What's up peoples, I'm in the military and I'm leaving for Japan in april, unfortunaly I cannot take my BB6 to her mother land and I have to leave her in long term storage for 2 years. I've had a lot of people tell me what I should do before I leave her in a warehouse but none of these people have ever left a vehicle in storage for more than a few months, I was wondering if there is anyone out there that's been in my shoes and what they did, I've also heard that the cars never really run the same after a few years in storage.

 

change all the fluids. park it with a full tank of gas. put the car up on 4 jackstands. disconnect the battery. cover with a car cover.

I do this with my RX-8 when i park it for the winter from Dec 1st. to May 1st.

Changing all the fluids puts fresh fluids in the system and will allow for less moisture to present itself over time. Same goes for the gas.

2 years later, you're gonna want to change the fluids again as in time your fluids will break down, especially your gas.

Keeping it up on jackstands will let your suspension rest and prevent flatspots on your tires.

 

I would do an oil change, wash and wax, over inflate the tires a bit to avoid flat spots, pull the plugs and put a touch of motor oil in the cylinders. There are dry gas additives that you can add to your gas tank to avoid water absorption. Keep it out of the weather and you should be good. When you get back, bleed the clutch and brakes, put some heet in the gas tank, and do a tune up. Again it might be good to put a small amount of oil on top of the pistons to avoid wear on start up.

I had a car that sat for 3 years and had no problems coming back. It's really not such a long time as to cause major problems.

 

the jacking of suspension is just a myth. not necessary.

You think car collecters jack up all their ferraris, lambos and rare american muscle cars on four stands when they go into storage and are driven once a year?

lol

Some of them stay in storage for decades and driven 10-20 times in their lives. I dont think their suspension is garbage after. Quite the contrary. Theyre perfect. suspension are made to be compressed! Not held apart to its extremeties by the 50-70 pounds of your control arms, tires, wheels, brakes, calipers, etc.


I would give you two options for your tires:

1) I would buy for a 100 bucks a set of garbage and rusted steelies and totally finished and bald tires, wtv the size, as long as it fits on the steelies and just install them on the car. Its not driving around, just sitting in place. Go to the junk yard, you'll find some.

2) Over inflate your tires by 10-15psi of the maximum stated on the sidewall. They'll be fine. If your tires were sealed properly during install, you should come back after 2 years and the tires will have deflated a bit.


The fluid info is correct. top the gaz tank to the maximum, leave the windows a tad open, put moth ***** everywhere to keep insects away, put a rag in your exhaust so you dont have a rodent or insects crawl in and die there.

And of course a car cover.

Your set.

 

I wasn't sure about the fuel, cause I had a car sit in a garage for a few months and when I drove it from maryland to virginia it would stahl and putter around till I ran all the fuel out of it

 

thats because your fuel broke down and probably even turned into a bit of gunk.

You should always put fuel stabilizer when storing for more than 3 months. Its 10$ thats worth the investment.

 

would sea foam be good, ive used it in the fuel and intake berfore and i thought it keeps water forming in your fuel and fluids

 

Good call on the rag in the exhaust. didn't think of that.
I also have my moon roof cracked a bit and moth ***** thru out the car.
As for the jackstands... myth or not, it makes me feel better. I see your point and have
thought of that, and how most cars in dealerships sit too... but it's peace of mind