miles from me), but she won’t act. In fairness, she had a new battery installed in Jan and driven but it was dead a week later - so the alternator may be gone and it would have to be jump started every week. I offered to get her car serviced in July and/or sell her car for her, but she won’t act.

She will never drive again IMO, and now no one is living in her home anymore. I think she just can’t face never driving again as her reality. As much as I hate to see the car ruined, letting her hold on to hope may be more important.

 

[TheWizard]

Ruined isn't quite the right word.
Changing most of the fluids, charging/replacing the battery, getting tires to proper pressure and that Outback should be operable.

That's assuming no weird damage due to rodents in the engine area...

 

[Music Lover]

Many newer cars will slowly drain the battery when sitting idle as there's always something drawing current.

We snowbird for 3 months. With my daily driver I make sure the tires are fully inflated and leave a battery tender connected. That's it.

We used to leave a convertible parked for the winter, I inflated the tires to about 8 PSI over recommended to combat cold weather and slow leakage, removed the battery and stored it indoors, and added fuel stabilizer.

 

[Sunset]

I've fairly regularly let my vehicles sit for 2 months before driving them again. Without doing anything special to allow them to sit.

Occasionally the brakes would rust in place on the calipers, (weirdly called "brakes are frozen"), but I would just drive off the rust. This didn't happen when the vehicle was stored in a garage.

Being so far away, there is not much you can do.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Start it every 3 weeks or so, make sure battery is on trickle charge. Drive it round the block once in a while to stop the tires from sitting in one place.

 

[TheWizard]

Start it every 3 weeks or so, make sure battery is on trickle charge. Drive it round the block once in a while to stop the tires from sitting in one place.

That's not going to happen in the situation described in #1...

 

[ShokWaveRider]

That's not going to happen in the situation described in #1...

Get a neighbor to do it.

 

[cathy63]

We used to leave a convertible parked for the winter, I inflated the tires to about 8 PSI over recommended to combat cold weather and slow leakage, removed the battery and stored it indoors, and added fuel stabilizer.

Living in a Navy town, this subject comes up occasionally. What Music Lover posted above is what military people do before deployment if they don't have anybody who can drive their car while they're gone for 3 to 9 months.

Apparently if they don't do these things, they will come back to a dead battery, flat spots on their tires, and they will also have to get it towed and get all the fuel drained and replaced. So these are the things that have probably happened to your sister's car during its time of sitting idle. When you're ready to sell it, you'll have to decide whether to fix them to get it back in working order. I can't say whether it's cost effective to do that or better to just sell it as-is.

 

[joesxm3]

I had a chance to sell stepdad's Nissan Sentra to a dealer for $6000 easy transaction. Fast forward 6 months after I hurt my back and had surgery. The car sat for 30 days and mice moved into all of the insulation in the car walls and head liner. I was lucky to get $1500 via a shady deal with the local body shop guy.

 

[ERD50]

What makes you think 7 months of sitting would result in 'serious damage', or take it from near-perfect to requiring repairs to sell it (outside of rodent damage, also mentioned above)?

Snow-birders or collectors may let their cars sit for 6 months or more with no major prep, just a battery maintainer (or remove the battery).

If a new battery went dead after a week, that's not the alternator (though it could be bad too). Something is draining the battery - a light left on, or other problem?

Re-reading your post - I'm not sure what the point is? Everything that someone may suggest requires action from your 1200 mile away sister, and she does not want to take that action. This isn't a "how long can a car sit" question - this is a "how can I, or even should I, get involved with my sister's problem'?"

Unless you have a plan to travel there every 6 months - then you could make a plan to prep the car for a six month storage period.

 

[youbet]

You can Google procedures and instructions for handling low-usage vehicles. Info is bountiful. But you need to decide your intention.

1. Store it for low usage but have it be drive-able on short notice (ie. remove battery tender and go).

2 Store it to be unused at all for months.

Is the car's value of significance to your sister? If not, then storing it so it's presence and readiness to drive is apparent and motivating to her might be the way to go.

