Turning 20. Anything to improve?

My TDF Blue on tan manual 575 turns 20 years old this year. She was specced with FHP, Daytonas and a blue leather rear shelf, sadly not 19 inch wheels. Maintained meticulously, she is magnificent to drive, be in and look at and listen to - the first owner fitted Tubi 575 back boxes which I kept on.

In most of my previous cars, 20 years and over 30k miles would have signalled to me, time for a suspension refresh, regardless of if anything actually felt wrong. My car drives extremely well, but of course I have no baseline of a new 575 with FHP to know whether say there's something faintly wearing out on shocks, springs, mounts, bushings, etc and I am no mechanic.

to be clear, I don't want to upgrade the drive on the 575, just want it to be as good as it should be. And then there's the question, if I'm going to replace x, should I use parts made by y, which are better than OEM, which then leads into upgrading unintentionally...

Should I be looking at replacing steering parts/shocks/anything else even if nothing seems wrong, just because age? If so, with what? If not, when?

 

If maintenance is routine and well done then just drive it for another 20. If it needs new suspension bushings do that but there is nothing special about turning 20.

 

you could take her out for a drink and a nice celebratory meal !

 

Thanks folks, and the drink and meal is a great idea :-]

But while having minimal mechanical knowledge I still understand that mechanical parts are not binary, ie either working perfectly or not at all, like a switch. They're more like my own mechanical parts, slowly becoming less efficient with age, with increased friction between surfaces, more brittle elastic components, degraded elastic spring rates , fluids lost or losing their required physical properties, etc, meaning that a 20 year old high performance car with 30k miles is notably worse at being high performance than a one year old same car with 5k miles (say).

Like a lobster being boiled, the driver is not aware of this change in properties, but it has to be real. I know that Ferrari's media division requires a large number of steering and suspension components to be swapped out for new on all their press cars when they are decommissioned, for example, yet they all drive just fine, and they don't do this for no reason. And a 10k miles car has much more value than a 100k miles car for the same reason.

But I don't know what components are relatively robust and less affected by age and miles, and which ones have noticeably degraded performance over time and mileage, specifically in a Maranello, and that was the basis of my question - not whether my car will still be great to drive when it has 100k miles, which I am sure it will be.

I guess it may be a hard one to answer, which I completely understand.

 

My gated 22 y/o 575 with FHP has 109,000 miles on the suspension, of which 107,000 miles are by me, and I'm not aware of any deterioration in function.

 

Boom. Topic closed.

 

#winning
There should be a 100k mile club “tag” like Rosso, silver, owner, etc for the very few of you that have made it. @Montgomery Kersten

 

I suspect it would be a very lonely club. :>)

 

The big items on 575 beyond standard major is making sure the F1 relay is replaced, and the tail light bulbs are replaced (supposedly a burnt tail light bulb can lock up the F1 system...but I think this is mainly a 360 issue, never heard about it on a 575). Each major should also replace the under plumen hose and every few years (aka 10-15 years) do engine mounts. The 575 is very well sorted and much more so then the 550/456. Keeping on top of the usual things goes a LONG way.

I like 19in wheels personally but each his own. Likewise, exhaust note is a matter of personal taste.

 

The 30-amp relay in pre-52556 575Ms has a good replacement available that will last a long time. It is the Tyco V23134-B57-X266. Luckily BMW now has that relay available as part number 61.36-8 366 646/01.

Example: Search for '61-36-8-366-646' | FCP Euro

 

That's a no-brainer swap for all pre-52556 cars!

 

His car is a manual 6 speed... so while all good advice, none applies to the OP

 

In that case aside from engine mounts, sun visor fix, and maybe a rebuild of the fuel system (if your car will sit for more than one or two weeks between drives in a high EtOH environment), I cant honestly think of anything! Even the latter is more preventative as the design is MUCH more robust then the 550/456 setup.