Just wondering what I should do as far as prepartion goes since I will be leaving my car home from college this quarter. The earliest I will have the chance to drive the car will be mid October, and the latest chance (if somehow I can't get home until Thanksgiving) will be the end of November. When I come back, I plan on changing the oil since it's coming up on the 5000 mile mark for my synthetic oil. It will probably NOT be driven, maybe started occasionally, but will be garaged in my house. Any thoughts on what to do? I leave on Saturday...

 

Take the gas tank level down to say 1/4 before you park it. Buy some Sta-bil or whatever its called, read the directions, and dump it in the gas tank. Overinflate the tires.

Since its going to be started periodically, I wouldn't bother disconnecting the battery, but get it driven out of the garage and into the driveway so the wheels roll over and bring it up to operating temperature. I would think that once every two weeks wouldl be adequate as you won't be gone that long.

Also just put storage insurance, including theft and liability, put on the car and save some $.

 

Can you have your parents or somebody drive it every once in a while? My dad used to take it to work once a week when I left my car at home.

The down side to leaving the fuel tank almost empty is that condensation (water) might build up in the tank.

 

I had my car in storage for 4 months while in Iraq, unfortunatly the person I asked to take it out every now and then entrusted that with someone else but they didnt do it anyway so it was sitting in a storage garage for 4 months. Fortunatly when I got in it started right up and was great. Half a tank of gas and just did a synthetic oil change plus disconnected the battery but that was all I did but I did have a great 96 with very few problems in her time than what I hear from others.

 

I quiver at the thought of them driving my car because of their terrible clutch usage. At least I wouldn't be in the car to see it I guess.

As for the 1/4 tank of gas - Unfortunately, I just filled up today since I just got back from a road trip up to Vermont. I wanted to see what my mileage was for the trip. On a side note, I got 26 mpg!!! I've never gotten over 22 mpg in this car, sometimes as low as 17 mpg. I got 26 mpg when traveling at an almost constant 75-80 mph, also with some variable-speed driving when on the twisties, and also going WOT in third-fourth a couple of times to pass taking the car to just about 100 mph. I was also "forced" to show a friend I was giving a ride to what a maxima can do low end, so I also accelerated hard off a stop light too.

 

My old max sat in front of my office and I waited a week between running it around the block, and it killed the battery, so I jumped it, and drove it around the block and let it idle for 20 minutes and the battery was dead by the next day. I couldn't even get the dome light to come on.
So I would disconnect the battery unless you want to risk buying a new one.

 

Actually a full tank with stabilizer is better to prevent condensation and rust within the tank. Example: when you winterize a motorcycle for storage it is recommended to have the tank full with sta-bil added or completely empty with the gas cap open so it dries out. That is not an option with a vehicle, so tank full is the way to go.