Which Used Car Parts On-Line Sites do you use?

[JoeH]

Well, the fuel filler neck on my '98 car rotted off from the fill cap earlier this week. From what my mechanic tells me, the part has been discontinued by Chrysler, none are showing up in any dealer parts inventory, and he can not get one from a local salvage yard. So I am starting an on-line search to find a replacement. Any suggested sites anyone can recommend? I have looked through a few sites, but so far nada. Closest was one for a '96 or '97 model year.

It would be silly, but this might be the push into a replacement car a year earlier than I planned. Did want to have both sons out of school first though before taking out another loan. But for want of an $100 part, this otherwise working car may be headed to the salvage yard itself.

[Acer]

Does it happen to have a combined EPA mpg of 18 or less? If so, sounds like an ideal cash for clunkers vehicle.

If not, how about duct tape?

EDIT: I find in my email archives that I used http://www.1aauto.com/ successfully for a Chrysler tail light assembly a couple years ago.

EDIT 2: And they do indeed carry fuel filler necks, e.g. http://www.1aauto.com/1A/GasTanks/Chrysler/TownCountry just to pick an example model.

[DRR]

Are you sure a 96 or a 97 wouldn't fit? Unless the model was fully redesigned in 98, there's a fair chance that it would.

A tiny bit of petroleum will start to denature the adhesive used in duct tape, as would temperature extremes. It'd probably make a good temporary solution, but probably not a good semi-permanent one.

[TLB]

www.car-part.com is the best I've found. It will also tell you other year parts that fit your application.

[JoeH]

Acer wrote:
Does it happen to have a combined EPA mpg of 18 or less? If so, sounds like an ideal cash for clunkers vehicle.

If not, how about duct tape?

EDIT: I find in my email archives that I used http://www.1aauto.com/ successfully for a Chrysler tail light assembly a couple years ago.

EDIT 2: And they do indeed carry fuel filler necks, e.g. http://www.1aauto.com/1A/GasTanks/Chrysler/TownCountry just to pick an example model.

Nope, EPA mpg more like 30, I usually get around 32-33 mpg. I wish it was suitable for the clunker deal. As for duct tape, well, just not enough stub left to tape to.

I came up empty my first seach through 1aauto.com for my model, will recheck them.

DRR wrote:
Are you sure a 96 or a 97 wouldn't fit? Unless the model was fully redesigned in 98, there's a fair chance that it would.

It might fit, but they did change the gas cap and other parts of the fuel system between the '97 and '98 model years. So there might be other changes needed to make it work. At least since it was a Plymouth, I will never have to deal with yet another change in the fuel filler design Chrysler did around 2004/5.

I did find one after market maker of new fuel filler necks for Chrysler. But they have not yet got to the year and model of my car. I did send an inquiry in case it was "coming real soon", waiting to hear back from them.

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

[Racer X]

pull the tank, have it hot tanked to clean it and remove any fuel residue, and have a new piece welded in where the old stuff rotted out.

If you had an old Buick, I could have a new reproduction tank delivered in just days from multiple sources for just a few hundred bucks. Who says newer cars are easier to get parts for.....

[JoeH]

Well, the Chrysler and GMC bankruptcies definitely are not helping with the availability of OEM parts. It is looking like Chrysler dropped a whole range of parts for relatively recent models and the third party makers are playing catch up. It does not pay to be caught in the gap between very new and older cars. I also know a few sources of quick and easy finding of parts for older cars, but this one is not quite old enough.

I may have to go the route of having a new section of pipe welded in to fix the filler neck. At least I would only have to drain the tank enough to remove it from the tank gasket and have the top piece taken out of the quarter panel. But that is the kind of thing my mechanic would have suggested early on, so he might not think there is enough left to weld up and replace the missing section. He did take a look at the bad filler neck and get the VIN to be sure he was getting the right replacement part(s).

[Racer X]

Ford only went back 10 years generally anyway. Not sure about GM and Chrysler. Back in the mid-late 80s, I could still get lots of stuff for my '69 and '71 GSs from the local Buick dealers if I ordered and waited.

[JoeH]

Looks like I may have found a replacement, keeping fingers crossed until it arrives and can be verified as the right one. Talked a bit more with my mechanic, turns out the filler pipe was a one year only part. Only thing that helps was that it was used in the Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth versions of the model.

As for parts, used to be Chrysler that was good at keeping most at least 10 years in their supply chain or arranging for an after-market manufacturer before they dropped a part. Even then a lot of older parts could still be found through the dealer part network if you waited. With all of the dealer closings and the bankruptcy, who knows what got lost or has not been ID'd and inventoried for sale yet by whoever got the parts. Chrysler may have made the situation worse by not agreeing to take back inventory from the 100's of dealers they issued closing notices to as part of the bankruptcy.

[davec]

It has been a couple of years since I used it, but I have used the junkyarddog.com web site to find/buy parts for my old cars. You do have to give a email address, but I had quite a number of salvage yards respond (VIA email) with offers of parts. Good Luck!

Dave