How To Prepare Your Car For Storage

Posted on: 20 July 2016

In order to protect a vehicle that you don't want to drive around or leave on your driveway during the winter months, long term storage is the best choice. However, if improperly stored, your car can become damaged even while sitting idle in a climate controlled room. Here are a few things that you can do to ensure that your car is in the best possible condition for surviving long term storage.

Cover it Up

The most important (but also the last thing that should be on your list) thing that you should do when putting your car into storage is cover it with a waterproof cover. This will help prevent moisture from seeping into your vehicle, and will keep other debris, like dust and dirt, from finding their way under the hood. This is a good thing to do even if you are storing your car in a sealed storage location – you never know when a leak may occur. Make sure that you tie down the cover as well, to make it harder for small animals and pests, such as rats and mice, from making their way into the interior of your vehicle.

Fill the Tank

If your gas tank is left partly empty (or completely empty), moisture can collect and pool within the tank. This can cause rust to begin to develop, which can be a serious form of damage to your fuel tank. To prevent this from happening, make sure to completely fill up your gas tank right before you place your vehicle into storage.

Change the Oil

In a slightly different vein from the above point, you should make sure to have your oil changed before storing your vehicle. This is because old, dirty oil contains contaminants that can gum up the moving parts of your engine and cause damage when you turn your vehicle on for the first time after storage.

Put it up on Jack Stands

Leaving your car on its tires for an extended period of time can cause flat spots-- where the tread has worn away and the tire has no more grip -- to begin to develop on the rubber. This can be extremely dangerous if you don't notice it, causing your vehicle to slip while driving and braking. In order to prevent this from happening, you can remove your tires and leave your car standing on top of four jack stands instead, which leaves it completely stable and removes all stress from your tires.

Talk to a company like Stor-King for more ideas on properly storing your car.

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