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Yesterday I had to replace what Toyota calls an “Idle-up valve” for the A/C system. EASY repair. The old one was broke and someone at some point tried to fix it with JB Weld.
I looked online and that part is $150 to $200 brand new.I went to the junk yard and paid less than $10 and it works. The job was easy, right on the back firewall at the top – remove one electrical connector, two vacuum hoses, and a 10 mm bolt. install was the reverse.
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I do too. I am anal when it comes to missing bolts and screws on vehicles I work on so when I get one that is missing hardware for what ever reason to I like to replace those missing nuts and bolts. I like go to the junk yard and harvest fuses, body clips, caliper bolts, 6 & 8mm hardware, import car dash bulbs and relays that I throw in my organizer drawers. If I can fix a car with a free part and pay it forward it builds good customer relations. Most recent was a old explorer driven by an elderly lady that had an abs light on. It had a bad relay so I replaced the relay with one of my spares and sent her on her way for no charge. The next day she came back into the shop and gave me a box of home made cookies for being such a nice person.
[quote=”gmule” post=161303]I do too. I am anal when it comes to missing bolts and screws on vehicles I work on so when I get one that is missing hardware for what ever reason to I like to replace those missing nuts and bolts. I like go to the junk yard and harvest fuses, body clips, caliper bolts, 6 & 8mm hardware, import car dash bulbs and relays that I throw in my organizer drawers. If I can fix a car with a free part and pay it forward it builds good customer relations. Most recent was a old explorer driven by an elderly lady that had an abs light on. It had a bad relay so I replaced the relay with one of my spares and sent her on her way for no charge. The next day she came back into the shop and gave me a box of home made cookies for being such a nice person.[/quote]
Customers cookies are always the best cookies. Fact.
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I think the main benefit of getting parts at the junk yard is if you are just a home mechanic like me –
You can learn to properly pull the part (if you don’t know how already) I mean if you mess up at the junk yard, not a huge deal.For my Toyota, one thing it needed a while back was a hood release cable. Pulling one at the junkyard taught me exactly how. Though it was still a real headache to replace on my OWN car, at least I knew how it was routed.
Gmule – thank you for the reminder. I need to harvest some extra fuses and clips for my car next time I am at the junkyard.
I can happily say that my car just doesn’t really need anything right now but next time I am there….Of course my room mate’s Grand Am needs, well, more stuff than a third world nation…
Lol, shit….I prob use half the bolts that originally come in cars lol.
Maybe not that bad, but I don’t sweat it. I use common sense and most of the time just leave bolts out. If it’s something that needs even pressure, then I take one of the old bolts with me and go to ace or home depot and get the same size (usually different heads). If it’s just an extra screw on a trim piece, meh…
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Some things you don’t used and better off buying new.Fuel pumps,water pumps and some exhaust manifolds and window regulators are few examples of this..Some auto body parts,buy new since they are cheaper to buy than used.Have one junkyard in my area,they put tags on used engines and transmissions saying this: should be good and they are not highly recommended place to buy used engines from.My dad learned this,went through 6 engines for one car from this junkyard which were all bad.
[quote=”wafrederick” post=163641]Some things you don’t used and better off buying new.Fuel pumps,water pumps and some exhaust manifolds and window regulators are few examples of this..Some auto body parts,buy new since they are cheaper to buy than used.Have one junkyard in my area,they put tags on used engines and transmissions saying this: should be good and they are not highly recommended place to buy used engines from.My dad learned this,went through 6 engines for one car from this junkyard which were all bad.[/quote]
Lots of vehicles are at the wreckers due to bad engines/transmissions.
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