[landrovered]

I am a strong believer in preventative maintanance to a certain point. Wear items need to be replaced. It is my opinion that parts usually do not fail without warning IF you know what to look for. That being said I don't know that I would replace a water pump if it was not giving signs of failure. Belts, sure, bushings, yes, coil packs and plugs, certainly. Combining jobs to ease installation "while you are in there" makes sense from an economic sense as well to reduce labor in some cases. Like an IMS when you do the clutch.

When I off road I usually have several hundred pounds of spare parts with me, hell I even bring parts along for trucks I don't even own but this is a different situation. If you break down way way off in the booneys then it can cost you thousands to get your truck out of there and back to the pavement. So in this case it makes economic sense to carry lots of tools and parts that reduce economy and fill up a lot of space.

Of course this is different than driving a car that does not even have a real spare tire. With Porsche I carry no spares and only a minimal tool kit consisting of a few screwdrivers, spare light bulbs, fuses, a socket set and a crescent wrench. It weighs maybe three pounds. The most important tool you can carry in a Porsche is a cell phone.

The other thing I do even in the Porsche after years of driving British cars is play my favorite game of "guess that noise". I am always listening to the sounds the car in operation. If you know what to listen for and can discern whether it is consistant with speed, revs or increases with turning left or right then you can do a pretty good job of finding out what "the next thing to go" is and head it off at the pass.