Do I need to do anything with my car?

[Twospaniels]

So the family cars have been sitting unused on the driveway for nearly three weeks now.
Do we need to do anything with them? Run the engine on the drive? Or just leave them?

Watching with interest op. I’m expecting a flat battery as I haven’t driven now nearly 4 weeks.

They say when you have a flat battery and get jump started you need to drive for 20mins to recharge the battery.

I’ve been going round the block a few times but not quite that long, in the hope that won’t happen to me!

I’m only out once a week and I noticed the brakes did that bang noise as I first drove as they had started to rust over in place and when the wheels started moving it knocked the rust off with a bang.

Don’t be surprised if that happens to you too! It doesn’t mean anything and you don’t need to do anything when it happens.

But I would try and drive round a wee bit to a shop or whatever or even just start the car and let it turn over for five mins now and again.

Fwiw my old car (2004 Zafira, but with low mileage) regularly sits for longer than that. During this mild winter it was occasionally reluctant to start, but always managed

I think if the winter had been harsher I’d probably have made the effort to take it out more often. It’s a diesel so really needs a longer run to straighten itself out. (In normal times, for very local shopping trips we generally use DH’s more modern diesel & take mine when we’re going further afield.)

Just starting the engine but not driving will put more strain on the battery. You'd be better off leaving it if that's the only alternative.

Less than three weeks isn't very long

I don’t think running the engine on the drive for a few minutes would do a car any good at all - for one thing you’d encourage condensation in the exhaust system, & for another you’d be kicking out loads of fumes right outside your house.

Better to take it out for a long enough run to get warmed up

You also need to move the car a little bit every few days so the pressures are not on one spot on the tyres.

Are you doing any driving at all to the shop etc? If so, I would just move one into a position where it is easily jump started and then try and use the other one every so often.

A couple of times for different reasons I've had cars sit for up to 6 weeks. I was warned about the bang as you go to move it. And yes they do give a bang or sometimes 2 bangs as the brakes release.
But neither time has it causes any problems with the car.

If it's in winter very very cold take your time warming it up. One of the times it had sat for weeks in freezing temperatures. And the back window went when I'm guessing I had the demiser on for too long.