What would you do with a car to be declared SORN for 12 months?

Hintza

Rain_Shadow wrote: »

Has anyone ever actually experienced that. I have had vehicles laid up for as much as 3 years and they always started and ran perfectly well on the petrol still in the tank.

Some of the lower fractions will evaporate off so it might be a bit iffy but I would just add some new stuff. Run it for a day or so and then give it a full oil and filters service on bringing it back.

AdrianC

Disconnect the battery earth, or put it on a trickle-charger. Apart from that? Nothing.

paddedjohn

Buy a Haynes manual and strip you car down to its basic components, you can then have hours of fun over the winter putting it back together again. Before you know it the 12 months will be up.

agrinnall

Indoors or outdoors? What sort of surface will it be on? You might want to consider a cover if it's outside, and you may want to raise the wheels off the ground.

caprikid1

I have had a car that I have done this with for 15 years, in a remote lockup.


It's fuel injection so never drained the fuel. Always took the battery off, never able to trickle charge it.


This has been sometimes for up to 2 years, always just pitch up with a trolley jack spare battery and only let down once (fuel Pump relay failed).


On modern cars though Sell might be better advice.

• Full tank of fuel
• Fresh oil and filter
• If carbs, drain them
• Handbrake off
• Raise on blocks so tyres off the ground
• If not possible, move car a few inches regularly so it rests on a different part of the tyres
• Put away after a run, so everything is hot and no condensation in exhaust
• Plug exhaust with a rag
• Leave windows open a crack for ventilation (if stored in the dry)
• Battery out and on the bench - trickle charge every month

That's the old-school advice. If you leave the car 'commissioned', don't start the engine unless you can let it get properly warm before turning off. Running it for a couple of minutes every week will do more harm than good.

Iceweasel

Richard53 wrote: »

• Full tank of fuel
• Fresh oil and filter
• If carbs, drain them
• Handbrake off
• Raise on blocks so tyres off the ground
• If not possible, move car a few inches regularly so it rests on a different part of the tyres
• Put away after a run, so everything is hot and no condensation in exhaust
• Plug exhaust with a rag
• Leave windows open a crack for ventilation (if stored in the dry)
• Battery out and on the bench - trickle charge every month

That's the old-school advice. If you leave the car 'commissioned', don't start the engine unless you can let it get properly warm before turning off. Running it for a couple of minutes every week will do more harm than good.

I agree with almost all of the above.

If it's a diesel then definitely leave it with a full tank to minimise the air/oxygen available for the 'diesel-bug' to grow. It's amazing what can live in diesel.

If you can't jack the wheels off the ground then inflate the tyres to the max pressure written on the side-wall to avoid flat-spots.

I'd be connecting a smart charger to keep the battery in good nick - no need to disconnect.

Running for a few minutes is no good - it needs to be long enough to get the engine up to normal temperature.

Not running it at all for a year is very likely to affect the air-con in that the refrigerant may well leak.

caprikid1

Biggest problem I always had was sticking calipers.


I fitted stainless pistons, IT WAS WORSE !!