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Battery may be toast. Tires may be low. It you had high ethanol gas (like E85) in it, you may want to drain it and replace.
I left a car sitting in California for long periods of time. The biggest issue was when a homeless guy moved into it.
I did have to jump start it a few times. The battery never died though. I had a low tire once. Bought a little pump that plugged into the lighter and after five hours the tire had about 25 pounds of pressure in it. Enough to get m to a gas station to fill it up.
Long story short: we shipped one of our cars to Arizona in January 2020 to begin house-hunting. We flew out 3 times and used the car to look at homes for sale. Then Covid hit.
Car has been in an airport parking lot since March 1, 2020.
We finished our 2nd vaccine dose two weeks ago and are flying out next week.
While we're pretty certain it won't start, what other issues do you think we might have? Should we attempt to drive it off the lot (assuming we get it started after a jump or delivery of new battery)?
It's a low mileage 2015 Honda CRV (18K miles). It was full of gas and serviced at Honda dealer in late December 2019, prior to shipping. The battery was under a year old; we always did all our regular dealer maintenance.
Should we expect this to be a total loss?
In Arizona I don't think you have a whole lot to worry about. If it was in Florida I would say you probably need to drain the gas tank because humidity builds up in there and then contaminates the gas but Arizona isn't that humid. You probably need to charge the battery, and I would have the oil changed just because it said there for a year but that's at your leisure it will drive just fine. A problem is electrical connections as they got a lot of corrosion on them but chances are if it hasn't been doing that before you don't really have to worry about it. I was looking over to make sure mice haven't made a home out of it if it's just been an airport parking lot they probably haven't.
It should be all right if you just go out there and start it up.
The major thing I would be concerned about is you tires they may need to be changed.
Somebody else made some belts and hoses I would definitely look into that it's more of a preventative thing.
Also it's a Honda depending on the year model it would have the red coolant in it. Red tour lasts about five or six years and even though it still works as coolant you should have it changed because it's chemical composition is a corrosion inhibitor, is it ages it becomes more acidic and will eventually become a corrosive. so I would look into changing your radiator fluid sooner rather than later but again it's probably not going to cause any severe problems right now.
It might start. I have vehicles that sit all year and they only get used in the summer for about a month. They often will turn over and start. No real noticeable wear otherwise. Might have a flat now and then.
You likely won't have issues other than a dead battery and maybe low tire pressure. After you get it started, let it sit there a idle a bit before driving off, so that the fluids can get circulated again.
As someone else mentioned, the ride may be a bit bumpy until the tires get warmed up and get their proper shape back.
I also have a car that hasn’t been driven in over 8 months. My question is this: at the time it only had 1/4 tank of gas, is there still enough gas in the tank to start the car?
I also have a car that hasn’t been driven in over 8 months. My question is this: at the time it only had 1/4 tank of gas, is there still enough gas in the tank to start the car?
One way to find out. Try starting it. There is a good chance however that the battery is dead. You should start car once a week or so and let it run for a while to keep the battery charged, etc.
I also have a car that hasn’t been driven in over 8 months. My question is this: at the time it only had 1/4 tank of gas, is there still enough gas in the tank to start the car?
Yes, the car still has 1/4 tank of gas, but I'd get it to a gas station ASAP and top it off to dilute the old stuff.
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