what's needed? Car been idle 20 months

Brake fluid perhaps, and check electrical contacts etc. for corrosion and of course an MOT!

Oh s*1t, forgot about an MOT!!! DoH!

Brakes need stripping down, cleaning and regreasing. You may find you need to replace the front discs. Also the clutch may have seized onto the flywheel. Also you may find you need to put some fresh petrol in. As well as that, pull the spark plugs to make sure they've not gone rusty.

Alternatively, just fill with fresh petrol and drive it to the MOT station to see what they say.

After 20 months I'd seriously reckon that the brakes at the very least need strip and greasing. Driving it without looking ath them is just asking for a disaster. I'll bet the handbrake if left on though has stuck good.

There's a lot of interesting suggestions here, things that need thinking of ...

Is it worth posting the query to , for example, uk.rec.cars.classic? - simply because there might be a few people around there that are used to bringing cars back to life that have been standing around a while, and might know some of the problems ...

After such a short time there will be nothing wrong unless the garage was seriously damp.

Fresh battery and start using it.

I just got an old car out of a garage, four years standing, jump start and drove it away.

mrcheerful

I'm with cheerful on this one, just drive it.

New cars stand outside in manufacturers compounds for longer than that, and about the only special treatment they get is an Italian tune up on their way round the compound to the back of the transporter.

My car was off the road for about 6 months and the brake pads and discs required renewing. Also I found that the radiator fan had seized up.

Roddy

Probably needs a new cat, but that might go ok if you can take it for a good long run before you test it.

20 months is long enough to cause the clutch to stick. Battery will be damaged by this experience, but you never know, it might hang on with a recharge for a year or so.

It's quite likely there is water in the bottom of the petrol tank, it would be worth pumping this through the fuel line into a bottle until it smells of petrol, rather than flood the bores with water.

Since when does standing unused bugger a cat up?

And where exactly would this water have come from?

Sticking brake calipers and pistons etc. Hopefully a good drive will free everything up but drive carefully in case something fails.

Possibly worth a squirt of easystart in the air intake before cstarting it.

sponix

All fuel is to a certain extent hydroscopic. As it warms up it absorbs moisture from the air then as it cools down at night this water then drops out of suspension. It is more of a problem in the tropics but it still happens in the UK . It is always best to fill a tank for storage rather than empty it. You get less corrosion, less evaporation and as there is less free air, less water. All this is why pilots drain a sample of fuel out of aircraft fuel tanks before each flight. In addition if you leave the water in the tank a fungus (Cladosporium Resinae in Jet fuel) can grow on the fuel water interface. This can then come off in a lump and suddenly block fuel filters.

Slatts

The message from "SimonJ" contains these words:

I must get my mind's eye cleaned. I read that as "Since when do you bugger a cat standing up?"

Just does. Dunno why, but I suppose the self-cleaning only works when the cat gets hot, and that can't happen when the cat isn't catalysing any more.

Just does. I've drained cupfulls out, I assume it comes from the atmosphere but I haven't tested that.

Condensation on the inner wall of the tank. tch.

-- Stuart

Well everyone that's lived in our house seemed to prefer lying down, I assume there's a reason.

Theres a big difference between a new car and a old puggy thats been sitting idle for 20 months .

but as the tank is sealed with a cap, the only place such condensation could come from is the fuel... which doesn't normally contain water... or the surrounding air - and in a tank the size of a 106, it's unlikely there could be more than a few ml of water to condense from the air. Not a significant issue iff you ask me.

FWIW I have just brought back into use an Omega that had stood 18 months (outside) since its last tax disc expired. It's had the engine replaced as that's why it had stood, but apart from rusty brake discs there was nothing wrong with it - after replacing the engine I stripped the handbrake assembly to get it working and it passed its MOT with no comments other than the rust on the brake discs.

If this car has been stood in a garage and rolled out the handbrake will probably be OK (not too difficult to check), check the condition of the tyres, but I don't expect there wil be much else wrong with it unless it had problems before.