Hi all,

what is the consensus on tyre preservation over prolonged storage? I've heard the following, just looking to find best option for money/quality.

- 0ver inflate trees by 4 PSI
- Put car on axle stands
- Use tyre preservers (curved shaped supports you park on, that keep tyres round)

I like option 1 if it is that simple and the tyres don't have flat spots after 6 months storage. Any thoughts?

Steve

 

Hopefully someone will pipe up. I put an 4psi in my tires

 

I do nothing and have not had any issues.

 

The owners manual might have something on this subject.

Or check the tire maker's web site.

I think the most common precaution is to inflate the tires as much as you can without going *over* the maximum inflation pressure.

'course, before you take the car out again the tire pressures must be adjusted for the expected load the car will be asked to carry.

Might add the oil should be fresh, changed shortly before you put the car away.

My experience with a new Infiniti (a family member's car is the gasoline while fresh when the car was parked in January by July was stale. The engine started up just fine, idled ok, ran ok that is didn't misfire, but was down on power. I thought this normal -- being unfamiliar with the car -- but after I used up the tank of of 6 month old premium gasoline and filled up the tank with fresh premium gasoline the engine proved to not be a dog. The gasoline had gone stale.

Might add the battery was new when the car was parked. I drove the car once in a while -- every few weeks or so -- and other times just started the engine and let it idle a while -- until the engine got warm -- while I did stuff around the family member's house/yard. I let the engine idle in order to among other things help keep the battery topped up. It was ok for 6 months but after nearly 12 months the battery had to be replaced. The car was not in a place I could use a battery charger/maintainer.

Be sure you take proper steps to reduce the chances of say mice setting up housekeeping in the car.

I'm not a fan of using something one has to put in the car as the mice then have to get in the car in order to get -- hopefully -- repelled from the car. Kind of like using a flea treatment for one's pet that requires the flea bite the animal to then be repelled.

The better way is to make the area around the car extremely unattractive to mice. Remove all boxes/stuff from the floor of the garage. Mice hate to be exposed. If you can put out traps to catch any mice. (A tiny tiny dab of peanut butter in the catch loop works pretty darn good. Not too much though you want the stinker to really struggle to get at the peanut butter.) These traps want to be along the wall/floor intersection where a mouse is more likely to use for moving around. Traps are nice. A mouse in the trap is just one less mouse that can be in the car.

 

good tips on the increased pressure, I will take a look at manual etc. I am fortunate enough to have a battery maintainer plugged in and the whole car is housed inside a carcoon veloce cover, so think any mice should be blocked. Good news the garage is clean and no rubbish lying around to attract them in (he says with fingers crossed) Car has recently been serviced, I guess about 1000kms on the oil, so hoping that will be good enough? For fuel, I have half a tank at least, so will see if I can find some fuel preserver, otherwise it will run like a pig until I burn it off in spring time.

 

There is too much at risk to leave it chance the cover will keep mice out of the car. I'd set out traps.

It would better if the oil were fresher but 1000kms ain't that many miles.

If you want just before you put the car away if you can take the car on one final drive -- some distance -- and get the engine hot enough the radiator fans come on on their own this getting the engine nice and hot works to remove any water build up from the oil and the drive also lets you use up most of the existing gasoline so you can then stop at a busy station -- to help ensure the gasoline is fresh -- and fill up the tank so you put the car away with the freshest gasoline.

If you want to add some fuel additive to help "preserve" the fuel that is up to you. Add this *before* you put in the gasoline so the stuff gets fully mixed with the gasoline *before* you start the engine. Then as you drive home all the fuel lines will have the gasoline treated with preservative in them.

 

thanks for this