Storing Car For 9 Months
 

I'm traveling to Japan for a year long study abroad program and will be storing my car at my parents house for the next 9 months... I have a few questions though..

Would it be better to put it in full storage mode i.e. jack stands, d/c battery, top off fuel etc.

Or

Have someone start it every 4-5 weeks ( or whatever the recommended duration is ). I would much prefer if they didn't drive it since my father is horrible at driving stick and I fear for the worst. lol.

Fist time ever storing a car so any advice is much appreciated.

I'd probably go full storage mode with all of the things you mentioned, except topping the fuel off. You need to add a fuel stabilizer to prevent the gas from going bad.

If it sits too long the tires will develop flat spots

Nick C.

im interested in this as well because i will be putting the car away for winter.

Same as diode dynamics but I suggest driving it for a tank on on non-ethonal fuel, and fill up again with non-ethonal. Ethonal will turn into water and gunk up your fuel system if left sitting too long....at least that's what I've been told and I stored my car last winter with ethonal free gas and had no issues when bringing it out of storage. And a fresh oil change. Google classic car storage those guys have it down to a science.

Should I just keep minimal fuel in the tank then? And syphon it all out and pour fresh fuel in when I get back?..

Also, I currently don't have 4 jack stands. Don't have a problem buying some but, I was wondering if I could just throw on my stockies (I have aftermarket tire/wheel setup) or would that still cause wear on the springs from sitting that long?

been storing my MR2 for the last 12 winters...
disconnect the battery, put fuel stabilizer in the tank and park it without the handbrake engaged. If you don't want any surface rust on the brake rotors you can spay some wd40 on them but then you will need to spray brake cleaner when you get the car out of storage. That's it.

Do not put the car on jackstands. Tires will not develop flat spots and the springs will not sag anymore than if you used the car everyday...

Holy shit I got deja vu bad from reading this. I'm in near exact situation as you (or would be soon) - I may need to go work overseas in Europe for a year and will be storing the car at parent's place. My dad's MT skills is almost non existent - I've tried teaching him but he's a stubborn old boot. I was resigned to letting him drive it around occassionally (with trial and error) when there's no traffic around and just hope I don't find a wrecked car when I return.

If however I could store it away in the garage for up to 12 months with the necessary prep work (trickle charger, put stockies back on (don't really care if they get flat spots), fuel stabiliser, non E85 in tank etc), that would be great.

I had my Supra stored for 3 years in Govt. storage while I was in Japan. They added Seafoam to the gas tank and the engine. They drove my car around once a month as well. When I picked up the car nothing was wrong (no flat spots or hard starts), but they also didn't accept the car unless it had a 1/4 tank.

I'm almost positive that is for fire insurance and liability. Everything I've seen has said full tank with stabilizer.

Seconded. I over inflated the tires to about 50 psi to further prevent flat spots, and also rolled the car to ensure the pads weren't engaged with the rotors. That's it.

+1 on adding seafoam to the fuel. It prevents the 10% ethanol found in today's gasoline from becoming water and damaging your fuel lines etc...

Nick C.

Here is the official long-term vehicle storage guidelines for all Scions.

very cool document. gotta love the internet

I would have my parents drive it around a little bit, just so they can get something out of it.

Good luck with your program