Some second-hand parts are a bargain and some are a booked repeat visit. Where we draw the line, and why.
We fit used parts. Not often, and not everywhere, but a workshop that pretends everything must be new is either not paying attention or not paying for the parts. The trick is knowing which categories age gracefully and which are simply someone else's problem with a lower price on it.
Body panels, doors, tailgates, glass, interior trim, seats, light units, roof rails, and mechanical castings that do not wear — bell housings, brackets, diff casings. Anything where the failure mode is damage rather than wear is fair game, because you can see the condition you are buying.
Anything safety-critical or wear-defined: brake components, steering joints, seatbelts, airbags, suspension bushes, clutches, water pumps, belts and every seal in the car. Also electronic modules coded to another vehicle, which cost more in diagnostic time than the part saved.
Ask for the donor vehicle's mileage and the reason it was broken. A part from a low-mileage accident-damaged car is a very different proposition to one from a car that was scrapped because everything on it was finished.
Compare the saving against the labour to fit it, not against the new price. A used water pump saves forty euro and risks a day of labour plus a coolant fill; that is not a saving, it is a bet. A used tailgate saves six hundred and risks nothing, because you can see it before it goes on.
Buy used what you can inspect, and new what you cannot.
Ram Parts Workshop
Book it into the Ram Parts workshop, or order the parts and do it yourself — either way you get the same advice.
