Battery charge: Start it and run it, or leave it alone?

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

My Dad died a couple of weeks ago, and I'm starting to worry about the battery of his car going flat. I haven't started it since he died, and I know he had occasional battery problems due to intermittent usage so I don't know how long it had been since the car was last driven.

My question is: Should I start it and idle it at 2000 rpm for 5 to 10 minutes (or longer?), or would it be better to just leave it alone?

The car is a 2013 Ford B-Max with the 125 bhp 1 litre 3-cylinder petrol engine.

Obviously driving it would be the ideal, but I can't do that yet until I've got the car registered to me, then re-taxed and insured. I guess it might take another couple of weeks to get that sorted - should I leave it alone in the meantime, or will it benefit from running at a fast idle?

If I leave it alone, should I consider leaving it unlocked so that the alarm is inactive?

Bear in mind that the car has start-stop, so I assume it's not a traditional lead-acid battery. Can I connect my Optimate 2 to it?

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Monday 23 January 06:51

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Thanks folks!

I'll go to his house at the weekend and see if I can hook up the Optimate to it, ideally feeding a cable out through the letterbox. If that works then there's no urgency to drive it, and I'll probably delay re-registering, taxing and insuring it until I really need to.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Thanks folks.

I went to the house a week or so ago and connected the car up to my Optimate, and the next door neighbour told me that the lights went green after about 24 hours. I've left it connected, so hopefully the battery should be fine.