Regardless of make and model or your feelings about the pandemic many folks, myself included, have seen a sharp decline in vehicle use.
Cars that were making trips almost everyday are now lucky to leave the driveway once a week.
I myself have had to put a “trickle” or “float” charger on my car to keep the battery from going dead between uses.
What measures should we be taking to try and prevent the types of issues that can ariae from lack of use, and what are those issues, if any?
Tester
Guess I’m covered then. The charger I use is for maintian a charge, I didn’t know a trickle charger was different than battery maintainer. Mine is definitely sold as a maintainer.
Since March I have been going out only once a week or 10 days to get a grocery order.
In the spring we were going to church online, In the summer we had services outside so we were going to that, We moved the service inside in October so we have not been going… So far, that has been enough to keep my 9 year old battery charged. I have a 60 year old Craftsman 6 amp charger and a float charger but so far, have not had to use them. Come winter when I start parking in the garage, I will make sure the chargers are not blocked in by the car.
When the whole lockdown thing started, I saw a decent drop in traffic, but a few months later the traffic is exactly the same if not worse than before covid.
This will vary by region and what measures have been put in effect.
I too have seen an increae in traffic, but in my case I’m retired, so I went from daily drives to the dog park and about town (dozen or so miles a week) to once ever 10 days going less than 1/2 a mile.
A dozen miles a week is already a questionably light duty for a car, but since mines and '01 with 150,000 on it I’d say it’s earned it.
It’s just that suddenly, for whatever reason, I started thinking about what long term effects it might have only driving a fraction of that for so long.
I’ve been taking the cars out once a week or so for a half hour drive to keep the batteries charged and the oil heated up enough to get rid of any water or gas contamination, if they haven’t been driven much that week.