During the pandemic, many of us have cars that are sitting for long periods of time. And that can lead to a lot of problems; things like dead batteries and low tire pressure and all sorts of different things. Now how can you prevent a lot of these? 

Well, number one is going to be the battery. See, modern cars are loaded with electronics. And those electronics sometimes draw electrical energy away from the battery- even though the car isn’t running. So, one of the things you can do is to charge the battery using a battery maintainer- not a trickle charger. Trickle chargers will over charge the battery and can actually cause damage. The maintainer will bring the battery up to proper level and maintain it.

Now another thing you can do as far as maintaining all of this- many of you have one of these booster packs. Now the booster pack can be used instead of booster cables if you have to jump start the car. Now, another thing it’s good for if yours happens to have one of these connectors that interfaces the computer on the car, you can use it to maintain all of the computer memory. You just plug it in and this will supply power to those things.

Alright, now, tires as they sit- they are going to lose air. So, before you drive the car, you have to make sure that you check and adjust the air pressure so get your tire gauge out there and take care of that. Now, here’s the big thing though. You know, we can do these things here but the best thing is to drive the car. Drive it for 20-30 minutes, get it to highway speed, put some miles on it, get it warmed up. You’ll warm up all of the components of the car by driving it. These things don’t do any of that. And disuse is bad for cars so if you get it out once a week, drive it for 20, 30 minutes, you will keep the battery charge, you’ll keep the memories alive, you’ll warm up all of the fluids and everything, and the car will thank you for it in the end.

Now, make sure you don’t have any dog food or bird seed or anything like that anywhere near your car. Any food source because rodents love that stuff. They will go to the nearest comfortable spot. They pick up the food, they take it into your car, and they nest. And you wind up with something like this in your cabin air filter or other parts of the car. And remember also, if it’s humid or it rains during the sitting period, the rotors, the brake rotors on your car may rust. And when you start the car and the first time you move it, you might get a grinding or squealing sensation- don’t be alarmed at it. Use the brakes 3 or 4 or 5 times, it’ll go away, that’s the end of the issue and that’s another good reason to drive the car cause it keeps the brake rotors clean.

Now if you do these things, when the time comes to use your car on a regular basis, you’ll be ready to go. Drop me a line, right here at Motorweek.