Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hey guys,

A friend of mine recently lost his license and plans to lock his R34 GT away for 6months but was concerned about any damage he might do to the car if its not driven. Anyone have any suggestions as to what he can do before he locks it up, or anything he should be wary of once he starts driving it again?

Only thing I can think of is:

Lock it up in garage out of the weather.

Disconnect the battery.

Baby it till you empty that first tank as the fuel might go stale.

Is it worth starting up every month or two and running for a bit, or even getting someone else to drive it around the block, or will 6 months do nothing? I understand these cars often sit for much longer periods in Japan before coming here.

Thanks.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/339300-storing-a-car-for-6-months/
Share on other sites

im in the same boat as your friend.. although not from the lack of licence.. more due to economic reasons lol.

theres no straight answer for this really. depends on a few things although 6 months isnt really all that long. i think the things you already mentioned almost covers it. but yes it would be a good idea to run it and have it driven maybe once every month or every second month or whatever he can be bothered doing. the tyres will probably go down slowly and if they go down enough to get a good droop on and the car just sits there on them that can permanently distort the shape of them and they'll be rubbish when he goes to drive it again.

when i bought my current skyline, it had been sitting untouched for 18 months (dont know if it was inside or outside) and within a few months of owning it, the head gasket blew. now that engine was supposedly only built about 6 months prior to going into storage.

but yea i pretty much just do what you mentioned. get it out of the weather and disconnect the battery. although i do take it for a quick squirt up the road every month or 2 so the head gasket doesnt disintegrate again

left mine for 7 months while i was living in Japan. one big tip i would recommend is to put mouse baits around as the car stunk when i got back and there was crap under the back seat. i guess in the boot or under the car would do the trick!!

I have done it with mine on more than one occasion.

Get it inside. Dis connect the battery, fill the washer bottle etc, and just go.

I had a fresh oil change in mine and a full tank of gas. Came back after 5 months, put the battery on, started it up and drove away.

I might also recommend bumping up the PSi in the tires a few PSI, that, or if its possible try chuck it on axle stands. OR if you have them, put the stock wheels back on just so you dont get flat spots on the tires :P

The way i did it, was fine. So i guess it depends on how paranoid you are. I didnt get flat spots. Think i upped the PSI in mine to around 45.

don't forget pretty much every skyline is aus has spent 6 months sitting around at auctions/docks/compliancers as well.

other than dead battery (always disconnect, and if possible charge it every few weeks), I've never had any problem. And my car is often off the road :P

my car sat for 9-10months in my garage.. i had mine on a trickle type charger.. Got in.. started it up and let it run for a bit on idle.. And away I went..

If you can go back and start it up every month, it wouldnt hurt to do that..

be a myth that it would sieze up. i have a VH commodore that was sitting out in the weather under a tree for 3 years or more and was never started. new battery, bit of fuel down the carby and it started straight up.

if you can start it every month or 2 just to run the aircon to prevent any seals/o-rings drying out is worth while, other than that, not much to do.

if you are worried about flat spots on tyres, simply roll the car forwards a few inches in either direction after a month or 2.

My supra prior to me owning it, did 4k kms in 11 years - last 4 years it hadn't seen any driving. Was stored in a heated garage, under covers.

Disconnected battery, old 11 year old oil and no idea how old fuel, started and drove perfect.

mythssssssssss

prior to me getting my car from grandparents it did only 45,000km in 19.5 years 1990 - 2009

2300km/year.

from 2003+ i would start and run it for 5 min each week/ 2 weeks. and keep it charged.

Was kept under some sheets, in covered shed. As is, no car stands.

I've had to go through this .. my recommendations would be: park in garage and make sure it's alarmed/immobilized, don't use handbrake just put it in gear, roll it back and forth once a week/fortnight and let it idle for a few mins once a fortnight so nothing dries out completely (internally), disconnect battery, recharge battery once a fortnight using trickle charger, put some of those dehumidifier bags under seats. After six months, change the oil.

