Hi,

I need to buy 2 strut mounts and cylinder valve gasket for VW passat
91. I need some trusted website where people were buying parts before
and have a good experience. The dealer wants to charge $200 for parts
only which I consider expensive - please reply with trusted store
discount online parts URLs

Thanks!

DG

First of all, I've got 246,000 miles on my original Golf strut mounts, and
they're fine. A favorite "trick" of shops is to lift the weight off of the
front wheels, shake the strut, and show you that the upper bearings are
"loose". Well, that might work with some cars, but (unless the Passat is
radically different) your VW's strut bearings are only shot if they move
around when the weight is on the front wheels.

Valve gasket - unless you've done something special to the head you can get
away with a simply NAPA (or simular local part show) gasket. Last I checked
the local price for a VW head gasket for my 1.8 was about $30, and the
rubber valve cover gasket about $15.

NOW - if you're not doing the work yourself, then you gotta use the parts
they want to use. There is no reputable mechanic in the world that will
take the parts you provide and use them. After all, who would pay for the
damages if the parts turn out to be defective? Who'd pay the mechanic's
time if the parts didn't fit right? I know how I run my computer shop, and
I know how my friends run their mechanics shops, and I'm pretty sure that
the repair people will insist on their own parts.

Tim Wohlford
'89 golf, 246,000 miles



"Support" <dimag (AT) my-deja (DOT) com> wrote

Support wrote:


<www.parts4vws.com>


hth,
TBerk

As TBerk already pointed out, there's http://www.parts4vws.com/.
There's also http://www.germanautoparts.com/, with whom I've
had excellent luck on service and pricing. If you don't need parts
right away, there's also FastAddiction at http://www.fastaddiction.com/;
the guy who runs the place is pretty cool, but it is a smaller operation
and therefore doesn't have the same kind of stock on hand.

As someone else already pointed out, the strut mounts on VWs
generally require the weight of the car on them to stay in place;
the mechanic who did the state inspection on my GTI told me I needed
a pair, which I probably didn't, but it was easier to do the strut mounts
than worry about him calling me on something else.

Aww...come on. There are a couple shops near me who do awesome work
on german cars and they don't give a rats ass if I buy the parts.
They charge for their time and let me know if a part will work or not.
I think the trick is to build a relationship with a small shop.
These guys know I'm not going to try and sue them over something I
bought.

I've had my guys install a used upper intake manifold and used starter
on my A4, both of which I bought from the vwvortex.com classifieds. I
had them put on new suspension I bought online for my A2.

By the way, I wanted to put in my 2 cents on a great link for OEM
replacement parts: www.1stvwparts.com. I've found some hard to get
parts on that site. And you can search on your VW part # as well.

Take care,
Dave


"Tim Wohlford" <timNO (AT) SPAMwohlford (DOT) net> wrote

Not online, but over the phone, I like:

http://www.volksparts.com

I can't find cheaper prices on OE parts. Period.

NAJASCYYY.

--

"puzling" <puzling (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote