Buying car parts online

[LadyGagarin]

Can anyone recommend a good/reliable website for buying car parts online?

Thanks in advance,

LadyG

[Imbiber]

Depending on what you need euro car parts seem to have a sale most of the time with sometimes very good prices. You may need a local branch for delivery or click and collect.

[swill453]

Carparts4less often have the same stock as eurocarparts (I think they must be related) at cheaper prices.

Scott.

[bungeejumper]

GSF Car Parts (http://www.gsfcarparts.com) have been excellent and very reliable over the years. They started out as "German, Swedish and French" (hence the name), but now they cover all the major brands, I think, and the site's very easy to navigate. They currently have 25% off "service items" (brakes, oil, bulbs, filters and suchlike). And these days all their prices are VAT inclusive. Wasn't always the case.

I remember breaking a sidelight on my Xantia, and being a bit annoyed that the dealer replacement would cost me £50 plus. The GSF part came in at £14, plus VAT, and was the exact same Valeo unit fitted to the car!

If you're after fancier stuff, such as turbos or aircon units, or door mirrors, you might do better with a specialist, some of whom can be very competitive. For batteries, I've never heard a bad word said about Tayna (http://www.tayna.co.uk). Has certainly done the business for me.

BJ

[malkymoo]

Second GSF. We have a branch close to us so I go for click and collect.

I bought a item a few weeks ago and am currently being sent e-mails every few days offering 59% off. The current discount code is MAY59 (valid until 7th May).

[LadyGagarin]

Thanks to everyone who has replied. Who knew finding a replacement front seat belt for a fairly commonplace make/model could be so tricky? The old one is not retracting properly and the dealer price is a ridiculous £280-something. I dare say there may be some sitting in scrapyards out of town, but it's a very long walk to get there...

[bungeejumper]

Who knew finding a replacement front seat belt for a fairly commonplace make/model could be so tricky? The old one is not retracting properly and the dealer price is a ridiculous £280-something. I dare say there may be some sitting in scrapyards out of town, but it's a very long walk to get there...

Would I want a seat belt from a scrapyard? Not unless I knew why its owner had scrapped the car.

Seriously, if I were an insurance company I wouldn't ever let my customers fit safety parts from a scrappy. Any collision can damage seat belts in ways that can't easily be seen. Go for new parts, m'dear. Good hunting!

BJ

[bungeejumper]

BTW, I just idly Googled to see whether anyone is selling secondhand seatbelts, and the only one I came up with was this rather enigmatic ad for a belt on a 1975 Rover:

"this rear seat belt is in vg condition complete with screw pay by paypal."

BJ

[DrFfybes]

GSF, Eurocarparts, carpats4less, and Tayna for batteries.

All pretty good, ECP and GSF have click and collect, and have the most ridiculous and variable discount system I have ever seen - one day it is 20%, the next it cam be 50%.

ECP (I think) will give you a better discount on a second visit - practice by doing a bit of searching, going back the day after, then trying again on a different device or after clearing your cookies.

I also use Eurospares a lot more than i'd like

Paul

[LadyGagarin]

Would I want a seat belt from a scrapyard? Not unless I knew why its owner had scrapped the car.

Joking aside, neither would I - just venting my growing despair of finding one that doesn't cost £100s, on top of the other £300-worth of work the car needs doing to keep it on the road. I'm not yet in a position to replace it so will have to get it done. Sigh.

[wilbobob]

Out of interest I googled seat belt retractor spring repair. There are lots of videos on YouTube showing ways to cure slow recoil, and it doesn't look too hard to do. Certainly worth a try to save £200

[Itsallaguess]

Out of interest I googled seat belt retractor spring repair.

There are lots of videos on YouTube showing ways to cure slow recoil, and it doesn't look too hard to do. Certainly worth a try to save £200

Not something that I'd fancy....

I think I could just about justify a scrap-replacement so long as the donor car hadn't been involved in a crash, but I'm not sure I'd fancy the risk of subsequent failure if a DIY repair was carried out.

Sometimes, unfortunately, you've got to bite the bullet and pay for these types of issues to be remedied correctly. By all means shop around for the best value replacement, but a DIY repair on a safety device like this would keep me awake at night....

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[bungeejumper]

I think I could just about justify a scrap-replacement so long as the donor car hadn't been involved in a crash, but I'm not sure I'd fancy the risk of subsequent failure if a DIY repair was carried out.

Sometimes, unfortunately, you've got to bite the bullet and pay for these types of issues to be remedied correctly. By all means shop around for the best value replacement, but a DIY repair on a safety device like this would keep me awake at night....

I'm no expert, but I believe a lot of cars have pre-tensioners that are supposed to start tightening the belts before a major impact. (No, I have no idea how they know it's coming?) And that some of them have one-shot gas cartridges like an airbag. (Although most rely on a spring.)

Either way, it doesn't sound like amateur repair territory to me. You're a long time dead - what's the hurry?

If, OTOH, it's just a buckle that's clogging with gunk and not closing, I've heard of people being able to ease them with a shot of WD40 and maybe some compressed air. Strictly DYOR.

BJ