About to let my Explorer sit for 5-6 months, Anything i need to do?

[Nasty]

And as far as oil goes, I don't bother to change it before the 8 months. Immediately after the 8 months off is when it gets new oil.

This is exactly what I was thinking.

 

[CorryBasler]

Based on 16 years of leaving a vehicle at my vacation home off season for almost 8 months, I think you will be fine.

I understand and respect all the precautions that have been posted, and some may say I am nuts, but I have had no prob just disconnecting the negative battery cable and inflating to max for 8 month periods over 16 years. Feel free to take some extra precautions, but you will be fine.

Interestingly, in doing it this way I have gotten normal battery life. One battery lasted six years.

And as far as oil goes, I don't bother to change it before the 8 months. Immediately after the 8 months off is when it gets new oil.

Ill get my oil changed when i come back for it then, I always heard the break in oil should be changed around 3-5k miles and ill probably be right at 3k when it gets parked, but I could also see the oil sitting in the engine for 6 months not being to awesome either, and my free service plan oil changes are good at any ford dealership.

 

[Napalm]

modern syn blend (which is what your 5-20 motorcraft stuff is) doesn't care about time.

it cares about heat, water vapor, and dirt. sitting still it doesn't care.

HOWEVER upon that first startup - the top of your engine will indeed be DRY. as is cam journals, lifters, etc. because months of sitting will let all that oil work back down.

This is a great time to get as much old oil and dirt out of the crankcase with a draining.

it's extreme but upon startup I've gone so far as to pull fuel pump relays and/or ignition fuses to prevent the engine starting - but allowing me to motor over the system and oil up the top. granted those cars sat more than 6 months.

 

[tmg19103]

Ill get my oil changed when i come back for it then, I always heard the break in oil should be changed around 3-5k miles and ill probably be right at 3k when it gets parked, but I could also see the oil sitting in the engine for 6 months not being to awesome either, and my free service plan oil changes are good at any ford dealership.

It was probably a good idea to change the oil before-hand given the break-in and a decent amount of miles. The reason I don't bother changing the oil before I store over the off season is because the Escape is on an 11x3 mile island and hardly gets any miles on it in the summer anyway so the oil is still in pretty good shape when I store, but I still want to change it once a year so that is when I break it out of storage for the summer.

If the oil needs changing and has thus broken down a bit, I'd change it before storage like you did. Honestly, the newly changed oil will probably still be good when you get back, but since oil changes are cheap, might as well do another soon enough to play it safe

 

[Todd82TA]

Similar situation, and I've left my cars sitting for months and years at a time. I left my 2002 Crown Victoria LX sitting for 3 years in a garage with good air circulation... and when I came back, the fuel pump was dead, a lot of the fuel had evaporated, and all four tires were flat-spotted.

I ended up changing all the fluids, replaced the fuel pump, and still after another 5k miles, the tires still aren't great. The car had 32k miles when I left it as-is... and the tires were brand new.


Next time I have to leave a car in storage for another 3-years or so, I will take most of the weight off the car on jack-stands. It's still ok to have the tires resting on the ground, but try to take as much weight off the wheels as possible to prevent flat spotting. Also... when you DO finally start it when you get back... disconnect the fuel injection system and just try to crank it to let the oil recirculate properly for 10-15 seconds.

Not sure if you can do that with the newer computer-controlled ignitions... but that would be my advice.

 

[edino]

We leave every year the country for 3-4 months, and never faced a problem with any our cars. All we do is fill the tires to 50 PSI.

Its parked in our garage, and after we come back (3-4 months), its starts always immediately. I let it run for a few minutes; put the tires at the correct pressure... and go for a good drive... thats all.