School holidays are over, and everyone may be done playing with their RC cars. A lot of these RCs go back into storage for another 10 to 12 weeks at least until they get used again.

But Radio Control cars are not regular 'toys' as we know, so how do we store these properly without causing them damage? What sort of maintenance do you need to do to make sure that they're working the next time you want to use them? We have some tips for maintaining your RC car after playing with it over the school holidays.

Clean The Car A Good Clean

First thing to do is to give the car a good clean with an air compressor and a spray of light soapy water. An air compressor gets the car really nice and clean and shiny and works really well on the tires as well. The next thing we do is check the bearings - on the wheel hubs and all the major components, and on the tires and on the wheels, to remove the bearings to be able to clean them throughout of dirt caught.

Give them a quick blowout with CRC cleaner which you can get from your local automotive store. You'll be amazed at what comes out of them and fine dust. A little drop of light, thin bearing oil afterwards will get the bearing spinning.

When you put the car back together, make sure that you check over all the nuts and bolts on the car. Sometimes with certain cars you'll find that the the wheel nuts work their way loose. Its also a good time to check the overall tightness of nuts and bolts on the car.

One of the other things I do is after a couple of weeks of hard running in dirt, I will pull apart the shocks and put fresh oil (like these Team Associated shock oils) in them to ensure that you get maximum performance from your shocks.

If you're running a brushed motor, one of the great things you can do is give it a quick spray out again with some CRC cleaner which will remove any dust and dirt that has got inside and then a drop or two of bearing oil on the bushings or the bearing on a brushed motor that would be very helpful.

Unplug the batteries

It is good practice for long term storage not to leave your batteries plugged in. If you can, try to also unplug the speed controllers from any power source as they tend to have a trickle discharge.

Keep a Charge in the batteries

Nickel metal batteries (NimH) are actually best stored with some charge in them. So whether they're fully charged or just a partial, it doesn't really matter. Just make sure you have some charge.

If you have a Lipo battery, make sure you put it into storage charge; What you need to do is put your lipo battery into balanced storage. Most modern battery chargers can do that for your lipo batteries. A good read is our article about battery safety here.

Dry off the Car before storage!

Now, as far as the car itself, a lot of these cars may be waterproof, but that's referring mainly to the electrical components of the RC. So you have a waterproof receiver box, a speed controller and a servo, your nuts and bolts and all the other bits, unfortunately they're not waterproof.

We do recommend that you dry off the entire car before putting away - an old dishcloth to wipe away any dampness and moisture on the car inside and out, especially on any exposed metal parts. This helps avoid any rust build up, and any possible mould from developing.

In a nutshell, that's how we recommend you store your RC car away for a long term, and you know that it's going to be working next time you want to use it.

To learn more, watch out video below!