Days of garages sourcing and fitting second hand parts gone?

StereoSound

Brought the partners car into a garage today to replace an ABS sendor unit, its an expensive part at a main dealer but the garage refused to supply a part from a breakers for it. Garages reluctant to fit used parts these days? I will buy a unit myself from a breakers and try get someone to fit it next week otherwise I'll fit it myself. ABS light is on and its unfortunate its not a sensor that's gone.

_Brian

Here we always get advice on the merits of scrapper vs new parts, guys have no bother fitting them.

Del2005

If they supply a part from the breakers and its faulty they will have to replace it. So they will be hit for 2*part and 2*fitting but can only charge for the part and fitting once.

There is no protection for B2B transactions or for 2nd hand parts from a breakers, especially electronics. So it's not worth the hassle for the garage.

_Brian

Del2005 wrote: »

If they supply a part from the breakers and its faulty they will have to replace it. So they will be hit for 2*part and 2*fitting but can only charge for the part and fitting once.

There is no protection for B2B transactions or for 2nd hand parts from a breakers, especially electronics. So it's not worth the hassle for the garage.

Not on my local garage.
If you agree to a part from the breakers there’s no warranty on the part.

Mint Sauce

Must be a new thing. A dealer garage got a ABS sensor from a breakers for me a few years ago, purely on the advice to me, that new would cost considerably more.

bucketybuck

_Brian wrote: »

Not on my local garage.
If you agree to a part from the breakers there’s no warranty on the part.

Not worth the paper its written on.

Sure, plenty of decent people would adhere to that, but don't kid yourself that if the second hand part then failed that there is not a sizeable number of arseholes who would happily turn around and demand that the garage put things right. And who would happily quote the usual consumer rights act, sale of goods act, and small claims court bull**** if the garage refused.

Sourcing 2nd hand parts for cars is simply a losing proposition for garages, from a business point of view it is all bad and no good. You waste your time searching in scrap yards for cheap ****e that you make no money on but then have to stand over anyway.

Fitting parts that the customer supplied is bad enough, actually doing the legwork to find that crappy part for them is just another layer of stupid, its no surprise that garages don't want to do it any more.

UnknownSpecies

Same sensor went in my 3 series. Called 3 garages in Kilkenny and none would fit a second hand sensor. Ended up getting a new part from them

George Dalton

We get asked this all the time. I always explain it to people this way.

The advantage of secondhand parts is that they are cheaper.

The disadvantages are that they are a pain in the ass to source, you rarely if ever get a proper invoice, and the risk of it being faulty or developing a fault in the short term is high.

The customer is the one saving the money. They should do the legwork and take the risk as well.

enumbers

Second hand parts are a nightmare for us, chances of wrong parts greater, risk of unit dead on arrival or a very short lived repair affecting your reputation. Customers tend to forget very quickly that they were warned that they would have to pay for our time no matter what the outcome and can get very upset because something has to be done twice or put back together not fixed .

We will fit used parts supplied by the customer but only in very specific cases where we trust the customer understands the implications if there is any issues and will have no issue paying the labour charges involved in taking the chance.

Oral Surgeon

I previously sourced two reconditioned throttle actuators for an e93 m3. Got a good independent to for them. The parts guy guaranteed the parts and I accepted that if the parts failed and needed refitting then I would pay he garage again.
Cost for parts and labour just over a grand, Bmw dealer was €3200....

Too should source the part and then find a different garage....

corkgsxr

I'll give me example. I repair boilers.

My labor is say 80 to replace the part. Cost of the part doesn't come into it.

If part is 200 I'm 280. If part is 10 I'm 90.

So i fit a fan. Its a new part I never see them again about it. I've 80 in my pocket happy out.

I get a fan for 70 quid that's second hand. I fit it. And it lasts 2 months. 90% expect some comeback. So realistically I have to for another fan for part only.
If I charge another 80 I'm seen as taking advantage.

So by fitting a second hand part I've either lost a customer or lost price of a job.

Either way I'm loosing out. So why would i

the_syco

When I was in Ireland, my local place would source 2nd hand for some parts, others not so much. Anything that was involved in the handling of crashes; new only. For example, airbags. As the mechanic said; if the car was in the scrapyard, chances are that the airbags were already used. On other parts, he gave me the option.

The ABS sensor light on my Honda Civic; new part only for the seatbelt part that causes the seatbelt to tighten when you brake. I could've gotten it for a lot less, but I viewed such a purchase as dumb. Went new, and the part cost me €200 or so. Money I didn't really have at the time, but in the long run I wouldn't have felt safe with a second hand seatbelt thing.

clogher71

Are people 'turning their backs' on second hand parts then?. There seems to be an awful lot of Dismantlers if people are not buying from them anymore.

I suppose you could use some of the same points in a genuine part vs's Aftermarket debate too....

Toyotafanboi

It depends on the part too.

A lot of modern electronic stuff like multimedia units or control modules that are mega expensive from a main dealer would make dubious enough second hand purchases that would be hard to stand over from a garages point of view.

Buying more static parts second hand can be fine though, the likes of body panels, wheels, lamps, glass, interior stuff like seats etc.

Mechanical parts are a bit of a grey area but the likes of callipers, gear linkages, radiators and exhausts could all potentially do another turn and are grand if you are on a very limited budget but in most cases it's hard to justify the risk vs. the saving.

Samson1

www.buycarparts.co.uk cheapest place I've founded online for new ABS sensors. Delivery is from Germany, and not cheap - about €20 (Same as Sensor !) and delivery can take 4 - 5 days, but they are reliable, as I have used twice.