Many of our cars will be parked in the driveway for about another month during a statewide “stay-at-home” order which mandates a lot of people to remain home unless they are making essential trips.
Here’s some car care tips for longer-than-expected parked vehicles:
Battery Boost: Start your vehicle every couple of days to keep the battery at a full state and prevent unexpected drain. Let the engine run for a few minutes to recharge the battery, then turn it off. You can also consider using a battery tender to keep the battery charged up. The battery tender would remain connected to the stored vehicle.
Tire Pressure: Adding an extra 10 psi of pressure than the recommended psi to each tire to prevent flat spots from forming on the tires while the vehicle sits. This occurs when the area of the tire touching the ground becomes rigid due to sitting in one position for an extended period. Moving the vehicle would be suggested to keep this from happening.
Windshield Wiper Placement: Lifting the wiper arms so the blades are off the windshield would help from the wipers baking to the windshield and getting stuck to the glass.
No Parking Brake: Don’t use the parking brake when storing the vehicle if possible. If the brake pads make contact with the rotors for too long, especially if longer than 30 days, there is a possibility that over time they could rust the rotors, or brake shoes could distort the drums. Simply placing the vehicle in park if your vehicle is equipped with an automatic transmission will keep the vehicle from moving. If the car has a manual transmission, put it in first or reverse gear to hold the vehicle in place.
Add Gas Preservative: Adding a gas preservative will help to keep the gas from going bad while it sits for a longer period of time.