I went through this with my MIL. There's always some wrinkle in life to deal with. GL.

 

[brett]

Many newer cars will slowly drain the battery when sitting idle as there's always something drawing current.

We snowbird for 3 months. With my daily driver I make sure the tires are fully inflated and leave a battery tender connected. That's it.

We used to leave a convertible parked for the winter, I inflated the tires to about 8 PSI over recommended to combat cold weather and slow leakage, removed the battery and stored it indoors, and added fuel stabilizer.

We routinely do the same with our summer car. Pull the battery, change insurance to fire and theft, park it in the garage for six months. Re-install the battery. Sometimes it needs a boost, other times no.

Parked our winter car for 9 months while we travelled overseas. Expected it not to start but it did. Surprised me. But...it was an older 2006 model. I think the only draw was the clock!

 

[freedomatlast]

Put a jump pack on it and fire it up. Drive it around, make sure the brake calipers are releasing as they should, put a little fresh gas in it and sell it. No need to do anything extensive. Setting eight months isn't that big of a deal.

Dealing with the car issue is easy and straightforward.

I have no clue how to deal with your sister and would suggest just staying out of it after giving advice once, since it doesn't concern you.

I have quite a number of vehicles, and some don't get started or used for 6 months or more, and never had an issue in more than 20 years with any of them, although I do disconnect the negative battery cable. I never use gas additives, although I do make sure all windows and vents and closed and make sure the sun visors are down so mice don't use the sun visors as a convenient platform to stand on while they chew through the headliner.

 

[Midpack]

I’ll probably visit next week or two, so I’ll overinflate the tires, put it on a trickle charger battery tender have it jumped started, drive it, and fill gas tank. I may disconnect the battery to prevent whatever might be draining it if it’s not the alternator - I may be able to assess that when I drive it, if she lets me.

Is there any danger leaving a trickle charger battery tender indefinitely with no one around? There isn’t a neighbor to check on it much less drive it, or at least my sister won’t ask for help.

My sister is terminal with metastatic cancer, just moved to assisted living. The car is now sitting in the garage at an empty house. I am her only living family relative, her successor trustee/executor, and sole heir. I don’t care about the money, just trying to help her.

TY

 

[audreyh1]

For long periods we’ve disconnected the battery in DF’s truck, and otherwise it’s been fine. No rust etc.

8 months is OK other than the battery. Get that up where it needs to be with a charger, drive it and add a little gas.

But if she doesn’t want to sell it or use it, what can you do?

 

[BigBob]

We leave our truck unused for 6 months in winter, jacked up so no flat spots on the tires, disconnect ground from the battery, open bag of kitty litter inside and moth ball packets outside by the tires. We do the same through the summer 6 months with our car. We did have mouse problems chewing wires on the truck but hopefully resolved with moth balls.
Other than that it has been fine for 5 plus years now.

 

[freedomatlast]

Pull the battery, change insurance to fire and theft, park it in the garage for six months. Re-install the battery. Sometimes it needs a boost, other times no.

Curious - Why remove the battery instead of just removing the negative cable?

 

[mountainsoft]

A friend of mine once bought an old VW van that had been sitting in a field for several years. We had to replace some rubber ducts and hoses that had degraded, and I'm sure he probably changed the oil, tires, and put in a new battery. But it still ran and he drove it around for a few years before selling it.

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

I’ll probably visit next week or two, so I’ll overinflate the tires, put it on a trickle charger, have it jumped started, drive it, and fill gas tank. I may disconnect the battery to prevent whatever might be draining it if it’s not the alternator - I may be able to assess that when I drive it, if she lets me.

Is there any danger leaving a trickle charger indefinitely with no one around? There isn’t a neighbor to check on it much less drive it, or at least my sister won’t ask for help.

