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Maintaining Your Vehicle in Good Order

15 June 2020

With the recent strict ‘stay at home' message in place, many of you haven't been using your vehicle. However, it is very important to still look after your car and keep it in good condition, even if you’re not using it.

We have put together a short guide to help make your car fully functional when the time comes when you are using it again.

Battery

The car’s battery is your car’s main component that you will need to look after the most when leaving your vehicle idle for long periods of time. Firstly, for petrol and diesel vehicles it is good to run them at least three times a week for at least twenty minutes each time. This may be just leaving your vehicle idle with everything switched off other than the engine. If you use your car for less than twenty minutes, then you may drain the battery more than if you leave it running.

For an electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle, you will generally have a 12-volt battery, which powers parts like the lights and the audio, and then a high voltage battery which powers the engine.

For the 12-volt battery, if you have the appropriate equipment you should charge your battery a least once every two weeks. If you have an intelligent charger you should connect this permanently to your battery and this will do the monitoring and maintaining itself. All information about charging your battery for example, where to connect the charger leads, should be found in your vehicle owner’s manual.

If you are not able to use a battery charger, start the engine and allow it to idle for 20 minutes with all unnecessary electrical items switched off. This should also be done at least once every two weeks. For safety this should not be done in an enclosed space.

For the high voltage battery, it is recommended this is left in a fully charged state, so charge it before you park it.

Brakes

Your brake discs may suffer some corrosion when not in use for long periods of time. This will probably cause some resistance when first using them but after a few applications of the brakes, they should return to normal. Therefore, you should not worry about maintaining your brakes but just be cautious of them when using your car after a period of inactivity.   

General Tidiness

Finally, if you are not using your vehicle as much, then it is a great time to clean and tidy your car if you have previously not had the time to do so. ‘Hotspots’ in the car like the steering wheel, dashboard and door handles can be prime surfaces germ and regularly cleaning of these is a good routine to get into.

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