Preventative maintenance on facelift 4.4 sport

[Woofer]

My 2004 bus is relatively low mileage 42k but over 8 years old now, fbmwsh and still 18 mths of AUC warranty , are there any age related weaknesses that I need to attend to , I'm using it as an occasional long distance car and I'd rather not leave me or the missus at the roadside at midnight 200 miles from home 

I was wondering about rad hoses etc

Cheers

[X5Sport]

At a guess, I would think that you need to be having a look at:
Brake pipes - especially towards the rear as it's a 'known' corrosion spot
Rubber hoses generally.
CVJ boots - for age related splits etc.
Air con - check the gas levels as it does lose it slowly and steadily (regassing is approx £50) and loss of gas results in expensive compressor failure - it's a good idea with your low usage to keep the a/c on 'Auto' so the system gets used.  The gas is also a lubricant and the seals can dry out and fail too, hence my suggestion that it's left on.
Might even be worth changing the coolant completely to make sure you have correct corrosion inhibitor levels.
I had a door seal (drivers) go bad at about 5 years.

Not sure if the rubber suspension bushes fail with age?

If you can get underneath then it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a careful look around for anything obvious that might be beginning to perish/rot etc.

And there's the usual battery issues - if original that's a good one, but it won't last much longer!!  6 years is a good average age for those.

Richard

[Woofer]

Cheers Richard v. Helpful 

Both front lower links have been replaced along with one cv boot under warranty, air con is on auto, brake pipes are all rust free, battery is original as far as I can see and no sign of it failing yet ....touch wood 

The biggie for me rad hoses as that would leave me stranded whereas a duff battery is more a progressive issue I guess.

Thing is the hoses look brand new as does the rest of the car really..so I'm in two minds as to whether its best to leave well alone

[IanP]

I checked my hoses as I had the engine out and they all looked in perfect condition. 5000 miles later after 3 burst hoses I changed them all. And yes, it did leave me stranded, once right at the start of a holiday in the Lakes so I wished I had changed them earlier. They had done about 80000 miles at the time and 8 years old.