2003 Toyota Prius
Posted by Adriana Fisher at Thursday, December 31st, 2020 - 01:45:21 AM in Car Parts
One of the markets that you are opened up to online, is that of the car breakers. These are people who buy a car that is no longer fit for the road, and they literally take it apart piece by piece and sell it. For those who sell these parts online, this is like having access to a car scrap yard without having to go and negotiate with a gruff car scrapyard owner. For those of us who know relatively little about cars and prefer not to have to face the prospect of pointing out to an expert which car parts we need, this can be a big relief!
What that means is that you will either need to find parts that are interchangeable or you will need to modify existing performance parts to fit your needs on that particular vehicle. Either option is not for the novice. You will need to know what to look for are you wanted to mix and match car parts for an older vehicle. In order to modify parts, you will really need a good grasp on mechanics and in some cases, advanced engineering.
The first place that you want to start your search for original parts is with a dealership that sells the make of car that you drive. This is a hit and miss prospect because while dealers are the best place to find OEM parts specific to your make, they may not carry parts for older cars like yours.
Of course, there are parts that you can compromise on and get a used part, while there are other's that you can't on. For example, transferring a headlight or tail-light from a used car is not a problem in most cases (though it will wear out sooner than a new one). However, transferring an air filter from a used car may be counter-productive since it may already have dust and dirt in it that will harm your car instead of helping it. The same goes for more sophisticated parts such as transmission. A general rule of the thumb is that more the internal and smaller moving components in an auto part, the riskier it is to acquire a used one for replacement.
For many years, new OEM parts were the only options for servicing and repairing cars. Today, there are still many car parts such as Brake Rotors and Brake Pads that wear fast and are cheap to purchase and it only makes sense to purchase the new auto parts. However, for the more expensive ones, you can check out the options. New manufacturer parts are either manufactured at the car manufacturing plant or outsourced to off-shore metal fabrication companies especially in far east countries like China. They are made with a certain level of quality standards.
Gallery of 2003 Toyota Prius