My sister is terminal with metastatic cancer, just moved to assisted living. The car is now sitting in the garage at an empty house. I am her only living family relative, her successor trustee/executor, and sole heir. I don’t care about the money, just trying to help her.

TY

If you buy a decent battery maintenance trickle charger, it was designed to replicate driving the vehicle. It will bring the battery up to around 13 or 13.5 volts, then let it get down to around 12 volts before charging it back up. Just like if you let it sit for a few days and then started it up and drove it around for a while.

If you put on a maintenance charger, you should not need to disconnect the battery from the vehicle, so you won't have to worry about messing up the computer settings, clock, etc.

I have 4 (Schumacher) battery maintenance chargers plugged in and connected to 4 of our vehicles almost year-round. The one on my El Camino has been working great for 20 years or so. The vehicles out in a carport did have one issue with something chewing on a cord... But it was the cord to the charger!

Example

Hope this helps.

 

[Texas Proud]

Make sure you put stabil in with the gas... I have seen a two year version... or go to a station without ethanol...

My brother went to college for a year and left his car in the driveway... back when we had leaded gas though... charged up the battery and it was good to go...

 

[brett]

Curious - Why remove the battery instead of just removing the negative cable?

Unheated garage in a climate that can sometimes dip to -40 in the winter!

Easy enough to pull the battery and store it in our home. Takes ten minutes.

Our neighbours have used a trickle charger for years each winter when they head south. Never a problem starting car when they return.

 

[AudiDudi]

I leave the vehicles for 7 months every year. I add Stabil for Storage to the gas tanks and top them off. I disconnect the batteries after they are fully charged. I may have to jump start when we get back. For the diesel F-350, I disconnect the batteries and add anti-gel to the tank. They survive the Montana Winter.

 

[youbet]

Is there any danger leaving a trickle charger indefinitely with no one around?

A modern battery tender and a trickle charger are two different things. Get a battery tender. Instructions for mine give no time limit although the longest I've had it in use is two months while we were snow birding. Colored LED's indicate what it's doing including some times turning itself off from charging and only monitoring the state of charge of the battery.

A simple trickle charger is just a low amperage battery charger that, in time, will over-charge and boil your battery dry. You can't leave 1 - 2 amps on your battery indefinitely.

 

[tutan]

We leave our truck unused for 6 months in winter, jacked up so no flat spots on the tires, disconnect ground from the battery, open bag of kitty litter inside and moth ball packets outside by the tires. We do the same through the summer 6 months with our car. We did have mouse problems chewing wires on the truck but hopefully resolved with moth balls.
Other than that it has been fine for 5 plus years now.

What is the purpose of the kitty litter?

 

[YellowSubmarine]

There may very well be nothing I can do, so FWIW. Please reply WRT the car, and not the circumstances (mentioned that in another thread).

My sister’s low mileage (once) perfect condition Subaru Outback hasn’t been driven since February, and I’m concerned at what point it will be seriously damaged - battery, fluids, rust, pests, etc. While it could have once easily fetched trade in value, I may have to wholesale it now, and even spend on repairs to wholesale.

It is in her garage at least, though unconditioned. I’ve pled with her to have someone drive it once a week (she lives 1200 miles from me), but she won’t act. In fairness, she had a new battery installed in Jan and driven but it was dead a week later - so the alternator may be gone and it would have to be jump started every week. I offered to get her car serviced in July and/or sell her car for her, but she won’t act.

She will never drive again IMO, and now no one is living in her home anymore. I think she just can’t face never driving again as her reality. As much as I hate to see the car ruined, letting her hold on to hope may be more important.

My Outback is famous for dead battery after two weeks of nonuse...with a new battery too. The computer and electronics are never "off". There was a class action suit a few years back but never got a cent or update. She should buy some fuel stabilizer (Walmart, e.g. Sea Foam) add to the tank, run/drive for 15 minutes and disconnect the black (ground) cable on battery.