First of all, the battery will have drained due to the memory circuits in all of the multiple computers. You can try charging it for a few hours with a small portable charger. If it's going to come back, it can take more than an hour before it STARTS to take a charge, so be patient if the charging indicator on the charger stays on "0" for a while. It can take some time for the acid in the battery to become conductive and start to accept a charge. If the battery froze during the prolonged storage, there is little chance it can be revived.
As for the gas, there are varying opinions related to quality and location. I have a 1980 Plymouth Volare and a '93 Dodge Dynasty, both with gas that's well over ten years old. They both run fine when I start them up once or twice per year, but that doesn't apply to new gas. Here in northern Wisconsin, we're lucky now if we get four months before the gas goes stale.
More than likely your engine will run on the old gas, but don't be surprised if it has hard starting or rough running until that gas is used up. I wouldn't add new gas yet because then you'll just have a full tank of stale gas. That will take a lot longer to use up. Instead, run it down fairly low, then put the new gas in. Don't panic if the Check Engine light turns on. The Engine Computer will detect any misfires, then set diagnostic fault codes indicating which cylinders are responsible. The people at most auto parts stores will read those codes for you for free. Write down the exact fault code numbers, then you can go here:
https://www.2carpros.com/trouble_codes/obd2
to see the definitions, or I can interpret them for you. If any fault codes are related to misfires or bad gas, the same people can erase the codes after you have new gas. You may find the Check Engine light no longer turns on when running on new gas. The fault codes will still be in the computer's memory. Often they will self-erase after a certain number of starts, but I like to do that myself in case the car has to go to a mechanic for something else. This is where we typically begin any diagnosis by reading and recording those codes. When the codes are left in from an earlier incident, it adds confusion because we don't know they aren't related to a new problem.
If you need it, here's links to some related articles:
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-a-car-battery-works
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-charge-your-car-battery
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-jump-start-car-battery-using-jumper-cables
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/symptoms-of-a-bad-car-battery
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-replace-a-car-battery
Let me know what you find.
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Thursday, November 17th, 2022 AT 3:23 PM
