Leaving VW Garaged - Precautions?

Make sure you leave your gas tank full as this will prevent any moist inside turning to rust (so I have been told) that would get through to your engine. Also, release your handbrake.

MC gave some good advice. I will also suggest that you really don't need to do much. That is not all that long. I would disconnect the battery. Running the trickle charger should not hurt it. I would just feel better having it run only a few hours a week or say 20 minutes a day.

A month is nothing. Provided your battery is in good condition, I wouldn't even bother trickle charging the battery or, as another poster suggested, disconnecting it.

Since it is garaged, I'd imagine you'll be pretty O.K. You might want to take it easy on the brakes the first few times just in case any minor rust has built up and another poster's suggestion of leaving the handbrake off is an unnecessary but so simple it's worth doing suggestion.

I have left several cars parked, ungaraged in the U.K. in all sorts of weather for upwards of a month. The only issue I've ever had was once rear drum brakes binding a little on first moving due to minor surface rust where the shoes had been in contact with the drum while the handbrake was on.

Rich

Purchase a battery maintainer, not a trickle charger as you can boil the battery dry with as little as 1 amp. Adding a fuel stabilizer wouldn't hurt either and you don't need to worry about fuel tank rust with the plastic tank you have. Now want to know what I do to my 88 Blazer S10 which sets about 4 moths without being started. NOTHING, and never had any fuel problems!

I would not disconnect the battery, that's asking for trouble when you come back, but I would overfill the tires (about 20% over the advised pressure). Last time I started my passat back up after it being garaged for a while it had some problems with the ignition, just in the beginning, but enough to give an error code. Don't know if there is anything that you could do to prevent this, but maybe there is someone in this NG with a solution.

Disconnecting the battery will mean that the computer may need to recalibrate itself when you return which it will do. ... Now that you do mention it, some cars may have a problem with radio and key codes. It may not know who you are when you return. Yea, it may be a bad idea with some of today's cars.

a month,.a winter month in va., is about the same temp. as a spring day in ny,and garaged besides,.overkill to say the least,if it was 3 months or more ,then,.before i had my naturally heated garage(under the house between the ground,furnace and hw heater in the back. avg. 65 F (55-75) yr. round,.i had an unheated garage,had 4 cars two for winter,two for summer,.way before kids came along ,never did anything to the vechicles when werent using them between seasons,except drive them once a month,.that was over 25 yrs ago ,vw,s have come along way since then........relax

Make sure you lock it, an unlocked car will use more of the battery.

Just curious, why is that?

When the car is locked the alarm goes into sleep mode reducing battery draw to about 20ma, other wise it could be close to 80ma. Also after 30 days(from what VW says) the red LED stops blinking further reducing draw. But the alarm is still active ready to do it's job.

One month isn't long enought to have to do anything about it. Think about how long they can sit on the dealer's lot. I've left my car for 9 months and it started right up when I came back.

-VJS

Thanks to everyone who responded. The consensus seems to be that 1 month is not long enough to worry about, but a battery maintainer would not hurt. Also, don't apply the parking brake and leave the car locked. Beyond that, nothing to worry about.

Again, thank you to everyone.

I recently left my Jetta parked for about 19 days... upon starting it, the 'check engine' light went on and would stay on.. so I had to take it to the dealer and they found 'a misfiring plug' only, and said I had 'the wrong plugs' in [ Bosch Platinmum 4 tip, installed 6-7 months ago ! ], suggested change cost $250... thanks, but no thanks, paid for the diagnostics, they had reset it, and off it is since then....

4Moti> Thanks to everyone who responded. The consensus seems to be that 1 month is

I had same problem after 10 days (I have the 'good' plugs) but had a free check at autozone. Never had a problem since.