Afternoon all, Baby is due in May so I can no longer get down into the Copen It's been in the garage since late October and of course the battery is now dead. I have a charger so its no bother to get it started again, but i'm worried i should be doing more to protect my mechanical baby! Other than putting a cover over and disconnecting the battery, should I do anything else? I last drove it in October and I seem to remember it had most of a tank of petrol and had just been topped up with oil. I know I can't put a baby seat in due to the airbag but my plan (however crazy) is that I can still use the Copen on days when Dad can look after the baby and I get to go shopping or sometime over the next 12 years until she who is yet to be named can go in it. I guess what i'm asking is, has anyone stored the Copen for an amount of time and have you got any tips for an easy revival? it's SORN and the MOT runs out next week.
I checked this due to infrequent nephew transportation, forward facing seats are ok with airbags, but if you're not sure you can have them deactivated. Found mention of someone using a 2ohm resistor so you can keep the driver's airbag active while the passengers is disconnected, personally I don't trust airbags for ME so I'll be disconnecting both. In a low-speed accident, they're more likely to hurt you than help you. In a high-speed accident in a Copen, while I love the car I figure it'll end up underneath most other vehicles and an airbag won't do much
@bluehawaii90 Congratulations ! If you're car is in a garage or carport, it wouldn't hurt to leave it on a conditioning charger as car batteries degrade if they are left uncharged for a while (sulphates on the plates and all that). You should also leave the handbrake off (having chocked the wheels) and add an extra few PSI in the tyres to prevent any flatspots. The fuel will be alright for years. When you're able to jump back into the driving seat, as long as you get chance to drive it every couple of weeks, you shouldn't really need to do anything else. Good luck.
thanks @BarnsleyRob Awesome, Yeah that's what i've done other than the extra PSI. The battery isn't even a year old (the last one died completely while we were on holiday last year as i caught the damn seat belt in the door, gotta love the Copen for those retractable belts!) and i figured £40 if it did die completely wouldn't be too much of a hardship to find. Hubby has persuaded me several times over the last 6 months to keep it on the grounds of "its costing us nothing, its easy to put in the garage and you'll be able to drive it again in June"...so i'm hoping once i can sit down again i can get back into it lol was just worried that it would somehow accumulate engine crap while it was sat and need a bunch of work doing to it while i'm on maternity pay! @Vin Petrol I thought i'd read in the lesser spotted manual for the copen that you can't even put a forward facing seat in it.
I'd change the oil after you decide to drive it again. Maybe have your husband drive it every now and then Otherwise: What BarnsleyRob said
Apparently the Japanese manual distinguishes between forward and rear facing. The actual danger is the airbag, which would hit the back of a rear-facing seat, but with the seat fully back shouldn't reach a child in a forward facing. Deactivating the airbag would allow either seat to be used safely, that's why a lot of modern cars have a key-switch in the door frame to turn them off easily. I'd be wary of Salieri's suggestion though it would be good for the car. The problem with letting your husband drive your copen might be getting it back off him when you want to drive it again
@bluehawaii90 I just called into Aldi and picked up an automatic battery charger for £13.99. It does charging, trickle charge, and deep discharge recovery and is rated on another forum I use from my Discovery days. I agree with the sentiment of letting the other half drive your car. I had an ankle replacement that took me off the road for 8 weeks and used any excuse not to hand over the keys. I only relented when the tracker company started getting bolshy after the car hadn't checked in on schedule.
Ha you lot are crazy! "let other half drive the copen"....funniest thing i've seen in a while my Copen has a dent on the front right bumper from one of the times i let him drive it. ok it wasn't actually his fault, a crazy women opened her door right into it while we were driving into a parking space but the scars are eternal lol I think i'll get a definitive answer from the DVLA about the seat thing because the rules online seem to be contradictory. Thanks for the advice though, we'll just roll it down the drive and give it a start every now and then. I know the battery will steadily go flat but easily remedied.
