Do an oil change? Siphon out old gas and replace with a fresh tank?

There's this...

 

Put a pint of SeaFoam fuel additive in a full tank of gas. This will fix any problems associated with sticking injectors, and also help to clean small passages in the throttle body.

Make sure that the engine oil is circulating prior to ignition. Pulling the 15A EFI fuse, and rotating the crankshaft a few turns ought to bring up the oil pressure, prior to ignition.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Always had good luck with Seafoam but didn't think of it this time. The tank is on empty.

I like Scotty Kilmer. I'm going to try his fix for the catalytic converter P0420 code. Laquer thinner or dish detergent.

 

Put a trickle charger on the battery if you haven't already. Let it charge for at least 12 hours to get it back in shape, that will be the easiest on the battery. A basic trickle/float charger or battery tender is inexpensive.

Put some fresh gas in after you pour in the Seafoam.. Try to dilute that old gas as much as possible.

As said, pull the EFI fuse and crank for a little while until you get oil pressure (when the dummy light goes out). It might take 10 or 20 seconds so you need a good battery. Pulling the plugs will make it easier on the starter and battery.

Once you have oil pressure, reinstall plugs, cycle the ignition on/off a couple times to prime the fuel system, and let her rip.

 

^ Great suggestions.

EFI fuse is way better than pulling plug wires. The wires otherwise will have to be grounded to avoid damaging the coils.

Pick up an inexpensive smart charger (such as the $23 Schumacher 2/4/6 smart charger at Walmart) and charge the battery at 2 or 4 amps to top it off. Disconnect the car's battery cables and follow charger instructions.

As mentioned, crank the engine with the plugs out for easier cranking.

 

Thanks for the great advice! Didn't know about damaging the coils if it's not hooked to the spark plugs. Will pull the spark plugs and EFI fuse when i do this in the next week.

 

I removed the spark plugs today. Initially they were hard to turn so i soaked them in PB Blaster. One spark plug was harder to turn so i let it soak for several hours. When I removed the spark plug, one of the center threads had a ring of aluminum around. I scraped it off but the thread was a bit warped. The rest of the threads were ok. Should i re-tap the spark plug hole or just put anti-seize on the plug and go from there.

By the way, i'm switching the Bosch Platimum for NGK Iridium IX plugs.

Thanks.

 

Good call on ditching the Bosch's. You can try putting anti seize on the new plug and go from there but... If it starts fighting you halfway in, it could cause more damage. Its safest to run a chaser through it. Use a blow gun to clean the junk out of there before putting in the new plug.

 

I agree that you should chase them first..

Put some grease in the channels of the tap so any chips will tend to stick and not fall into the cylinder.

Also, be very careful with the anti-sieze.. It's a metallic compound, so if you get even a little bit of it on the porcelain it will cause a misfire.

 

NGK says not to put anti-seize on the threads, the specified torque settings are always dry, when lubricated, it's a totally different story (changes preload and elongation of the bolt)

http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/pdf/dyk_5points.pdf

The threads of the spark plugs have a coating applied already to reduce friction, do chase the threads but becarful not to cross thread (esp with the common starting tap) and use finishing tap if available

 

Hmm, when i bought my car, it had been sitting for about 8-10 months. Battery was empty because they had forgotten the lights on, but all that was really needed was to jump-start the car (had it hooked up about 15 min first it to check if battery would recive charge), and it's been running fine ever since. That's about almost 4 years and 20-25k miles ago now?

Sure there's a lot of "good to do first to be safe" things, but in most cases all you need to do with a car that's been sitting for less then a year is really just turn the key and drive off.

If fuel was low, it might have some water in it now, if so there are something you can add to the fuel to let the engine run with the small amount of water untill you've refilled with fresh fuel.

As for oil, after that long, always have it replaced as soon as possible, cause you never know how long it's already been there, what quality it was, or what the current condition is. And of course, check all fluid levels and check for any leaks before driving off.

Just my opinion though...

 

I put the spark plugs in all the way down to the metal gasket by hand with only an extension. No resistance so i got lucky on that one. Thanks for the tips.

Jan Erik, I started it previously after only 2 months sitting and it sounded like a diesel for about 5 seconds till the oil system was pressurized and oil light went off (first post). You got lucky!!!