Two Keys To Preparing Your Car For Long-Term Storage

If you are going out of town for an extended business trip, putting your convertible away for the winter, or otherwise have need to store your car for a long period of time, finding a storage facility is only the beginning. A more important concern should be what you do to protect your car from damage while it is in storage. In most cases, this will require using fuel stabilizers and a battery tender.

How Good Fuel Goes Bad

If you leave fuel sitting in a tank, repeated cycles of heating and cooling can cause the fuel to absorb moisture from the surrounding air. Extended rest time can also cause your fuel to lose volatiles and to oxidize. In the face of these concerns, you might think that your best option is to drain your gas tank before you store your car. An empty tank allows access for humidity to get in and start corrosion. If the corrosion gets bad enough, you might have to have your fuel tank replaced. Also, rubber fuel lines can crack, and when they do, you can develop a potentially dangerous gas leak. Thus, the best option when storing your car for a long period of time is to fill up your tank and add a fuel stabilizer to protect the fuel in your tank.

Keep Your Battery Running at Full Charge

As your car sits in your garage for months at a time, it will start to lose its charge. When you get your car out of storage, you might find that you need to charge the battery, which can put a kink in your plans. You could leave a battery charger with your car so that you can easily start it up when you are ready to drive away, but it is more convenient and better for your battery to use a battery tender. Unlike a charger, which will keep pumping electricity into your batter even after it is fully charged, a tender will charge your battery and then run just enough electricity to keep the battery charged. 

When you store your car, you will want to make sure that you take steps to protect your car so that it is in the same condition when you pull it out of storage that it was when you put it into storage. Car owners who have to put their car in storage for long periods of time should take the right steps to protect their car while in storage. Ask a storage company, like The Storehouse Watertown, for additional tips on auto storage.

Share