secondary car not driven much 20 miles a month until pandemic now not at all…i run car 20-30 minutes in park twice a week 1/2 tank of gas left about 1 year old. is it ok?
Not needed, not beneficial, and wasteful. The car will be fine sitting unused for weeks and months. When you want to give it some exercise, drive it for that 20+ minutes. That warms everything up and expels moisture from the exhaust system. Then you can park it for weeks or months.
For unleaded gas, that is getting… old.
You should take the car for an extended drive and fill the tank with fresh gas.
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I suggest you get a Battery Tender to keep the battery full.
If it’s parked on the street (like mine) and an electrical outlet isn’t available get a 10 watt solar charger and sit it on the dashboard.
Then your battery will get enough juice to keep full every sunny day.
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I take the second car out cruising maybe every 10 days or so just to give it exercise. Why not do that?
If you only drive it twenty miles/month during “normal” times, why not just sell it? Or at least, alternate use with your primary vehicle.
As far as the gas, yes it is getting old. If you choose to continue using it in this fashion I suggest filling with non-ethanol gas and adding a gas stabilizer. Plus, since it is most likely out of warranty, you still need to change the oil every year at a minimum and all other fluids by the time interval in your service manual. If still under warranty change the oil as specified by the time interval.
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The gas will age and the battery will sulfate to some extent. As mentioned, it would be best to put a battery tender on it and add something like Stabil to the fuel tank.
I will add that I have seen some Ethanol gas turn to total garbage inside of 5 months and that was with Stabil added so nothing is guaranteed.
Was that in a sealed container to keep the light fractions from evaporating?
No additive can prevent that.
That was in the fuel tank of the car. With some of that gas dumped on the ground it would not even burn with a match thrown on it.