There's nothing too daunting about the design and layout of the F430's suspension, but it does wear at a much faster rate than most cars. As a result, poor handling or any knocks as the car passes over bumps are usually down to tired components rather than any deficiency of the car. The most common items that need replacing are bushes and ball joints, and most owners opt for ones from Hill's as an upgrade over the standard Ferrari parts.
There are eight spherical bearings in the suspension, as well as a further 16 for the inner mounts. Add in eight upper and lower shock absorber bushes and four each for the anti-roll bar drop links and mounts, and you can see why it all adds up in materials and labour. While this design is far from unique to Ferrari, the cost of replacement parts from the factory is very high, hence why most owners opt for aftermarket parts that are generally regarded as better quality.
Due to the system mostly using spherical joints rather than rubber bushes, so they add to the cost of replacements and also mean more road noise filters into the cabin. You'll also hear more sounds from the suspension in Scuderia models as they have less sound proofing as part of their weight saving measures.
Some owners have tried aftermarket outer spherical bearings as a cost-saving measure, but most have reported they don't last as long as original spec items. The same applies to the stainless steel ones that are also available in place of the Ferrari chrome-plated steel variety.
Some owners choose to have their F430s lowered, either for the looks or for track driving. This can cause accelerated wear of the suspension components and it's much more important to get the geometry set-up correctly than worry about dropping the car by a small amount to improve handling.
Moving on to the brakes, Ferrari supplied steel discs as standard on the F430, but the Scuderia gained carbon ceramic discs as standard with six-pot callipers at the front and an updated ESP 8.0 CPU to give a reaction time about 15 percent faster than the standard models.
For road use, the steel discs on the coupe and Spider are fine, but many owners chose the carbon ceramic items when new and they offer better stopping power in every situation so are worth having. They also cut down on brake dust on the wheels, but are expensive to replace at around £5,500 for a set of front discs and pads. A more likely issue than having to replace these will be seized pistons inside the callipers, regardless of what material the discs are made from. This is because a lot of F430s don't see much regular use to keep the pistons moving freely. If the pedal doesn't offer much feel or the brakes seem underwhelming, this is the most likely culprit.
As for wheels, the F430 came on 19-inch rims as standard from the factory. So did the Scuderia and Spider 16M, but they had their own unique designs that require a wider tyre. Some cars will have been fitted with the optional Challenge style wheel, so this is down to personal taste.
It's worth checking the date marks on the tyres to make sure they are not out of date. The rubber can go hard with age and affect handling, so budget around £900 for a full set of replacement Pirelli P Zero Corsas as fitted when new.
PHer's view:
"Oversized non-genuine might look good to some eyes, but messing around with different sizes, staggering and offsets can mess up the already delicate balance of the car."
Ian Oliver