Thinking about storing your summer car for a few months until the salt is gone and the sun is shining? Here are a few things you should do before storing a car inside.
Use up the Gas
If you ever had a gas-powered lawn mower or other small engine, you know that gasoline doesn’t age well. To avoid having to flush the fuel injectors when you bring the car out of storage and to decrease the risks of storage, you should try to get your car to about 2 gallons of gasoline before taking it to the indoor garage. This leaves sufficient fuel in the vehicle to start it when you are ready to remove it from storage, but minimizes the gas that can go bad in your tank and potentially damage your vehicle.
Ask About a Battery Tender
Depending on how long you plan to store the car and how new it is, your car may end up with a dead battery by the time you are ready for it. There are two different ways to address this issue. The first is to place the car on a battery tender. Sometimes called a trickle charger, these electric devices maintain your battery at full capacity.
A better option, especially if you have a new car and an expensive battery, is to simply disconnect the battery while the car is in storage. With nothing drawing energy from it, your battery will maintain its charge and be ready to go when you reconnect it to the car. Newer cars are constantly drawing energy from the car to power security systems and onboard computers. One word of caution though, if you do this, be sure to leave the hood ajar so you can get in to reconnect the battery. With some cars, no power means no way to open doors!
Call Your Insurance Agent
When you are thinking about storing your car, your first call should be to Spacemall and your second should be to your insurance agent!
Cars that are not being driven are eligible for much lower insurance rates, so when you store your car, change the insurance. Just make sure to change it back when you get the car out of storage. Depending on your coverage and your vehicle, the savings could be enough to pay for the car storage.