What Can I Expect After Tacoma Has Been Idle For 10 Months?

I put my truck in storage back in early February thinking it would be a month max before I could go back home to the US and sell it. I ran out of time, had to start a new job and just couldn’t get rid of it fast enough so my only option was to put it in storage. Because of Covid 19 and the goddamn fucking quarantine restrictions that this job and the country I live in has I have been unable to return.

What horrors can I expect after my 2018 Tacoma TRD Off-Road has been sitting idle in storage for close to 10 months? I probably will not be able to return to the U.S. until early November.

 

Your battery will probably be dead and need replacement. Also, if you run gasoline with ethanol, you may need to drain your old gas out. Ethanol goes bad quicker than pure gasoline.

 

dont crank it up

change all fluids especially the gas

then take it out for a few miles make sure its running right

will U be aaround to stay or long enuf to sell

if U r back IN country to stay Ur efforts will be good

 

It will need a boost, may need a battery if it doesnt charge.

The brakes will be rusted. Tires may be low as well, if they were low long enough you'll have flat spots.

Ideally you'd take the battery to get charged, bring it to start and check all fluids and tire pressures.

Drive it and see if the rust wears off with a few drives.

 

Truck is stored in The Pacific Northwest in an arid and relatively mild climate. Doesn’t get hot to the extremes like Arizona and it doesn’t get super cold like the Dakotas. It didn’t snow much at all last winter and I stored the truck right after washing it. It is also stored inside of a unit. Hopefully that helped.

I’m afraid of bad gaskets and having to replace all fluids like radiator, transmission and engine oil. Truck has 15k miles and still had the stock tires which shouldn’t be too expensive to replace.

 

Nah its fine, don't worry about gaskets. The brake pulsation from the rust and the battery are the biggest issues.

 

Because of the quarantine restrictions, I will only be around for a week. Probably won’t have enough time to sell and if there are issues with the truck I will not be selling the truck until they are fixed.

 

if U r only goin to be around 1 week

why bother...............just drain gas

leave a big sign on drivers seat until U can be home with more time

 

I'd crawl under it and make sure that a mouse didn't make a nest somewhere exciting or chew any wires that could short. Pop the hood and do the same thing, as well as pull your air box make sure the filter or belt hasn't been eaten up or stuffed full of acorns, otherwise like other people have said probably a good idea to change the gas out if you can.

If you're *really* concerned turn the motor over by hand with a socket and breaker bar to gently lubricate things the oil film may have drained off of, or alternatively pull the ignition fuse and bump the starter a handful of times to avoid a totally dry start.

Like others have said, your tires are probably really low if not totally flat, your battery I'm sure is dead dead and needs replacing not just a charge.

If you have any vibrations it could be due to flat spots on the tires for sitting with weight on them for so long.

 

I’m going to take it out of storage and take it to my parents house 12 hrs way where they can start it/ drive it a few times a month. Stored it primarily because I ran out of time and thought I’d be back within a few weeks. Covid came along and every month it’s been a matter of hopefully I can go home next month or hopefully I don’t have to ad 2 weeks quarantine to how ever many days I go home for.

 

whatever & however by ALL means be safe

taking to Ur parents is wise

new battery

oil/filter change

drain old/bad gas

Ur parents wont have issues

 

Take a jump box, check for proper oil, tire pressure and start it up. Drive it. Burn through old gas and fill the tank with ethanol free gas and fuel stabilizer.

https://www.pure-gas.org/

if you’re leaving it again don’t put a new battery in it.

 

Thanks for the Positive outlook guys. I was thinking the worst, rooted in all of the frustration that I’ve been going through with the inability to be able to just handle stuff like that real quick and return.

As far as fuel, there’s not much in there, maybe 3 gallons at the most. I remember purposefully emptying out the tank and only adding enough to get me to the storage facility.

 

God forbid if you listen to TW,you might as well just part that betch out!

 

It’ll be 100% fine. If the battery has above 10V jump start it and go. If it has less than 10V you can still save it using a few tricks, but if you don’t have a spare battery to fool the charger they won’t work so just trade it for a new battery and get the core charge back.

the fuel will be fine but will be lower quality. No need to drain it but I would recommend topping it off immediately once you get going. I’ve started cars with much much older gas before.

oil will be fine. If you are in a humid climate it won’t hurt to change it after you get settled. Otherwise you have 2 months of life left in the oil.

 

When I read the subject line of this post the first time my answer was going to be:

“An empty gas tank”

I mean after letting a truck run at idle for 10 months it must be out of gas, right? Different kind of “idle.”

 

Hopefully the tires wont be screwed. If they are, luckily I had stock tires on there and people take them off to resell them all the time so it won’t be super expensive to get some new ones.

Truck is stored in a city located in high desert, zero humidity and it doesn’t get that hot either.

Meant to say truck has been just sitting in storage. No ones been using it or even ocassionally turning it on for me.