Car's Been Sitting for 1.5 Years

Drive it around the neighborhood a few times, and then come back and check it over.

Then drive it on the freeway for at least 20 minutes, and check it out again.

Tester

Had a quarter tank and filled the rest with fresh fuel. Turned right over and ran smooth. Not out of the woods until I try to move it, but I think things’ll be okay. Thanks.

Don’t drive this on the public streets as it appears you don’t have current registration and insurance( if you do then disregard this post ).

18mo. is getting up there, but if kept in a garage in a climate where humidity doesn’t stay high long you might be okay re. most corrosion mechanisms. Timing belt is a concern, in addition to age they can take a set while sitting making them more prone to failure. Check brake cylinders for leakage and either have brake fluid checked or just flush the system. Same for coolant, long periods of non-op can result in localized exhaustion of the coolant’s corrosion inhibitors leading to crevice corrosion. If it’s still rolling you are likely to be okay.

I have never seen a running vehicle towed in for a timing belt replacement, lets be reasonable.

Performing airbag recalls on convertibles I frequently see low mileage cars. Two weeks ago I worked on a 2004 car that had only traveled 3000 miles since 2006. I have seen a dozen 15 year old cars with less than 10,000 miles that were in show room condition.

These vehicles spend there time parked in garages, the oil is changed in 3 to 5 years intervals and there are no engine failures. Changing the oil every 6 months on a seasonal car is wasteful.

Some of these cars are in the shop once a year for dead battery, many people don’t know how to recharge a battery.

I wouldn’t blindly reject a low mileage vehicle.

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I’ve gone 18 months between buying gasoline without any apparent effect ('87 Toyota pickup). Add a bottle of Iso-HEET to scavenge water and a bottle of gasoline cleaner to dissolve varnish. If it ran well before then it’ll probably run well again.