If you drive a new car carefully, you can often avoid making repairs to the vehicle for thousands of miles. However, as you drive those miles, you’ll need to maintain the vehicle by installing maintenance parts that keep it in good driving condition.
Professionally operated junkyards are great places to get replacement parts for a discount. If you need any of the following components, see if you can find them at auto salvage yards (a.k.a. junkyards) before you resort to buying them from an auto repair shop or an auto dealer.
Belts
Auto belts such as timing belts and serpentine belts can withstand thousands of miles of wear, but they eventually degrade. Junkyards are a good source for these and other belts because a faulty belt is rarely a problem that causes a car to end up in a junkyard. Some belts you find in a junkyard are so new that they show practically no wear.
Tires
Many tires at auto salvage yards are in great condition for the same reason belts are: The car that had them was in a wreck that “totaled” the car but left its tires virtually untouched.
According to Consumer Reports, “Tires are considered bald when one or more of their grooves reaches 2/32 of an inch deep.” Punctures in the tire and dry rotting can also impact performance. As long as used tires have no major signs of wear and maintain an airtight seal, getting them from auto salvage yards is highly cost effective.
Brake Pads
Because brake pads are designed to last for thousands of miles, you shouldn’t have a problem finding pads in good condition at a junkyard. The dense composite material that forms brake pads makes them hard to damage, which helps explain why they often emerge from wrecks unscathed. With brake pads, what you see is usually what you get. If they have plenty of padding, you can count on using them for thousands of miles.
Search Our Inventory
If you need maintenance parts for your vehicle, check out the vehicle inventories for our four Texas locations: Austin, Belton, Holland, and Lubbock. If you find the vehicle you need parts from, simply travel to the appropriate location, and remove the part with your tools.
Our auto salvage yards are safe, clean, and well-organized, making it easy for you to pull the part you need, and be on your way. For more information about our parts and services, contact one of our locations by referring to our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you!
