Maintainence needed after 5 months of sitting?

Hey guys, so I unfortuantly had to leave my beloved taco out in the cold for the past 5 months. I am in Afghanistan and had to park the truck outside when i left (I don't have a garage). It was left with a full tank of gas and that's pretty much it.

Any major maintenance actions i should take when i get back next month?

I figure check the battery? Flat spots on the tires aren't a biggie since i have new meats waiting to go on.

Opinions?

 

how cold we talkin?

 

A quick oil change wouldn't hurt. Probably going to have to jump start it but that's about it

 

Its gotten down to single digits from what i understand. I should add that i have a buddy who starts it up when he can, which is about once a week.

 

5 mos is really not that bad so the only fluids I would change for piece of mind is the oil.

 

that.

thats not that long

 

and maybe through some seafoam in the tank.

 

Cool so probably an oil change, seafoam and battery check.

Hopefully there aren't any issues with it when i return.

 

As long as you put sta-bil in the gas before you left or some other preservative it should be ok. Seafoam after the fact will not help. I would NOT recommend using the gas in the tank unless you did se a preservative. Draining it would be wise if no preservative was used. Charge the battery before trying to start the truck if you did not have a solar charger or maintainer on it. An oil change would not hurt because of possible moisture build up in the oil, but not absolutely necessary. Other than that all should be fine.
Here is an article on the gas that you might consider;
http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&A=112237

 

Thanks for serving and hope you are enjoying a little piece of heaven.

I've been gone four times for a year at a time. I never have any issues with my daily driver. If you have someone starting and driving once a week, you don't need to do anything but change oil. If he just started it up and didn't get it up to operating temp, I would also look for any signs of rust in the muffler since water will form there and sit without being brought up to temp. I always had my wife drive mine to work once a week. On my 74 vette, I always used stabil on the gas, changed the oil, and primed the engine before starting, bled brakes, etc.

Don't worry about flat spot tires. Doesn't really happen anymore with the new tech in tires.

 

Alex, if I were you, I would do the following:

1. Check the battery terminals and lugs for corrosion and clean if necessary.
2. Check the electrolyte levels, add distilled water if necessary.
3. Fully recharge my battery slowly with a battery charger, and have it tested.

For more PM info on batteries, please see Section 3 in the Car and Deep Cycle Battery FAQ on www.batteryfaq.org. Thank you for your service.