Laying up a Defender 90 tdi

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bryngafel

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Going overseas for three months covering Jan to April, I need to learn how to lay up my County 90 2.5 Tdi. I'm particularly concerned about battery drainage and consequences for the alarm system/immobiliser. You wouldn't want to know of the issues I had with a previous Nissan X-Trail regarding laying-up but it cost me a princely sum all told.
I shall be grateful for your contributions as so far I am thinking only of disconnecting the battery (and all that entails regarding the immobiliser as well as noisy alarms) and manually locking it all up. The Landy will be on my private and locked up drive so general security is not too much the issue here.
 
bryngafel said:
Going overseas for three months covering Jan to April, I need to learn how to lay up my County 90 2.5 Tdi. I'm particularly concerned about battery drainage and consequences for the alarm system/immobiliser. You wouldn't want to know of the issues I had with a previous Nissan X-Trail regarding laying-up but it cost me a princely sum all told.
I shall be grateful for your contributions as so far I am thinking only of disconnecting the battery (and all that entails regarding the immobiliser as well as noisy alarms) and manually locking it all up. The Landy will be on my private and locked up drive so general security is not too much the issue here.
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Depending on the age, just disconnecting the battery should be enough,

That said, your 3 months away coincide with winter,

depending on how recently you drained and refilled you cooling system, I'd drain it so theres no chance of a split hose or worse due to ice formation
 
Can you afford to remove the battery and put it on a trickle charger in a garage or something? It will need to be one of the GOOD chargers though that has float charge on it or else your battery will get cooked. If you only have a basic charger stick it on a timer switch, if you only have a 24hr timer stick it on for 10mins a day, that will be enough to balance out the drainage, if a 7 day timer give it an hour once a week or something.

If you need to leave the battery for security etc then you will just need to make sure it's fully topped up, insulate it a bit if you can and cross your fingers.
 
Get an inteligent float charger to keep the battery topped up.
If possible lift both axles on stands so the tyres are just off the ground.
Make sure its got anti freeze in the cooling system or alternatively drain the coolant but dont forget to refill.
When you get back disconnect the fuel solenoid and turn the engine over a few times to get the oil flowing before starting.
 
+1
3 months is nothing, my s2000 did that every year during the winter with just a ctek on it and the tyres pumped up to the max
 
i have just put mine up in the garage as its unlikely i am going to be able to drive it for 6 months or so due to ill-health, before i did i greased everything that your meant to and changed the oil for fresh probably overkill but i have slight OCD about it lol

i did this:
- lifted on axle stands
- disconnected battery
- fuel preserver in the tank to stop the diesel going manky
-covered it in a massive dust sheet
- cracked the windows a bit
- left the hand brake off and all gears in neutral
 
Jack it up onto axle stands. Remove the wheels and get a mate to take them away [plus the wheel nuts and spare wheel] and store them for you. Also remove the steering wheel. All this is easy for you to do and should ensure that the low lifes will go for another vehicle that will be less work to take..... then yours will be waiting for you when you return. If you have a battery back-up sounder fitted it has it's own self contained battery which will activate, probably in the middle of the night as soon as the vehicles battery runs down. You can buy a solar powered battery charger which is in the form of a long flat panel about 10 inches long by about 3 inches wide with the solar cells in.... ideal for placing on top of the dashboard and should keep the battery charged up all right. Hope this is helpful to you and that you find it worthwhile doing.
 
Think it's been covered - 3 months isn't that long

I'd just:

1) Use solar panel to keep battery charged - no need to disconnect battery.

i use one of these and it works even over winter in Scotland

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Solar-Brief...=UTF8&colid=2RFELPC690N7&coliid=ILWNFXYBXLAWW

2) Lift wheels or remove - rubber does not like being in contact with ground in the same place for too long

3) check antifreeze concentration

4) Do all you can to minimise risk of theft
 
Thanks to all for your contributions, I'm grateful. I'm reasonably confident it will be secure so it is the electronics I'm mainly but not exclusively concerned with. I shall give your suggestions every consideration and will implement a number.
 
Before I got my Defender off my Pal, he used to leave it in my Barn from around the 12th December to around the end of March. He did this over a five year period. The only thing he did was to switch the battery isolator switch.
We he came back it started almost on the first turn without any problems. Here it can get down to -18C in the winter.
 
Thank you all for the advice which I shall now consider carefully. I have taken one suggestion so far and that is the solar trickle charger, I trust that will solve the issue of battery run down and its consequences; yes like it!
 
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