How to help my Clio have a little nap for a few month?

[chris blue]

Due the the current Coronavirus situation, and my new Car Tax (VED) year starting 1st May, Ive decided to SORN the Clio for several months until I can head out to Brands Hatch again - Ooooo I hope that can be soon. Will be using my daily driver from now on. I will leave my insurance running as blieve you have to cancel the whole policy? Tax saves me £26 a month.

Anyway- other than putting a cover over it- what else should I do?

Is it worth disconnecting the battery to prevent residual leakage?
What about the half tank of Super unleaded in the tank- that should be OK for 3 or 4 months?
Should i start up and run the engine for 5 minutes every week?
Should i use the brakes on my drive now and again to stop them seizing?

Any advice appreciated

 

[White16valver]

Ask your insurance company what their policy is - they may be able to move you to Fire and Theft only and save you some money.

Petrol should keep for months - it degrades slowly but it won't go 'off' for years. I started mine up for the first time in a year the other week and it was just fine.

Starting and running for five minutes will take more out of the battery than it puts in - IIRC it takes about 20 minutes. Perhaps 20 minutes idling until the fans come in and go off should keep things ticking over, although it should also be fine to restart it again after a year without starting.

You could put it on axle stands to remove the risk of tyre flat spots, but it should be fine for a while. Perhaps roll it back and forth a couple of feet once in a while.

Leave it in gear but without the handbrake on, that way it won't seize on. The rear calipers should be fine if it's dry and warm.

Could disconnect/remove the battery to remove the risk of drain from the immobiliser, or buy a CTEK battery conditioner if you are able to get power to it when it's on the drive.

 

[Darren61]

I’ve just bought one of these to keep the battery fresh...

CTEK MXS 5.0 Battery Charger

The updated CTEK MXS 5.0 is a battery charger that offers state of the art technology that was previously only found in CTEKs professional product range. It is a compact, fully automatic 8-step battery charger that delivers a selectable 0.8A or 5.0A to 12V batteries from 1.2 to 110Ah, and it can...

www.demon-tweeks.com

Worth considering if you’re planning on taking it off the road for a while

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Make sure you can get in when the battery dies.

Don't start it up, you'll do more harm than good inc. filling the exhaust with water as it will never get hot.

Don't put handbrake on, leave it in gear. Chock it if you think it'll be more than 3 months and leave it out of gear. If it's on a slope, chock it.

I would personally just take the Neg off the battery, assuming you can unlock the car with the key - have had issues with locks spinning before or just a completely wrong key for the barrel in the door.

And that's it.

Wouldn't bother with a cover personally but depends if it leaks, or is under a tree.