How Long Can A Car Sit Unused?

When we traveled in our motor home we were on the road for anywhere between 2-weeks and 4-months. The vehicle we left behind sat unused in our garage on a Battery Minder. I don't recall any particular problems caused by the inactivity.
 
Al18 said:
Jerry1, $14 per gallon is racing gas - doesn’t work with a catalytic converter. The only alternative fuel I’ve seen sold in NJ is off-road diesel.

I’ve left ethanol gas in the lawnmower for 6 months with no problem.
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Well, the 91 octane at Sunoco was $12.34 in July. Still ouch. I’m sure that would work in a car as that is just premium gas.

As for leaving ethanol gas in a lawnmower, or any small engine like that, for 6 months, I feel like you got lucky. I’ve worked on small engines a lot in my life and they don’t handle the ethanol well. It draws moisture into the system and clogs the carburetor. I’ve talked to some friends that work at the lawnmower repair shop and they are in agreement that clogged carburetors from ethanol gas is one of their most common causes when an engine won’t start. I’ve personally dealt with it a few times before I found a place to buy ethanol free gas local to me. The guys at the shop tell me it’s even worse with newer equipment. In an effort to improve emissions, they’re running so lean and the orifices are so small that they clog super easy.
 
Jerry1 said:
...As for leaving ethanol gas in a lawnmower, or any small engine like that, for 6 months, I feel like you got lucky. I’ve worked on small engines a lot in my life and they don’t handle the ethanol well. It draws moisture into the system and clogs the carburetor. I’ve talked to some friends that work at the lawnmower repair shop and they are in agreement that clogged carburetors from ethanol gas is one of their most common causes when an engine won’t start. I’ve personally dealt with it a few times before I found a place to buy ethanol free gas local to me. ...
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I keep hearing this, but it isn't my experience at all. I've lived in IL (corn country), so we have had ethanol in gasoline for a very long time. I had lawn mowers (up to the latest move a few years ago), just put in regular ethanol gas, never did anything special over winter (I might start them once or twice if there was a warm spell, or not), no stabilizer or anything, and never (and I'm a 'never say never' guy) had a fuel/carb related issue in 30+ years, 4 or so different mowers.
 
My ADD tends to skip words in a sentence, and at first glance I read this thread as "How long can a cat sit".

Anyway, nothing to add here but I have my own curiosity about EV and whether I can leave it in the garage for a month while we travel. There have been reports that the 12V battery goes dead when that happens and doors won't open and car won't start.
 
RetiredHappy said:
My ADD tends to skip words in a sentence, and at first glance I read this thread as "How long can a cat sit".

Anyway, nothing to add here but I have my own curiosity about EV and whether I can leave it in the garage for a month while we travel. There have been reports that the 12V battery goes dead when that happens and doors won't open and car won't start.
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Same as an ICE. It’s best to leave an EV plugged in to keep the high voltage battery charged up, though it won’t deplete that quickly. As for the low voltage battery you will be locked out if it dies, but it can also be jumped or hooked up to a battery tender like an ICE. There are stories of EVs going dead at airports IF left for weeks with a low % battery, and (Tesla) sentry mode or other drains run, especially if it’s cold. All avoidable.
 
Our EV has lost so little charge during our long trips away of up to 6 weeks parked, that I intend to leave it unplugged during our upcoming one that is less than 2 weeks.
 
ERD50 said:
I keep hearing this, but it isn't my experience at all. I've lived in IL (corn country), so we have had ethanol in gasoline for a very long time. I had lawn mowers (up to the latest move a few years ago), just put in regular ethanol gas, never did anything special over winter (I might start them once or twice if there was a warm spell, or not), no stabilizer or anything, and never (and I'm a 'never say never' guy) had a fuel/carb related issue in 30+ years, 4 or so different mowers.
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Interesting. I wonder if it’s a blend of gas issue or some regional thing like weather conditions. I can assure you, it’s very prevalent here in S.E. Michigan. I’ve discussed it with many people over the years.
 
Midpack said:
Same as an ICE. It’s best to leave an EV plugged in to keep the high voltage battery charged up, though it won’t deplete that quickly. As for the low voltage battery you will be locked out if it dies, but it can also be jumped or hooked up to a battery tender like an ICE. There are stories of EVs going dead at airports IF left for weeks with a low % battery, and (Tesla) sentry mode or other drains run, especially if it’s cold. All avoidable.
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My vehicles are all outside.

The one that gets driven occasionally has a 30W solar maintainer sitting on the dash.

Would sister be amenable to donating her Subie to charity?

I found one here locally that fix up & re-home vehicles rather than just sending to auction.
 
Midpack said:
Same as an ICE. It’s best to leave an EV plugged in to keep the high voltage battery charged up, though it won’t deplete that quickly. As for the low voltage battery you will be locked out if it dies, but it can also be jumped or hooked up to a battery tender like an ICE. There are stories of EVs going dead at airports IF left for weeks with a low % battery, and (Tesla) sentry mode or other drains run, especially if it’s cold. All avoidable.
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I am also a little afraid of the car catching fire if plugged in for long periods of time... although I do set it on a timer to only charge during the night and up until 80%. I am not concerned about the high voltage battery draining, but rather the 12V battery.
 
Jerry1 said:
Interesting. I wonder if it’s a blend of gas issue or some regional thing like weather conditions. I can assure you, it’s very prevalent here in S.E. Michigan. I’ve discussed it with many people over the years.
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We always run ethanol free gasoline on the small outboard engines on the small boats. Was told very firmly by the Yamaha dealer - DO NOT use regular gasoline.
 
RetiredHappy said:
I am also a little afraid of the car catching fire if plugged in for long periods of time... although I do set it on a timer to only charge during the night and up until 80%. I am not concerned about the high voltage battery draining, but rather the 12V battery.
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We don’t have a 12v automotive battery but rather a 16V lithium battery instead that gets charged from the big battery.
 
RetiredHappy said:
I am not concerned about the high voltage battery draining, but rather the 12V battery.
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So just connect a battery maintainer to the 12v battery. Maintainers are designed to keep a fully charged battery at that level. They won't charge a dead battery, too low of charge rate. Hence the terminology "maintainer" vs charger.
 
audreyh1 said:
We don’t have a 12v automotive battery but rather a 16V lithium battery instead that gets charged from the big battery.
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Do you have a Tesla? Mine is a 12V Lithium battery but supposedly drains if uncharged for period fo time.
 
RetiredHappy said:
Do you have a Tesla? Mine is a 12V Lithium battery but supposedly drains if uncharged for period fo time.
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You must have a lot of parasitic drains on your smaller battery. And why wouldn’t it be kept sufficiently charged from the larger one?
 
ERD50 said:
I keep hearing this, but it isn't my experience at all. I've lived in IL (corn country), so we have had ethanol in gasoline for a very long time. I had lawn mowers (up to the latest move a few years ago), just put in regular ethanol gas, never did anything special over winter (I might start them once or twice if there was a warm spell, or not), no stabilizer or anything, and never (and I'm a 'never say never' guy) had a fuel/carb related issue in 30+ years, 4 or so different mowers.
Click to expand...
My experience and my neighbors and our small engine repair guy is the opposite. At his recommendation I use nothing but non-ethanol in all small engines (lawn mower, rototiller, golf cart, jet ski and outboards). The additional cost is minor compared to the cost of rebuilding a carb.

We had a period were we would have problems with ethanol gas and after switching to non-ethanol the issues went away.
 
pb4uski said:
Yes I have heard that. My aunts neighbor has a Tesla and they are snowbirds and have to keep it on a battery tender... otherwise it goes dead as a doornail.
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So I guess Tesla is not immune to the problem of the automotive battery going dead.
 
pb4uski said:
My experience and my neighbors and our small engine repair guy is the opposite. At his recommendation I use nothing but non-ethanol in all small engines (lawn mower, rototiller, golf cart, jet ski and outboards). The additional cost is minor compared to the cost of rebuilding a carb.

We had a period were we would have problems with ethanol gas and after switching to non-ethanol the issues went away.
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I’ve had problems with several small engines, presumably due to ethanol gas. Usually fixed after I replaced the carb. One such case was a 2 year old craftsman push mower. And my Atv. And a chain saw. And leaf blower.

I had an animal chew through my fuel line on my pontoon boat. The rubber fuel line was at least 50% clogged with some kind of residue. Probably due to using ethanol gas. I put a lot of seafoam in the fuel, carb, and tank , and that seemed to fix it.

I brought several of my small engine tools to a local repair shop- the guy there said that ethanol is the culprit. He said to drain the gas from the engine frequently.

I talked to one of my neighbors who got some advice to use the premixed canned fuel. He said he hasn’t had any problems since switching to the premixed fuel.

I’ve been using the premixed fuel for the past year and haven’t had any problems.
 
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