I also change the fuel as it does degrade after a few months and mine's turned for 98ron. Easiest way to disconnect the fuel return line and simply let it idle ... obviously put the return line into a bucket to collect the old fuel. After 5-10 mins it will empty out the tank and stall. Get a canister of fresh bp ultimate and off you go.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • As discussed in the previous post, the bushes in the 110 needed replacing. I took this opportunity to replace the castor bushes, the front lower control arm, lower the car and get the alignment dialled in with new tyres. I took it down to Alignment Motorsports on the GC to get this work done and also get more out of the Shockworks as I felt like I wasn't getting the full use out of them.  To cut a very long story short, it ended up being the case the passenger side castor arm wouldn't accept the brand new bush as the sleeve had worn badly enough to the point you could push the new bush in by hand and completely through. Trying a pair of TRD bushes didn't fix the issue either (I had originally gone with Hardrace bushes). We needed to urgently source another castor arm, and thankfully this was sourced and the guys at the shop worked on my car until 7pm on a Saturday to get everything done. The car rides a lot nicer now with the suspension dialled in properly. Lowered the car a little as well to suit the lower profile front tyres, and just bring the car down generally. Eternally thankful for the guys down at the shop to get the car sorted, we both pulled big favours from our contacts to get it done on the Saturday.  Also plugged in the new Stedi foglights into the S15, and even from a quick test in the garage I'm keen to see how they look out on the road. I had some concerns about the length of the LED body and whether it'd fit in the foglight housing but it's fine.  I've got a small window coming up next month where I'll likely get a little paint work done on the 110 to remove the rear wing, add a boot wing and roof wing, get the side skirt fixed up and colour match the little panel on the tail lights so that I can install some badges that I've kept in storage. I'm also tempted to put in a new pair of headlights on the 110.  Until then, here's some more pictures from Easter this year. 
    • I would put a fuel pressure gauge between the filter and the fuel rail, see if it's maintaining good fuel pressure at idle going up to the point when it stalls. Do you see any strange behavior in commanded fuel leading up to the point when it stalls? You might have to start going through the service manual and doing a long list of sensor tests if it's not the fuel system for whatever reason.
    • Hi,  Just joined the forum so I could share my "fix" of this problem. Might be of use to someone. Had the same hunting at idle issue on my V36 with VQ35HR engine after swapping the engine because the original one got overheated.  While changing the engine I made the mistake of cleaning the throttle bodies and tried all the tricks i could find to do a throttle relearn with no luck. Gave in and took it to a shop and they couldn't sort it. Then took it to my local Nissan dealership and they couldn't get it to idle properly. They said I'd need to replace the throttle bodies and the ecu probably costing more than the car is worth. So I had the idea of replacing the carbon I cleaned out with a thin layer of super glue and it's back to normal idle now. Bit rough but saved the car from the wreckers 🤣
    • After my last update, I went ahead with cleaning and restoring the entire fuel system. This included removing the tank and cleaning it with the Beyond Balistics solution, power washing it multiple times, drying it thoroughly, rinsing with IPA, drying again with heat gun and compressed air. Also, cleaning out the lines, fuel rail, and replacing the fuel pump with an OEM-style one. During the cleaning process, I replaced several hoses - including the breather hose on the fuel tank, which turned out to be the cause of the earlier fuel leak. This is what the old fuel filter looked like: Fuel tank before cleaning: Dirty Fuel Tank.mp4   Fuel tank after cleaning (some staining remains): Clean Fuel Tank.mp4 Both the OEM 270cc and new DeatschWerks 550cc injectors were cleaned professionally by a shop. Before reassembling everything, I tested the fuel flow by running the pump output into a container at the fuel filter location - flow looked good. I then fitted the new fuel filter and reassembled the rest of the system. Fuel Flow Test.mp4 Test 1 - 550cc injectors Ran the new fuel pump with its supplied diagonal strainer (different from OEM’s flat strainer) and my 550cc injectors using the same resized-injector map I had successfully used before. At first, it idled roughly and stalled when I applied throttle. Checked the spark plugs and found that they were fouled with carbon (likely from the earlier overly rich running when the injectors were clogged). After cleaning the plugs, the car started fine. However, it would only idle for 30–60 seconds before stalling, and while driving it would feel like a “fuel cut” after a few seconds - though it wouldn’t fully stall. Test 2 – Strainer swap Suspecting the diagonal strainer might not be reaching the tank bottom, I swapped it for the original flat strainer and filled the tank with ~45L of fuel. The issue persisted exactly the same. Test 3 – OEM injectors To eliminate tuning variables, I reinstalled the OEM 270cc injectors and reverted to the original map. Cleaned the spark plugs again just in-case. The stalling and “fuel cut” still remained.   At this stage, I suspect an intermittent power or connection fault at the fuel pump hanger, caused during the cleaning process. This has led me to look into getting Frenchy’s fuel hanger and replacing the unit entirely. TL;DR: Cleaned and restored the fuel system (tank, lines, rail, pump). Tested 550cc injectors with the same resized-injector map as before, but the car stalls at idle and experiences what feels like “fuel cut” after a few seconds of driving. Swapped back to OEM injectors with original map to rule out tuning, but the issue persists. Now suspecting an intermittent power or connection fault at the fuel pump hanger, possibly cause by the cleaning process.  
×
×
  • Create New...