Hi guys, this is my first Reddit post as I normally do just fine reading advice but I’ve found little to no situations like mine (understandably).
So I have a 2003 Chevrolet Malibu that was bought new in 2003, driven only about 33,000 miles and then my family moved to the city and haven’t used it for about 15ish years. Insurance was expensive and it was cheaper to move around with transit. It’s been in the underground parking for the 15 years and was wondering how I would go about getting a mechanic to look at it or any advice whatsoever. It won’t start with a replaced battery anymore it just makes a noise as if it’s about to start and then it doesn’t, and the windows and lights don’t work with the buttons either. I don’t really know much about cars so any advice appreciated!
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I’d get an oil change before starting the engine and hope it’s not hardened…
The fuel tank will need to be removed and cleaned out any gas that was in it is no longer gasoline it may not even be liquid. getting a vehicle running after sitting for that long is not that hard but it’s not going to be reliable.
It needs to be towed to a mechanic you trust and you definitely need to give them the backstory and what exactly you want done to it
I mean with the windows and lights not working it sounds like you don’t actually have power. Bad ground? Wiring chewed by rodents after sitting for fifteen years? Battery terminals not tightened all the way down after replacement? Could be a lot of things. Probably would just get it towed to a mechanic if it was me.
Chevy’s -If the windows and lights don’t work, but it cranks, it’s probably a blown fusible link.
You need to watch a bunch of barn find (and barn find road trip) videos, its actually really common.
Change all fluids (or minimum the oil), drain gas and fill with some new gas, throw in your favorite snake oil of choice to feel better (mmo, atf, seafoam, injector cleaner, whatever), spray a bunch of starter fluid in and crank like crazy.
Once its up and running let it idle (hopefully you get this far) and get it to full operating temperature. You want to inspect it for leaks especially coolant hoses.
I would not trust driving it until brakes are completely done - at least replace fluid, check all rubber lines, compress pistons to make sure they are not stuck etc etc.
Sometimes it is easier to just sell it and buy something else, depending on condition and storage every rubber seal hose component etc might fail one by one.
List it on marketplace for $15k 😎
I’m not a mechanic at all, I’d guess you’ve got stale fuel and or gummed up spark plugs.