Car experts please give me advice.

[SourCandy]

I need information on what to do with a car that has not moved in 2 years. My dad had his 2003 focus sitting in his driveway for almost 2 years now. He use to drive it often but then feel in love with his truck. He has no use for it so he was like "take it" so I did. Some minor issues came up with the car like brakes(he said they needed to change them before he stopped using it) and a flat tire and he just got lazy and left it there. My dad is sick so he really cant do much. I had a friend come over to fix the breaks and I did the tire :lol
However I got busy and left the car there another 3 months and have not turned it on. My question to you guys is:

Battery is prob dead right? so I should charge it or get a new one.
anything else I should do or check before attempting to fire up the focus??


Any useful advice on the resurrection of this car will be much appreciated :)

[Nbadan]

I need information on what to do with a car that has not moved in 2 years. My dad had his 2003 focus sitting in his driveway for almost 2 years now. He use to drive it often but then feel in love with his truck. He has no use for it so he was like "take it" so I did. Some minor issues came up with the car like brakes(he said they needed to change them before he stopped using it) and a flat tire and he just got lazy and left it there. My dad is sick so he really cant do much. I had a friend come over to fix the breaks and I did the tire :lol
However I got busy and left the car there another 3 months and have not turned it on. My question to you guys is:

Battery is prob dead right? so I should charge it or get a new one.
anything else I should do or check before attempting to fire up the focus??


Any useful advice on the resurrection of this car will be much appreciated :)

Recharge the battery.....three months is not too long as long as it has been started..if not, you may need some fuel additive to stabilize the fuel that has been sitting in your gas tank...

[TDMVPDPOY]

let the engine run for a few minutes....

he shouldve done this once a fortnight or someshit when the car was idle for 2 years....

[PM5K]

So wait, did you fire it up when you had the brakes and tire fixed, or has it not been started in two years and three months?

[PM5K]

Any way. I'm no expert but if you started it three months ago I'd just do whatever you did the last time, and as soon as you can change the oil and gasoline.

If you never did start it don't start it until you're sure you've done everything you should. So for example the gasoline can degrade causing gum and varnish, which in turn can clog up fuel lines and your fuel filter. Now I don't know if two years is long enough for that to happen, maybe all you'll need is some fuel stabilizer, but either way make sure you know beforehand so you don't cause more damage.

As far as I know you put in stabilizer BEFORE you store the gas, but it might be better than just starting it up. It also depends on how much gas is in there, but if it hasn't been started in two+ years it might be best to try to drain it out, if there's just a little gas you'll want to fill it all the way up with fresh gas.

[JamStone]

Assuming your dad just gave you the car and you didn't pay him anything, you should spend a little coin on making sure it's in serviceable condition. Re-charge the battery, but if it's the same battery that has been idle for 2 years, I'd just as soon get a new one. Might need new sparkplugs too. Get an oil change and a check up. Might cost you a couple hundred dollars. But like I said, if you just got a free car, spend a little money to make sure you're not renting a car that's going to keep giving you problems, and then you'll end up spending more money on it later anyway.

[Chomag]

As others have stated the Fuel and oil might be, or might be going stale.

These are all things I would personaly do before starting it again:

1. Drain old fuel from tank and refill with new. If you have to drop the tank to drain out the fuel, I would go ahead and replace thefuel pump and in tank filter while I was doing this repair. (Assuming this is a fuel injected engine)
2. Replace in line fuel filter
3. Change oil and filter
4. Replace battery
5. Check all fluids and top off

Try to startengine and see what happens, I really would not do much more than that at first….it might just start right up. If it does, I would SLOWLY drive it around the block a few times and see how it drives; does it overheat transmission shift ok, engine sound and drive ok?

If you do get it running, I would also consider doing the following
1. Replace thermostat and flush and refill radiator with new coolant and new radiatorcap
2. Service the transmission fluid and filter (unless the transmission is slipping or has Lots of miles on it and you don’t know when the last filter replacement was)
3. Rotate and balance the tires (unless it has been sitting up on blocks) and inspect the brakes

[SourCandy]

Thanks for the advice guys. I will do MOST of that :)