How do you "store" a car?

Question

In a few months, I'm going to consider storing my car for the long term. If I do this, I'm going to cancel the car insurance and remove the tags. I already have a place to put it however I might not be able to check on it regularly or start it. Would that be OK? Or would I cause problems to my car by doing this? I might do it for about 6 months to a year in order to save money.

Is it possible to do this? Have you ever done it? What kind of advice can you give me?

*The car is in great condition and currently has about 95,000 miles if it matters.

Answer 1

Put a fuel stabilizer in it, gas will go bad in time. Usualy not in six months, but it's a good idea. Put the car on jack stands or blocks. This will take the weight off the tires and prevent problems with them from sitting. A car cover is good to keep the sun off (less heat damage to the interior). These tips will help but expect a dead battery, flat tires, possibly oil leaks from dry seals and rodents in the interior. Long term storage is not good for your car. Checking it and starting it as often as you can would be recomended.

Answer 2

you want to fill the tank all the way. a full tank is far less explosive than an empty one. you can purchase a fuel stabilizer to eliminate a problem with fuel spoiling but up to a year i do not see much of a problem.

  you also want to disconnect the battery. this will prevent the discharge of this battery creating  starting problem later.

it is also not a bad idea to jack the car up and put jack stands under the frame to leave all 4 tires out of contact with the ground. this will reduce chance of the tires going flat. aside from that store it inside  safe place, and enjoy whatever else you will be doing.

i have  car and have had it stored for about the last 15 years ( a long story ) but this is pretty much ho i have stored it for that long.  

Answer 3

learn to understand some principle conception before accept any suggestion is a great idea.Here is great place to start.http://carinsurance.expertsupport.info/a...

Answer 4

Run the car until it is empty, then put some fuel preservative in the gas tank and run it for a while to fill the fuel lines.  Put the car up on four jack stands so that all four wheels are off the ground, and you should be set.

Answer 5

IMO, the best thing you can do is go to wal-mart and buy some sta-bil.  It is not expensive.  You put it in your fuel and it keeps it from turning to varnish.  If the car is going to be put away for a long time, you might want to consider jacking it up and putting it up on jack stands to keep the tires from dry rotting.  Also, if you have access to electricity, you can buy a trickle charger AKA a battery tender to keep the battery from going down or you could just disconnect it and take it out of the car all together.  After you get the car out of storage, you will need to change your oil and run some quality gas through it and you should be good.  I regularly store a couple of older cars like this and never have a problem with either of them.  Hope this helped/

Answer 6

have it set in blocks if you do decide to store it this keeps it from getting flat spots on the tires,its also better to have it off the ground some,and add a good gas treatment to it,and keep a window cracked about a1/4 of an inch on each side of it for vetilation,disconnect the battery cable from it also,thats about all there is to it,lock it up and leave it until you come back to it,when you do return to it you may have to re-charge the battery but that will be the worst part of it,always have it put on blocks though its better on the tires by doing it this way,good luck.

Answer 7

If your in calif you have register it non op if you don't when you put it back on the road they charge you for the time it was stored plus penalty's. As for the insurance whats the value  of the car the garage could burn down someone could break in and steal the car.