Pampered car maintenance?

Looking for some insight from the hive on maintenance. I have a 2005 Z that lives a pampered, non daily-driver life as a toy serving as an occasional drive to work, weekend drive, and drive to autocross-autocross car. When its not being driven, it spends its life in the garage. With only about 50K miles on it since I bought it new I'm wondering about some maintenance items. I do change the oil once a year right before winter when it sits the most without being driven (ie no autocross opportunities). I make no effort to "put the car in storage for the winter". When there is no salt on the roads, I do make a point to drive it. When I can't drive it during the winter I simply let it run for about 20 minutes every few weeks and move it around in the garage to avoid flat-spotting the tires.

I've flushed the coolant twice, bled the brakes twice,flushed the power steering fluid twice, and replaced the transmission and differential fluids since new. I think I'm happy with the maintenance level for these and will do all of this again this winter.

But, what about the drive belts, spark plugs, shocks/struts, and back flush of the K&N air filter - all these seem fine/look fine and there are no problems with starting or running. What about the fasteners for suspension bits, should I be re-torquing those things when I get under the car? Any one else keeping similar automotive toys have advice on this? Yes, I'm a buy and hold enthusiast, but this is my first car that doesn't really see daily driver use.

rocketrich wrote: But, what about the drive belts, spark plugs, shocks/struts, and back flush of the K&N air filter - all these seem fine/look fine and there are no problems with starting or running. What about the fasteners for suspension bits, should I be re-torquing those things when I get under the car? Any one else keeping similar automotive toys have advice on this? Yes, I'm a buy and hold enthusiast, but this is my first car that doesn't really see daily driver use.

Drive belts can "age out" so I'd look at the owner's manual for replacement schedule. I suspect there's a miles AND age replacement interval. Spark plugs, shocks and struts, Are wear items and you aren't wearing them out. The shocks and struts could suffer from damaged seals if they sit for long periods of time, but you're driving it regularly so I don't think that'll ever happen in your case. I don't know about the K&N, I'd just keep it clean as necessary.
There's no reason to re-torque suspension bolts though. Sounds like you're taking very good care of the Z. You should be proud, and you'll have the nicest Z around in 10 years.

rocketrich wrote: When I can't drive it during the winter I simply let it run for about 20 minutes every few weeks and move it around in the garage to avoid flat-spotting the tires.

If you can't take it out for a good run to get everything fully warmed up, you may be better off just letting the car sit rather than running it for 20 minutes. That's probably not enough time to fully burn out moisture in the exhaust system and it doesn't do anything for the drivetrain other than the engine. As for the tires, I haven't seen problems with flat spotting since the old bias ply tire days.

A tip regarding oil life. The additive package in motor oils begins to oxidze from the moment the bottle is opened, even with the finest Group III/Group IV pure synthetics. By the time your annual oil change rolls around the additive package has been long gone for 6 months. My grandfather was a petrolium chemist and oil refining engineer for Sun Oil, and my best friend does something similar for a major blender and marketer. Both were/are adamant that mineral-based oils must be changed every three months, and pure (true) synthetics every six to nine months, regardless of whether the oils 10 miles or 10,000 miles. It isn't necesarilly friction wear from broken down/dirty oil that is the problem, but also it is corrosive combustion by-products that contaminate the oil, and will slowly eat away at the bearings, contact surfaces and the metals the engine made of. If it were me in your position, I would run either Penzoil Platimnum or Royal Purple and change them every fall (end of auto-x season), and every spring (before first auto-x run of the spring).

When your grandfather was working, all of that may be true.

Oil sample analysis has shown that modern oils can be run much longer.

I can remember when oil was changed at 1500 (one thousand 500) miles. and we had summer and winter oils.

Ehh, I'm a play it safe guy when it comes to certain things. For myself, after track session: change oil, completely pressure flush the brake fluid, change brake pads, change tranny oil end of every season. I know some auto-xers who do the same (minus the pads).

Folks, I'll not get into the oil I'm using to avoid this becoming an oil thread, but I've always used a full synthetic after break in. I'll spring for a Blackstone oil analysis when I drain in a few weeks to see how things are doing. I'll rethink the running it for only 20 minutes though. I will go ahead and replace all the drive belts with my other planned maintenance. Thanks for the assists!

Change the oil in the spring, not the fall, and don't bother letting it idle for 20 minutes, that won't get the oil hot (what you're trying to do). Good synthetic will have no issues sitting in the sump "dirty" for a few months. It's best practice to not start a car unless it's going to be driven on the street for at least 20 minutes.

At 50k miles I'd do plugs and belts.

Battery float charger? Get a nice temperature compensated model.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

Kenny, Why do you say to change oil in the spring vice the fall? My logic was that I used the oil all the previous year, so when it sits most (winter) I'd have the freshest oil in it. And yep, got the temp-compensated float charger covered. I plan to stop the 20 min winter idles. Thanks!

My wagon is a much older vehicle but i change my oil before putting it away in october and again when i get it back out in the spring. Im alot harder on the car then the factory intended so the extra oil change is cheap insurance.

We have several customers who do full synthetic oil changes once a year for there summer cars with no issue.

I do belts and hoses via just looking at them, plugs are once a year for me but its an old much less effecient design and the plugs take 20 minutes too change.

Change oil in fall: Drop semi used up oil, put in fresh oil, let it sit and collect condensation all winter (hard on oil).

Change oil in spring: Drop slightly more used up oil, put in fresh oil, car starts season with truly fresh oil.

Gee, I guess my ZX2SR should have blown up since I treated it so bad.

Couple of track days a year, auto cross or two, maybe a hill climb and then daily driving for 10 years. Oh, forgot ice racing.

All on the same oil, changed once a year. Usually around 9000 miles.

Don't forget a good Italian tuneup every drive.

chiodos wrote: Don't forget a good Italian tuneup every drive.

Oh hells yeah! My first exposure to "blowing the carbon out" came from my dad when I just old enough to sit in the front without a child seat. Dad has always had Datsun Z-Cars, Miatas, and Porshes (just bought himself a brand-new 981 Boxter S!!!) that he rarely opens the throttle more than half way with. He loves serious performance machines, but just isn't himself a performance driver. I was probably 6 or 7 the first time he did the Italian Tuneup on an expressway entrance ramp. It was the first time I had ever experienced a full-throttle acceleration to redline, and in a 911 to boot! I asked him why he did that, and he explained about how driving a car too easily most of the time "dirties up the engine with carbon, and occasionally running it hard and fast blows it all out." And not one of his performance cars has ever had down time "in the shop". Anyway, I have been doing this nearly daily to every car I have ever owned, and have torn down several of their engines for performance rebuilds, some with more than 200,000 miles, and all were litterally as clean inside (both the heads and bottom ends) as the day they left the factory. Sorry for the trip down memory lane, but this comment just got me to thinking about it