Car Repair: Tips for Storing Your Car

Whether you love your car or hate your car, one thing is certain, if you don’t maintain your car you will end up paying the price for it with car repair bills that could have been avoided. This has never been truer than now for people who are planning to store their cars for any length of time. Maybe you have a sports car that you don’t drive in the winter for safety or practical reasons or you have an older car that you want to preserve from winter roads. For whatever reason you plan to park your car, you need to make sure you prepare it properly so you can continue to drive it when you’re ready without spending money on car repair bills to do so.

The most basic step is to make sure you store your car with a full tank of gas. Add an additive such as “Dry Gas” to make sure that water won’t be absorbed into the fuel system as it sits. You should also make sure that any additive you add is thoroughly mixed into your entire fuel system for best results.
Don’t forget the winter anti freeze. A fifty-fifty mixture of water and anti freeze should help protect your coolant system from unexpected freezing cold weather. You should also change the oil so you can eliminate any chance of dirty oil contaminating your engine with rust.

Bleed your brakes and clutch system and make sure your brake and clutch master cylinder systems are full of fresh brake fluid. Old fluid can be contaminated and dirty and cause damage as it sits. Another simple tip to avoid the possibility of engine damage is to go over any areas with metal in your engine with WD-40 or the like to prevent the possibility of rusting.

Finally before you park it for good, make sure your newly added fluids have had the chance to circulate into the system and that any water in the engine and exhaust is burnt out by driving it for thirty miles before you park it. Ideally have someone start the car up and drive it at least once a month or at a minimum start it up monthly and let it idle. This will help ensure rubber rings and components don’t get dried out and need replacement later on when your ready to resume riving your vehicle.

And finally if you are planning to cover your car while it is in storage, be sure to use a cloth car cover and not a plastic to avoid trapping moisture in and damaging your car.