Sorn’d, laid up. But need to move now…

K

kis

Veteran
 Surrey / West Sussex Boarder
Evening gents.

The Zeds been off the road for around 6 months. Times come to move it to the other half of the drive so I can tackle some pesky weeds…

Now I haven’t started it since I parked it up. Battery is fine, charged on the ctek periodically.

Should I simply move it and carry on, or should I be letting it get up to temperature?

I’m a little restricted with a short driveway and no tax so can’t really take it on the road… for an actual drive.

I’ve seen a few posts previously about people getting a laid up car up to temperature periodically and moving slightly to avoid flat spots. But can’t find them now.

What’s the consensus? Should I be letting it idle up to temperature or is that a bad thing? As it’s idling and not being actually driven?

TIA chaps
 
I can’t tell you the “right” answer, but I can tell you what I did with my Zed. There have been 3 occasions when it was in storage and not driven for long periods (14 months, 15 months and 7 months respectively). I had no problems with my Zed during or after these periods, so I still do the same with my RS4.

Although it was my daily driver when I lived in the UK, since 2018 my RS4 has covered fewer than 1000 miles each year and it spends at least 11 months of each year in storage.

I keep it in a dry garage in the basement of my parents’ house. It’s unheated but maintains a temperature higher than ambient by virtue of its location. There are numerous containers of desiccant in the passenger cabin and in the boot, and the battery is topped up every few weeks. At least monthly, it’s started and driven out of the garage then left to fully warm up. Once up to temperature, my dad drives around the drive until the neighbours have had enough of the noise!

I would prefer it if he were able to take it on the road, but it’s SORNed and only taken for an MoT if we’re going to be in Europe.

Does your car have a current MoT? If not, you can legally drive it to a testing station with a test appointment. That solves the problem of driving a car on SORN.
 
I forgot to add, make sure you turn on the AC periodically. The Audi HVAC system defaults to AC off, which meant that the compressor in my car wasn’t run for more than a year despite the car being started frequently during that period. Guess what happened….😖
 
In my opinion, just running it for 30 seconds would make sure that there is water in the exhaust as nothing is warm and I nothing is lubricated. I know the thought is always to never warm up a car but drive it straight away etc, which is no doubt true, but if you don't have that option I would think that a warm up on the drive is better than a literal start and stop only
 
BMWZ4MC said:
I forgot to add, make sure you turn on the AC periodically. The Audi HVAC system defaults to AC off, which meant that the compressor in my car wasn’t run for more than a year despite the car being started frequently during that period. Guess what happened….😖
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You arrived in the UK during a heatwave then :rofl:

My X5M airco failed (was a leak in the end in the condensor) and it was unbearable when I took it on a long trip to visit a client and it was parked in the sun there. Gave me a terrible headache on the 2 hour drive back
 
Better to run the car than not, but they don’t like idling for long periods. Once warm, try to run at increased revs (2000) for a few minutes to get the oil up to temp and boil off any condensate in the CCV. You’ll need longer in cold weather.
 
When i had motorbikes I'd leave them in the garage over winter on a battery minder then brim the fuel tank and then just leave it alone. The oil takes ages to get up to temp and in the winter might never get there. The water will heat up way quicker. On my Z4 a 12 mile round trip to work each day in the colder weather wasn't enough to stop mayo forming.
 
pvr said:
You arrived in the UK during a heatwave then :rofl:

My X5M airco failed (was a leak in the end in the condensor) and it was unbearable when I took it on a long trip to visit a client and it was parked in the sun there. Gave me a terrible headache on the 2 hour drive back
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That must have wilted your tulips!
 
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