Maintaining a Vehicle During COVID-19

Like most people in America, you’re probably spending a lot more time at home these days thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. If you’re suddenly storing your car in Salt Lake City, UT, it’s important to keep up on your vehicle maintenance, so that you avoid nasty surprises the next time you go to drive your car.

If you think it’s going to be more than a month between drives, you’ll need to make sure you’re storing your car properly. Here’s what to do beforehand:

• Wash and dry thoroughly: Don’t put your car away dirty, unless you want to damage the paint and invite rust and corrosion. If your car won’t be driven for a while, you may even want to spray the undercarriage and rims with rust-repelling products.
• Make sure the tires are inflated: Tires lose pressure when the temperature changes, so be sure to inflate your tires to the recommended level. (Plan on doing it again when you take the car out of storage.)
• Top off all fluids: Next, make sure all your fluids are topped off, including oil, transmission, wiper fluids, coolant and brake fluid. This will keep the components ready to roll when you take the car out from storage—consider taking it for a short drive to circulate those fluids every so often.
• Get a full tank of gas: It seems counterintuitive, but you should top off the gas tank before you store your car in order to prevent moisture buildup inside the tank. This may also help keep the fuel lines from corroding, saving you repairs down the road.
• Cover it up: Finally, before you close the garage door, cover up your clean and refreshed car—this will help keep dust, dirt and critters from damaging the paint while it’s in storage.

While your car is in storage

It’s important that you pay attention to the battery, which is bound to lose its charge over time if the car isn’t driven at least once every few weeks. While you don’t have to remove the battery, if you expect that you’ll be storing your car for several months without driving it, you may choose to do so. There are trickle chargers and battery tenders available that will ensure your battery stays charged without risking an overcharge, which is equally bad for the battery.

When it’s time to hit the road

Finally, when you take your car out of storage, you’ll need to do a few things to get it ready for the road. First, replace the battery if you removed it for storage. Second, check the fluids and tire pressure to ensure that they haven’t drastically changed while in storage. Finally, check the wires and belts to make sure rodents or other animals have not chewed them up.

Keeping your car in storage is a smart choice if it won’t get any use for months—and if you have problems starting a stored car in Salt Lake City, UT, call AMR Auto Repair & Towing for assistance.

Categorised in: Auto Maintenance

This post was written by Writer