Cars been sitting for 4 years | GTAMotorcycle.com

Cars been sitting for 4 years

Rohan27

Rohan27

Well-known member
Site Supporter
So my mother has a 2002 Toyota Corolla that's just been sitting in the garage for the last 4 years. What would have to be done to get it back on the road?

I'm going to get it insured and get a temp sticker so I can get it e-tested in order to get a normal sticker, but does anything else have to be done? Also does the owner of the vehicle have to get the sticker or can I go by myself?

I'm pretty sure the battery is toast so that's going to have to be replaced (or hopefully it works after being on a charger), and its probably going to need an oil change (full synthetic oil has just been sitting in it for 4 years). Is there anything else necessary?
 
um....Im going to guess there will be some really really stale gas in there.

.
 
Does it run? You may want to start by seeing if it'll run.
 
The car runs pretty normally, it just seems like the battery wont hold a charge.
 
Rohan27 said:
The car runs pretty normally, it just seems like the battery wont hold a charge.
Click to expand...

That's normal with that kind of neglect. Get a new battery. I'd change the oil, run that current tank empty, refill the tank with fresh gas, then change the oil again haha.

You know what, change all of the damn fluids. Coolant, tranny....change the plugs, get a new air filter, etc. The car runs so all you really need to do is fill out the paperwork and make sure the licenses and etc are up to snuff.
 
you can get the stickers and etest done without mom there. change the oil after you drive it around a day or so, top up the tank with fresh gas, check the tire sidewalls for checks or cracking.
watch carefully for leaks to start showing up around axle seals, transmission seals and water pumps ect. its not uncommon for a small leak to appear then go away again, doesnt mean it wont be back.
Find a safe place to do it and pump the brakes on hard a couple times, if there is any rust or cracks in the lines they will let go. best to find this out as your choice not a panic stop.

I've bought a couple cars that had been parked , one for 9 years. it needed a battery and the mice chased out of the air cleaner, otherwise it was ok.
 
You could post it in kijijijiji listed as 'showroom condition' and that it has 'never seen rain'.
 
Tires - check the tire pressures. And check the date codes on the tires. If the tires were already old before the car was parked, that rubber is now four more years older. If the tires are more than 6 or 7 years old, it may well be worth putting new rubber on it even if the current tires still have plenty of tread.

Coolant, it's been sitting for a while without circulating, so corrosion may be an issue. Get some rad flush, give the car some running time to let the rad flush do its job, then drain, refill with straight water, run, and drain again before doing a final refill with new coolant with good corrosion inhibitors. Save yourself some money by buying that coolant in concentrated form rather than the premixed, and make your own 50-50 coolant/water mix.

Windshield wiper will have hardened, do your windshield a favour and replace them asap.

Brakes - disc surfaces will have surface corrosion, maybe some pitting. Be careful with the brakes until you've determined how effective they still are.

Gas - old gas. Just drive it off, and then put in a good dose of fuel system and injector cleaner in the first couple of tanks of fresh fuel to help clean out your fuel delivery system. Don't go for an etest until you've burned off ALL of the old gas AND all of any gas containing fuel system or injector cleaners.
 
And about the etest, you may get lucky and find that car is not scheduled to have one this year.

I had a car in storage for 3 years that I recently pulled out for use, and fully expected to have to etest it before getting a new sticker. Normally you have to get etested every two years once the average car hits a certain age, so I was ure that I was "overdue". I figured I'd go get my temporary 10-day sticker and use those days to run the old gas out and a couple of fresh tanks through the car before going for an etest.

At the MTO counter I asked for a 10-day temp permit, and then as an afterthought mentioned to the counter staff, "unless you can give me the full sticker instead".

She checked and found that she could because my car's model year would not have been due for an etest this year if it had been continually licensed, and as such was not due now even though it had not been continually licensed. Next year will be a different story, but it took some pressure off as far as getting etested goes this year.
 
Regarding Turbo's comment on e-test; that would only be true if you are leaving the car in mom's name. If you're transferring it to you, it will need an e-test (full pass, not conditional) to transfer ownership independent of whether it is it's normal year or not.
 
Lyndsay said:
Regarding Turbo's comment on e-test; that would only be true if you are leaving the car in mom's name. If you're transferring it to you, it will need an e-test (full pass, not conditional) to transfer ownership independent of whether it is it's normal year or not.
Click to expand...

Not anymore for Light Duty Vehicles. Two exeptions for etests now.

1) Buying out a lease.
2) Immediate Family Transfers.

http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/environment/en/category/drive_clean/STDPROD_075674.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom