Planning to put my P38A to bed for Summer....

Hi All,

I'm planning to put my rover to bed for the summer, in the next month or so. I want to keep the miles down on the vehicle, and i have an old convertible that i will use, hopefully to take advantage of any shred of summer weather we shall get here in the UK!

The rover will be parked on my drive in front of the house. The car will be parked 'nose up' - the drive slopes by about 20 degrees.

In the last month, it has had a full engine and transfer box service, and the oils have been changed in the diffs. I've done 1,000 miles since then.

I had only planned to start the car and run it for 20 minutes , once a week, maybe rolling it off the drive to make sure the brakes don't seize up.

I'm not planning to put the car back on the road till next october.
Are there any other checks / weekly activities I should be carrying out to ensure that I've still got a tip-top motor come October ?

Thanks for any help or advice you can offer

Keep the battery charged.

I would say....don't take it off the road. Like TVR's, these things are better being used, even of only once or twice a week.

I have one of these battery conditioners on all the time it is parked.
CTEK chargers - the smartest battery chargers in the world! For cars, boats golf carts and other 6, 12 and 24v vehicles.

MikeV8SE said:

I would say....don't take it off the road. Like TVR's, these things are better being used, even of only once or twice a week.

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If I could afford to run the two cars, believe me I would !

bigsmellydaddy said:

I have one of these battery conditioners on all the time it is parked.
CTEK chargers - the smartest battery chargers in the world! For cars, boats golf carts and other 6, 12 and 24v vehicles.

Click to expand...

Hi , Thanks for the info,

I'm assuming that it is safe to have this equipment permanently switched on trickle charge?

Only 2 weeks ago, my P38 has gone from a daily driver to a weekend and occasional evening drive....

Day off work yesterday and went shooting, the P38 (Diesel) had only been standing since Sunday afternoon, and although the battery was fine and she turned over and fired straight away, for the first 10 seconds or so she was missing 1-2 cylinders until they decided to spring into life....never had an issue when she was used daily...she just seemed to take umbridge at being left for a few days....

I would suggest keeping it taxed and tested and go for a good drive once a week...

Saint.V8 said:

Only 2 weeks ago, my P38 has gone from a daily driver to a weekend and occasional evening drive....

Day off work yesterday and went shooting, the P38 (Diesel) had only been standing since Sunday afternoon, and although the battery was fine and she turned over and fired straight away, for the first 10 seconds or so she was missing 1-2 cylinders until they decided to spring into life....never had an issue when she was used daily...she just seemed to take umbridge at being left for a few days....

I would suggest keeping it taxed and tested and go for a good drive once a week...

Click to expand...

i had the same problem with my p38 doozil as well,just lived with it tbh.

I would say chock it up at the back a little as well, to try and keep it at least a little more level, liquid has a nasty habit of trying to find its own level and seeping in to things, that's why you have a sump for it to drain back in to

MikeV8SE said:

I would say....don't take it off the road. Like TVR's, these things are better being used, even of only once or twice a week.

Click to expand...

I agree with this for the sake of 6 month tax and insurance

The CTEK kit can be left on, it just manges the battery, and any small standing battery drain.

Thanks for the advice everyone - will have to see if her indoors will let me keep it taxed and insured !

Wish me luck

bigsmellydaddy said:

I have one of these battery conditioners on all the time it is parked.
CTEK chargers - the smartest battery chargers in the world! For cars, boats golf carts and other 6, 12 and 24v vehicles.

Click to expand...

Just to give an update - even with starting the car every 3 days or so - the battery did drain ....so I bought the kit above - been on for just over a week and the car has started first time every attempt since

Don't leave it standing if you can possibly avoid it, it'll amaze you how much can go wrong from not being used regularly.