Junkyard Goodies

[Jesda]

My Q was in the shop, and I needed my car fixed ASAP to get to work and school. The fuel control modulator was fried, so I called my dealer and they wanted $550.

Not feeling too keen shelling out that kind of money, a friend of mine while I was at work headed to the biggest junk yard in town. He asked the guy at the desk if they had any 92 Q45 fuel control modulators. All they could confirm was having a 91 Q with front-end damage.

He asked the guy to pull out a silver colored thing from the trunk, and the parts puller commented, "That just looks like an amp. You sure you want it?"

"Okay, I'll take it!" says my friend.

He brought it up to the front and asked how much for the part. The placed closed a few minutes ago and the guy up front said "Oh well, its yours."

My friend then took the part to my mechanic. They installed the part as well as a new fuel filter, and $86 later I was back on the road. An amazing savings of $550, thanks to the unintentional ignorance of a busy junk yard and low demand for the part.

Are there other parts out of a junk yard that would also be just fine? Obviously interior bits and such, but what about mechanicals?

The last owner installed a used fuel pump about 18,000 miles ago, according to records, which I paid the price for recently (part, labor, towing) to install a new one.

Thanks,-Jesda

[Q45tech]

Lots of things all electronic in nature [while failure rate is low replacement cost are high]: ecu, tcu, steering controller, HVAC controller, speedo/tach dash assembly, etc.

Generally junkyards charge 50% of new retail [dealer price] to the public and 33% to the repair shops [based on volume frequency of purchases]............some times you get lucky and pay less depending upon their knowledge of pricing.

Sometimes you can get a whole rear subframe with differential suspension members, half shafts and hubs with or without rear brakes for the price of a used diff $500.

The whole trick is to know the differences in 90-93 and 94-96, what will swap and what won't AND the junker mileage!