Caring for a "Car Not Being Driven"
My aging Mom has a 2005 Chevy Impala with 65K miles. She will be away from her home for 6-9 months for surgery with a pretty long recovery time. She is hopeful that this will go well and she can return home and continue her normal life where local, small town driving was very doable for her.
I am trying to arrange care for her car while she is gone (I live 12 hours away). What is the minimum driving that I could get a local friend to do that would "keep this car relatively healthy"? The car will be garaged, in an area that rarely sees temps lower than 15 degrees or so over the winter.
Thanks.
dave
I am trying to arrange care for her car while she is gone (I live 12 hours away). What is the minimum driving that I could get a local friend to do that would "keep this car relatively healthy"? The car will be garaged, in an area that rarely sees temps lower than 15 degrees or so over the winter.
Thanks.
dave
0
Comments
dave
If the car's "exercise" sessions only occur every two weeks or so, you might want to consider investing in a "smart charger", which keeps the battery up. It remains plugged in all the time. These are not the same as regular chargers, which are meant to fast charge dead batteries.
Other than that, just maintaining tire pressure and keeping the gas tank pretty full are all I can think of.
Oh---if rodents are a problem set some traps. Chances are with someone driving the car every now and then, they won't have time to nest in there. But you never know.
That should be enough to keep things running OK until your mom can drive herself.
May she heal well, and sooner than the doctors say!
I'm just not sure - thanks.
dave
dave
Does she live in a house / apartment / ??? Do you have someone taking care of / checking on her residence? If so, just ask them to drive the car once a week, then you shouldn't even need the trickle charger.
dave
That said, biweekly driving of the car isn't really necessary unless it just "works" for the person caring for it. I have several vehicles that I use seasonally, and they get any use at all exactly that often. So, they sit for about six-to-eight months a year with no use at all, and then get their time in the sun before taking another long nap. No problems thus far with having done this for as many as twenty years. I just treat them like I *do* use them more often in terms of fluid maintenance (e.g., annual oil changes, swap out the brake fluid and differentials every few years, coolant every six or seven, that sort of thing).
For a more modern vehicle, definitely put that maintenance charger on as opposed to removing batteries like I do for my old rigs. My grandmother does that when she leaves her houses every six months (she goes back and forth), and the cars don't notice she even left.