Hi again.
I need to lay up my newly bought '04 Santa Fe GLS/LX from mid June to about November/December, while I am out of the country.
It will be garaged and partially insured for this period.
It will be in a 'non air conditionned' garage attached to my house in Florida; so it will be hot.
I will disconnect the battery and connect a battery maintainer onto it.
I need it to be instantly available when I return (within 5-10 minutes of arrival).

Does any one have knowledge of laying up a vehicle and what to do for this length of time.
Should I do anything else other than battery, what about fuel (gas), tyres or other things????

Any help and advice would be very welcome.

I'm a member of some other forums and this was asked recently. Somebody was being deployed the military and needed to store his Acura CL for no less than 12 months.

You would be wise to put a battery tender on it. This is what I would do in addition to your ideas:

- Have the oil and filter changed.
- Pump the tires up to about 40 psi. It's not too high to hurt anything but it will give a margin of error for air loss over the six months you plan on storing the vehicle.
- Keep the fuel tank at about a quarter and add a fuel stabilizer to the tank. Fuel tends to go bad within a year or so. The stabilizer will prevent this and once you put the vehicle back on the road, fill the tank and drive it for a while to run the older gasoline through the system.
- Since the vehicle will be parked inside, crack at least one window to keep the air in the interior from going stale.

I have read it is not a good idea to put the vehicle on jack stands during the storage time. Doing this will prevent the tires from flat-spotting but the shocks are not designed to be hyper-extended for many months at a time.

I hope this helps you.

Hi Again lovemysantafe

Great ideas, I hadn't thought about the tyres and the stale air, I will follow your advice.
I will try to use some bug screen to stop the bugs getting into the passenger compartment via the open window/s but they could probably get in in a thousand other ways!!!
'Fuel Stabilizer' is this something I can buy at a local walmart?

OOPS
I meant to ask will disconnecting the battery cause any problem when I reconnect it with anything such as security, radio or anything. Will they still work?

It shouldn't. I retrofitted my GLS's single-CD radio with the 6-disc changer from the LX. I recently plugged it back in after a year and it still held the presets. As for security, the US-spec Santa Fe did not have an immobilizer so I don't foresee any issues there.

Edit: About the fuel stabilizer, this stuff has been used by many I've spoken with to great success. It's called STA-BIL. http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/surv/sta-bil.htm

This post has been edited by lovemysantafe: May 24 2009, 10:16 PM

i do agree with lovemysanty on everything. getting a battery tender will keep the battery from going dead and also keep the computer from erasing all the info on how the engine was running. when you disconnect the battery it resets the computer and it takes 100 miles or so for it to learn and retune the engine as far as fuel/air mixture, exhaust temp (o2 sensors) to get it to peak efficiency. also if you could i would have a friend come and drive it once in a while to keep all the seals in the engine lubricated. if you let it sit to long without oil on them they will dry out and crack and then you will have an expensive fix as far as rear main seal and other numerous gaskets. just a thought. sta-bil for the gas is also a good idea. its available pretty much anywhere and the instructions on the bottle will tell you how much to use and so on.

Thanks hinge817 & everyone

Regrettably I cannot organise anyone to run the car while I am away.

I made the decision to disconnect the battery BUT I am wondering if this is not needed especially taking 'car memory/computer' etc into account.
Would you knowledgeable guys disconnect the battery for a 6 month layup ???

it wont hurt anything to disconnect your battery. but it might be dead when you go to reconnect it. not that big of deal, a jump start and some driving will bring it back depending on how good of shape its in. i would definately put some sta-bil in the gas, no matter how much is in the tank, and run it for about 5 min or so...so when you do get back and crank it up it will fire off no problem. your gas mileage might suffer just a bit while your engine control unit reprograms itself to make the engine run efficently. maybe a 1 to 1.5 difference in gas mileage for a lil while. your car battery is like any other battery essentially, if you leave it unused for some time it will slowly lose its charge. a battery tender is about 25 or so dollars and a good investment if you plan on leaving it disconnected for 6+ months. just a lil added security for when you do get back there wont be any surprises when you need to get in and get rolling.

I agree with hinge...you won't be hurting anything by disconnecting the battery.

I used to work for a Hyundai dealer and all the cars are shipped from the factory with a major fuse removed that prevents the clock, radio, climate control, or anything that might slowly drain the battery from operating. Not once did I see one get that fuse fitted and have issues. Now when a lot attended hooked up the jump leads backwards on a new Sonata....that's another story.

This post has been edited by lovemysantafe: Jun 2 2009, 04:40 PM

Hi Guys
A thank you for your past advice, I left the '04 SF in storage June '09 and returned v late October '09.
I used fuel additive, windows cracked open, slight increase in tire pressure and a trickle charger permanently attached and on return it fired up immediately and sweetly.
(it ran for 2 weeks with no trouble BUT coming out of Home Depot one day the battery was dead (I think I left something switched on) it started easily on a set of jump leads and has accepted a full charge from the trickle charger.
I had the battery tested out at Walmart & Pepboys and it passed with flying colours.
Thanks again for your help earlier this year.

Glad to hear you were able to get it running with no problem! Just out of curiosity, did you store it inside?

Yes; stored inside in "non" aircon garage during exceptionally hot Florida summer.