Parts identification, done right
Practical articles on vehicle variants, factory equipment and OEM references. Check the conditions that decide whether a part fits before you send the order.
Articles 121–144 of 156. Search by model, catalog or part.
Filters by VIN: the service parts that change mid-production without telling anyone
Filters are the cheapest parts on the invoice and the most common reason a service stalls halfway through. Housings change during a model run, cabin filters come in singles and pairs, and the fuel filter may not be a…
Parts sourcingDonor-car parts: proving a used part fits before you drive to the breaker
Used parts are the best value in the business when they fit and the worst errand in the business when they don’t. The difference is provable before you travel: two VINs — donor and recipient — resolved in the official…
Workshop how-toBefore you buy that used car, read its VIN like a parts catalog does
A VIN resolves to the factory build — engine, gearbox, trim, market and equipment — which is a different question from a history check and answered by a different source. Everyone runs a history check before buying used.…
Vehicle identificationWhen the VINs don’t match: a field guide to plates, stamps and stickers that disagree
A car carries its VIN in several places — etched at the windscreen, stickered on the door, stamped into the body, echoed in the electronics. They are supposed to agree. When they don’t, the car is telling you a story,…
Vehicle identificationVIN myths that cost money: eight things people still believe at the parts desk
The VIN is the most useful seventeen characters on a car, and also the most mythologised. Some of the things everyone “knows” about it are true, some were true once, and some were never true — and the gaps between those…
Workshop how-toBrake parts by VIN: the variants that turn a routine job into a comeback
Brake components split by equipment package within a single model year, so two cars of the same model and age routinely take different discs, pads and sensors. Brakes look like the safest parts order on the counter and…
Workshop economicsThe wrong-part case files: five real failures, decoded
Every parts desk has a drawer of stories it would rather forget. Here are five of them, reconstructed like incident reports: what was ordered, why it looked right, and the exact moment the lookup went wrong. None of…
Collision & bodyFinding the paint code: why the VIN alone will not give you the colour
The VIN identifies the car. The paint code identifies the colour it left the factory in, and those are two different pieces of data. On most vehicles the code lives on a sticker or plate, and the catalog reaches it…
Workshop how-toUsing assembly diagrams to plan a repair before the spanners come out
Most people open an exploded diagram to find one number and close it again. Read the whole thing and it becomes a plan of the job — the order of disassembly, what has to come off first, and every fixing and seal you’ll…
Parts sourcingParts for imported and grey-market vehicles: when the local catalog doesn’t match
The car is a model you know well, but every number you try is subtly wrong. It is an import — built for another market — and the local catalog was never describing it. The fix is not more searching; it is looking in the…
Vehicle identificationWhere to find the VIN on a vehicle, and which one to trust when they disagree
A VIN is stamped on the body and repeated on the manufacturer's data plate, and by regulation it is also visible through the windscreen on a plate at the base of the glass. Start at the bottom of the windscreen on the…
AftersalesWarranty and recall parts: identifying the updated number the campaign expects
A warranty or recall job is not the place to fit the number the car was born with. These repairs exist because a part was improved — and the whole point is to fit the updated component the campaign specifies. Identifying…
Workshop how-toWheels, tyres and TPMS by VIN: fitment, offsets and the sensor that gets forgotten
Wheels look like the simple end of the parts business, until a rim fouls a bigger brake, a sensor won’t pair, or the “same” car takes a different offset. The corner of the car with the most fitment traps rewards a…
Parts dataVariant traps: why “it looks the same” is the most expensive phrase at the parts desk
Two cars on the forecourt look identical. Same shape, same badge, same year. One takes the part you ordered and one doesn’t. “It looks the same” is how the wrong part gets confidently sent.
Vehicle identificationModel year vs production date: the split that quietly breaks parts lookups
A customer says “it’s a 2019”. That single number hides three different dates, and parts change between them. Treat them as one and you’ll order a part for a car built six months either side of the one you’re holding.
Diagnostics & repairReading torque specs & assembly notes from the catalog
The part number tells you what to fit. The notes tell you how to fit it so it doesn’t come back. Skip them and a correct part still becomes a comeback.
Catalog dataFinding parts for classic & older vehicles in the EPC
Older vehicles are where catalog quality shows. The diagrams are still there, but the part numbers have moved through years of changes, and a lazy lookup hits dead ends a careful one walks straight past.
Parts terminologyExchange parts, cores and deposits: what “reman” really means on the invoice
The invoice shows a deposit the customer didn’t expect, for a part they’re handing back. Exchange units are one of the most cost-effective ways to repair a car — once you understand the core, the charge and how the…
Parts dataHow parts kits work: bundles, repair kits and the loose-to-kit trap
Kits save time when you understand them and cost time when you don’t. The trap is ordering a loose part the manufacturer now sells only in a kit — or buying a whole kit when you needed one piece.
Parts counterCustomer-supplied parts: checking them against the catalog before they cost you
The customer arrives with a box from an online seller and a job booked in. Fit it, they say. The professional move is not to refuse and not to fit blind — it is to check that part against the official catalog for their…
Parts sourcingOE supplier brands: matching Bosch, Valeo and the rest from the OEM number
A customer wants the quality without the dealer markup. Often the honest answer is the OE-supplier part — the very component the factory fits, in the supplier’s own box. The trick is matching it safely, and that always…
Parts sourcingKeys, locks and the parts that guard the car: ordering security components by VIN
Most parts fit a build. Security parts fit one physical car: the key that turns this lock, the cylinder that matches that key, the remote the immobiliser will actually listen to. It is the corner of the catalog where the…
Workshop how-toClips, seals and fasteners: the small parts that cause the second trip
The caliper turned up on time. The job still stopped — because the guide-pin boots, the one-time-use bolts and the copper washer were not on the order. The big part is rarely what holds a repair up. The small hardware…
Collision & bodyWindscreens, glass and lighting: the see-through parts with invisible variants
Glass looks like the simplest order on the sheet — it’s a windscreen, how many can there be? For one popular hatchback: eleven. Rain sensor or not, camera bracket or not, heated or not, acoustic laminate or not, head-up…