Online Mopar parts source these days? (Q&A)

A friend of mine just had to replace the air intake hose going from
the air cleaner to the air box. Just a standard vacuum cleaner looking
hose that costs about $5.00 for most cars.

Mazda wanted $90.00.

psycho

 

I avoided the OEM idler because it's plastic. The very first timing belt
change, I put in an all-metal replacement (IIRC I got it at a CarQuest
parts store) and have never looked back.

I avoid OEM/dealer lowest-bidder parts whenever possible. There are
exceptions, such as when a revised part comes out to cure a chronic
problem (eg- early 3.5L water pump failures) but once a car is 10 years
old there's absolutely no reason to pay premium prices for
lowest-bidder-built parts.

 

Yeah, I recently got a face-full of that. Someone posted on
Rec.autos.tech that they were looking for an O2 sensor for an early-90s
(or maybe late 80s) Mazda compact car, and they wanted a better price
than $200. Chuckling smugly to myself, I fired up napaonline.com
expecting to be able to find it for $50-$70 like every other 02 sensor
on God's green earth.

Ulp. Nope. >$200. And people *buy* these cars? Sheesh.

 

They are great cars to drive..................................
Until one breaks

I had a friend who had a 626 turbo model (90's?) and thank God he was
friends with a guy who had a repair shop and would let him use the
lift in the off hours.

Doing virtually ANYTHING to that car was a nightmare.
They literally built the body around the engine, hid bolts where you
couldn't find them, used 3 different size bolts to mount one part and
so forth.

Parts costs were also insanely high at the time.

We spent many "happy" hours under that pig because even routine stuff
was not easy at all.

The only car I have ever seen that was worse was a 80's something
Lancia that my friend owned.
He broke a belt and upon attempting to change the belt (water pump I
think, not a serp belt) the book said something like:

Step 1: To remove the belt first remove either the engine or lift the
body off the car. Note: It is suggested that lifting the body will be
the preferred method.

Step 2: Replace the belt.


If I didn't see it with my own 2 eyeballs I would not have believed
it.

He ended up putting one of those temporary split belts on and sold the
car.

psycho

 

Or it could simply be that the original owners sold out to new ones.
Sometimes the
sale contracts specify a closing date in advance, so the original owner may
blow
out parts and such to squeeze the last drops of profit out of the business
before
turning it over.

Ted