I am wondering what is the life expectancy of those items that will get you suddenly stranded like a fuel pump . I have read airlines know very close the life of critical components and replace them before they fail . I drive a lot on rural roads at night going home from work and my S70 has 105000 miles on it . What is the average life of the fuel pump ? Is there any ignition component that fails at higher miles on a predictable basis ? An ounce of prevention would be worth a pound of cure some cold night on the way home !

Hmmmm,

I guess the proverbial Apples and Oranges comparison comes into play here. Aircraft engines are entirely different than car engines. They use terms like TBO (time before overhaul) and SMOH (since major overhaul) to describe the "mileage" of their engines. The time on an aircraft engine is much more reliable because its litterally the time that the engine is running. As well aircraft engines are run at a constant RPM (mostly) and run much slower than car engines. Your typical Cessna 172 cruises around at 2300rpm and redlines at at around 2500-2700 (don't have my Cessna POH handy) Airplanes as well have different times for different parts. The airframe as well has a log to describe and keep track of its time.

One good thing to keep in mind is that you can maintain your car anyway you like. An engine failure on even the most crowded interestate is a less stressful experience than an engine failure in flight.

Generally on my car known failure items are replaced when doing work in that general area (like the water pump while the timing belt is being done sorta thing). While other items are replaced on an as needed basis. Things like the $2500 worth of work I needed the moment my car ran out of warranty (hmmmm timing eh?) usually wait. During my last service they mentioned it was "imperitive" that I replace the Power Steering Rack which they had been pouring fluid into since it first started acting up and groaning every 3 or so months. Crooked none the less Volvo did not seem suprised when I reported the dealer had ripped me off like this (Northpoint Volvo Alpharetta Ga). I don't really mind putting fluid in from time to time. In fact I put fluid in 2 months ago and have yet to hear a peep out of the power steering yet. Worked for them while they had to pay for the part and I guess it will work for me as well.

I guess that brings up another difference between cars and planes. Planes are designed to last forever (or for as long as the owner wants to correctly maintain them) Cars have less of a life span. As well Car Dealers/Mechanics's are much less honest in my opinion. Its easy for them to mislead you and lie because nothing they do has any real bearing to them after the fact. They do some work to your car and you get into an accident and they don't have the NTSB investigating what they did (or not doing something they told you they did). Aircraft mechanics sign all the logs on Aircraft work and are legally responsible to a degree if their mistake causes an accident.

Makes me wish I could fly to work

My low beam headlights went out in the mid 90k range . The left side went out around 94k and the right side went out at 96k .

I have replaced fuel pumps on two of my German cars. They failed around 110,000 to 130,000 miles. It did not give aany warning when it failed. THey were towed on both time. I don't know reliable of Volvo, but it would be too far off. Most of us wouldn't do any preventive maintenance as airlines do but wait until it fails. In your case, I would replace it within a year.