Leaving the Car for three months... what to do?

I am leaving the country for three months... will be keeping the car parked in a garage- but what should i best do to ensure it works ok once I am back? Battery- can this just be disconnected? any alarm or central locking issues? Anything else?

i'll go first "send the keys to me" :floor: put some extra air in the tires , i would use a trickle charger on the battery as disconecting may kill it off fresh oil would be good , but if i were doing this i would give the keys to someone i trusted and let them drive it a few times if you leave the ign on when you disconect the batery -ve first this stops the alarm batery back up kicking in Rob

if you disconnect the battery make sure you have the codes for the stereo handy !

Trickle charger (I use CTek). I've left all my cars for weeks/few months at a time while I'm away working and the charger is the single most beneficial thing I've done. Make sure you leave the handbrake off too as it can stick if it's been even remotely damp when you park up.

thanks guys. trickle charge not really an option since there isnt an outlet anywhere near by. if i disconnect will the stereo definately need a code? if i dont have one, where/how do i get it? how long do you reackon a newish battery will last between running? i may just be able to get someone in once a month to turn it over, but i'm not sure that wil be enough?

well i thought it would , but i've disconnected mine a few times , looking at upgrading , and it didn't need a code so i'm really not sure now :?:

Remember, if you disconnect the battery your alarm won't work and your insurance might not like that if something happens. As for time. The TVR would last about 5 weeks between starts and still be ok. The Beemer would go about 5 or 6 too. The Pork, I don't know as I've used the charger with it. My bike would only last about 2 weeks though before it needed charged up.

I regularly work out the country for long periods of time and I leave it at my folks place with the instruction to run the engine at least once a week and preferably give it a quick blast if possible. My main concern is not for the battery or tyres, but for the seals in the engine drying out over that time scale then come to run it again and sh*t! the RMS dvelops a leak! That's my thinking around it, but maybe you do not have the luxury of someone to look in on your motor now and then??

hmmm... hadnt thought about seals drying out. I can probably get someone to run it for half an hour every month or so... so I guess I will leave the battery connected and see if that works Worse case I guess if it goes flat meantime is that I need to get the AA out to jump start it when I'm back- assuming there are no issues with that?

If you can't use a trickle charger, try the solar one from Exide. It will keep the battery charge at a reasonable level. If i haven't used any car for a period of time, even with the solar charger connected, I still give the battery a top up with the Ctek charger I have before I start it so that it has a decent amount of charge in it. You can kill an old battery by trying to start it when it is half charged.

I am into classic cars as well and last winter i had to store my Mg all winter in a council leaky draughty garage. As well as all these good tips here, i would recommend getting a load of baggged silica gel, and chuck a couple inside the car one in the boot and a couple inside the engine bay. some people go to the extreme of sealing the exhaust pipes, but this is a bit extreme unless the storage place is damp :thumb: . Dan

I strongly recommend either jacking the car up, to take the weight off the tyres, or getting someone to turn the wheels every so often. I had a blow-out on my motorhome last year and the tyre fitter said it had de-laminated due to standing on the same spot for too long (really common on Motorhomes and caravans over the winter apparently)

Depends on what stereo you have. Pre-MOST Beckers have 4-digit security codes, which are printed on a small card that most people leave in the service book wallet. If it is a MOST car (CR23, PCM2) then they don't have codes.

Hi Peat. Isn't there anyway you can leave it somewhere where there's going to be access to power? I'm afraid that you're going to have problems if you're going to leave it for three months - problems that I'm all too familiar with, I afraid! Battery: Have a look at the Amp hourage on top of the battery. Let's assume that it's around 80 Ah (amp hours). This means that it's capable of delivering 80 amps in one hour. When your car is on stop it takes juice from the battery to run the alarm and tracker (if you have one?). I think that this might be around 4 to 5 amps per hour depending on what gear you've got on board the car - alarms, trackers, etc... This usage while drop to around 1.5 amps when the car "goes to sleep" after 5 days (ie. it stops looking for the signal to open the doors, etc that it gets from your keyfob). Without any input the battery will just run flat after a couple of weeks and you be very unpopular with your neighbours as your alarm will go off due to the battery running flat (the alarm thinks that someone is trying to nick the car as lack of juice is the same as someone trying to remove the battery to stop the alarm going off). I may not be entirely right on these figures but what is definite is that you battery will eventually run down and just running the car for half an hour or so won't really do much to help the cause. If you do nothing else try to get it near to some power and get one of these: http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/ctek/xs3600-car-battery-charger-and-conditioner.aspx and one of these: http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/ctek/cigarette-lighter-adapter-xs800-xs3600-and-xs7000.aspx (assuming that your car is post 2001 build and has a "live" cigarette socket).

The Cabrio's going away at the end of November, probably till late Feb/early March. Similar problem....in a garage with no mains power. I was going to take the battery off altogether and keep it on-charge in the garage at home (tucked up in the warm with the bikes 8) ). The solar charger I used last year simply wasn't up to it, battery went flat, but fortunately the doors and bonnet were unlocked.....my bike Optimate saved the battery.....that confused me, because the Optimate blurb only rated it for batteries up to something like 10aH, not the 80aH one on the car. :? If the battery's doing nothing , is that why the Optimate brought it back, I wonder? :dont know: Pete