Should we be taking the cars out for a spin?

[faithinallisee]

The cars have been sitting on the driveway for nearly 4 weeks now.

I'm worried that the batteries might be going flat, and so on. Should we be taking them out for a spin?

Do you need to drive them to buy food or medicine etc etc?

My battery went flat after not driving for 4 months, when I was too pregnant to fit behind the wheel and then recovering from a cesarean. Not sure when exactly the battery died but it was only a battery.

Don't you have any reason to use it? You could disconnect the battery and charge it up, if you have a charger!

No. I’m asthmatic so vulnerable, but not on the shielding list.

DH and I have been staying at home so we haven’t been driving anywhere.

I would definitely be taking my car for a good run if it had sat on my drive for four weeks. The security systems will put a small, but constant drain on the battery which will flatten it eventually. How long that will take obviously varies between cars, depending on age, model etc.

I’m driving mine once a week, usually to the supermarket to be on the safe side.

No.

I'm choosing to apply 'staying at home' to the advice 'stay at home'

Depends, do you have the means to charge a flat battery at home? Are you likely to need a car on short notice?
If you don't need a car (and won't need one until after this is all over) then I would just leave it.
I drive my car every day but DH hasn't used his since he's been working from home.
As long as we have one working car.

The back wheels of my friend's car totally seized up (and the battery was flat) because she hadn't driven it for a couple of months.

DP is charging our car battery once a week just incase there's an emergency and we need to go to the hospital or Doctor or if we need to help MIL with an emergency or we need the car in a hurry for some other reason.

I would (or get your DH to if you are vulnerable). If at all possible you should make it an essential journey like food shopping.

I'm heavily pregnant and we need the car to be working when I go into labour as there's no home births and ambulance response times are shit currently, so we will be taking ours out every once in a while. Happy to explain that to local police but not local busybodies if needs be.

I would on the basis that I need it to start if there's a medical emergency

If you know your car needs it, I'd say that's a good reason. But I do suspect most cars will last rather longer than people are saying. But I think a battery trickle charger is a better solution; if you only have on-street parking you can get solar chargers.

Same for diesel cars that get gunked up if they only ever do short journeys, I don't see anything wrong in a quick motorway run if the car needs it.

You could idle or rev it while parked but that's rather antisocial.

Can you leave the car running for a bit and then just take it round the block? Also check the air in your tyres. Mine needed topping up after being sat for nearly a month.

Rac advice is to run car on driveway for 30 minutes and also move back and forward a bit to prevent brakes from seizing. Do this once a week.

PS: Personally I'm not doing anything special. If the battery does run flat I'll just lug it into the house and charge it, like I did before when I left the lights on. But then I don't expect to be in a situation where a delay driving somewhere is a serious issue.

My DH did just this, after his car being sat there for 3 weeks. I insisted he just took it round the block in case of crash or breakdown. He decided to get petrol and so went a little further. And guess what?! He broke down! The AA had to come. He kept his distance from them, and they said hey were quiet so happy to have some thing to do, but I was still cross with him. Anyway, turned out to be the fuel injection leads, which had got clogged after sitting still. So I would suggest just running it, turn off. Try starting again etc rather than going anywhere in it.

As above .. sensible , in case you need it in an emergency .

Doesn't need much, just a couple of miles..

Is it me or is everyone else finding 'competitive isolation' really annoying ?

No .. IF you are going to meet someone whilst in your car and the windows would up.. or have to stop at a petrol station that is so crowded you can't socially distance..

If you can take it for a run without putting yourself at no greater risk that sitting on your sofa then yes, a sensible thing to do.

I'm taking mine shopping once every 8 days taking the longer route RAC said 15 minutes run is fine to keep the battery going so I take it the 15 minute way round

Jump started dh's on tues.

Going to idle every other day on the drive.

Mines running as I'm in work (can't alternate vehicles as will cost ££ thanks to parking eye and lack of flexibility).

Rac advice is to run car on driveway for 30 minutes and also move back and forward a bit to prevent brakes from seizing. Do this once a week

We'd have a back garden full of exhaust fumes (probably our next door neighbours would too) if we did that

I'm still driving regularly for work, generally using dh's car as it's more fuel efficient but taking mine once a week just to keep going. Maybe I should be offering to drive neighbours' cars for them on a rota.

This is quite a good article on how to look after your car
www.which.co.uk/news/2020/04/coronavirus-how-to-maintain-your-car-during-lockdown/

We've hardly been out in 3 weeks, we don't use our excersise allowance, hardly been to the shops.

I take the car out for an hour once a week. I absolutely need it to be working in case any of us needs a and e
Hospital. Urgent food run etc.

I'd be utterly disgusted if anyone ran their car on the bloody drive way round here! We live cheek by jowl, my dc have lung issues!
We would be flooded with fumes!

Considering the highest death rates are coming front areas of high pollution, I 🤔 we need a good dollop of '' commons sense ''

Take the car out for a drive and don't pump fumes into your neighbours, polluting thier lungs which they will need to fight this disease!!

I've got a 20 mile commute on the days I'm working, so it goes out once a week. I let it warm up fully, then hit 3000rpm for 10 seconds to clean the DPF. This week there's nothing, so I'll take it out about the 18th, which will be a fortnight.