Courtesy Parts Replacement

[atraudes]

Hey all, kind of a more generic question today.

I used to use courtesyparts.com every time I needed to look up a part because I could find absolutely any part I needed. About a year ago their site got a makeover and their part lookup went in the toilet. I can't track down small pieces like hoses or nuts and bolts, and even significant parts are nowhere to be found.

As an example, these are the available parts for the engine. I'm pretty sure the engine has more than 35 pieces



Am I missing something? Do they have an advanced section or something I'm not seeing? I'm sure I can just call them and get what I need, but being able to track down part numbers and prices for every component I'll need for a project (at my leisure) is absolutely invaluable. Being able to see detailed parts diagrams has also let me foresee other things that I'll need that's saved me a number of times already.

If courtesyparts doesn't have this ability any more, do you know any sites that do? It seems like all of the Nissan parts sites use the same cruddy parts lookup system.

[Hawairish]

Courtesy Parts and another site I use, Nissanparts.cc, haven't listed a lot of the small pieces for quite a while. I still always refer to parts.nissanusa.com, since this is comprehensive and from the horse's mouth. Every now and then on the dealer sites, you stumble across a sub-assembly diagram that has a little more detail, but Nissan's parts site is by far the best (especially since it can also filter down parts specific to your VIN).

[atraudes]

Nice, thank you! I'll give them a look!

[Upgrayedd]

New member here chiming in...

I've also used nissanpartsdeal.com for better diagrams. I just tried the parts.nissanusa.com and found some significant discrepancies. If I use my VIN it says I have a VG33E which is incorrect. If I skip the VIN and just set the vehicle attributes (like VQ35DE, etc) I find different part numbers for the same part in different sections.

For example, the rocker cover and crankacase ventilation sections both show the threaded PCV valve. However, the former section shows an o-ring gasket but the latter section shows a grommet for the push-in style PCV valve.

Then there's differences between sites. Nissanpartsdeal.com shows some sort of washer to be used with the valve cover bolts but parts.nissanusa.com does not show them. Valve cover gasket and PCV valve are things I need to replace soon so I'm a little perturbed by it all.

[atraudes]

Hawairish, thanks again for pointing me to nissanusa. That one is definitely a winner, but nissanpartsdeal has some big advantages.

I looked at parts.nissanusa.com (parts.infinitiusa.com for Infinitis), and found the same thing as you, Upgrayedd. The diagrams and lookup abilities were worlds beyond what Courtesy currently has, but there was some jankiness. There were frequently multiple tabs for a section, the contents of those tabs were mixed up, and some tabs showed similar content, but slightly different variations on what was available. It's definitely doable if you're familiar with the area you're going to be working on, but was more challenging to use.

I'm really glad you mentioned nissanpartsdeal.com! I took a look, and you're right, the diagrams are a huge improvement, and overall site navigation is simpler. I'm in the same boat as you; I'm going to be doing my valve covers sometime this summer too so last night I was getting a parts list together. Their prices look pretty competitive to boot. I really like that you can hover over parts in the diagram and have the description and prices pop up. That was one thing I really used to like about Courtesy.

We should compare notes on the valve covers at some point. It's a little more involved than I originally anticipated and am coming up with some interesting findings. Shoot me a message if you have questions, regardless!

[Upgrayedd]

In addition to the description and price pop up on nissanpartsdeal.com, you can add the part to your cart from that same pop up. I haven't ordered from them though, so far I have just used the site get the part numbers and then order from Courtesy since.

I was going to make a separate post about valve covers before too long to make sure I get everything I need.

[Hawairish]

Well, didn't say Parts.Nissan was perfect (I know of numerous discrepancies for 99-00 trucks/SUVs), but do keep in mind this is supposed to be the "Official" Nissan parts website. (And if you think it's bad, you should see the European version.) I've found it useful for a lot of the parts research I've done, but then again, I've been using the site for several years now and have figured out some other ins/outs. I order just about everything from CP (with "nis10" discount code) after looking up the part from Nissan.

NPD does seem to be a top site, though, so thanks for the recommendation.

And about the valve covers, there are variations. Several of the dealer sites may not show the older aluminum covers because they eventually went to plastic ones. Those parts likely superseded others. There were washers (grommets, actually) for the older covers, and there are not grommets for the newer ones. With the valve cover changes came differences in the valve tube seals and Cyl#1 coil pack.

[Upgrayedd]

I didn't mean to rain on your parade, it is another great resource. I just meant to make everyone aware that there are discrepancies so check twice before ordering.

[Hawairish]

No sweat, bud. I don't always trust the sites (including the Nissan ones) myself, and usually quadruple check parts (including Google and eBay searches when possible to get visuals).

About the Parts.Nissan site discrepancy...it's actually a new defect on the website, which I'm 100% positive didn't exist before. I can explain what it's doing, actually (I do QA for web applications/UI, btw...among other things). The problem is when you enter a VIN, it's not actually doing a VIN lookup anymore...it's just locking the first option from each vehicle attribute dropdown to the VIN.

You can test by changing any dropdown to the 2nd/3rd/etc option, setting the Attributes (it saves ok), then putting in your VIN...it will reset to the first option, lock the VIN to it, and filter results to that set. For yours, the VG33E engine option is listed before the VQ35DE, so it's defaulting to it incorrectly. On mine, it now shows my 04 as being All-Mode 4wd and MT, but only because those are the 1st options...mine's actually Part-Time 4wd and AT.

I know this is not the original behavior because I did an extensive amount of research last year into parts and costs before doing my LSD re-pack. My browser bookmark has always passed in my VIN, so I've never needed to key it in manually, but I've always had to clear the VIN to see parts that didn't come stock on mine...like the LSD. I can see LSD parts without clearing my VIN right now, yet can only see MT parts, not AT parts.

Once they fix that, it'll be as reliable as it has been in the past for me. I'll drop them a line about fixing it. But for the time being, I'd suggest matching the attributes with what you know are accurate and not using the VIN.

[Hawairish]

One more thought...and again, thanks for the Nissan Parts Deal link...because NPD has its stuff together and also offers VIN filtering, I'd say it might be my new go-to for parts references. It looks like the way it does filtering by VIN is to simply not put a parts link/hover-over on the diagram for parts that didn't come with the VIN. You can still view the actual parts if you don't use the VIN. Parts prices look very reasonable, too. And I like that if I clear the vehicles and just key in a part number, it cross-references vehicles for me...this has been paramount for the research I've done to date. The only thing I don't like is that it opens too many tabs in my browser, but I can get over that.