Confirm The Repairs Where Actually Done

I know what your thinking asking for the old parts back is my solution to this problem. Yes it is but I have a twist up my sleeve and I want to talk about asking for the old parts back in more depth.

The problems with asking for the old parts back are many. Number one what you are really saying is I don’t trust you, right to your shops face.

Another problem is if you ask for the old parts back from lets say a tune up you may get six old spark plugs and a smelly fuel soaked fuel filter.

You do not want to carry around a wet fuel filter. And when it comes to the old spark plugs they could be out of anybody’s vehicle.

And some times the part numbers on the old spark plugs is hard to read on very old plugs. If you can read the part number you can call a parts store to verify the spark plug part number belongs in your vehicle.

When you are talking about getting the old parts back when the repair is brake job, trust me you do not want the old brake pads back.

They are in most cases unidentifiable and very dirty and dusty. Plus there is no readable part Number to verify if they are off of your vehicle.

So again they could be off someone else’s car. (Quick story) I remember one time my sister had her car repaired when she was out of town.

She was driving and her check engine light came on. She called me in a panic. I told her to take it to a chain store and hope for the best but to ask for the old parts back.

The shop said the vehicle needed an o2 sensor and my sister confirmed the light was out and received the old part.

When she got back in town I asked to see her old part, it was not an o2 sensor but an egr valve off of a large diesel engine. Definitely not from her little economy car gas engine.

When I looked under her car the old original o2 sensor was still in the exhaust stream.

To make a long story short the shop just cleared the codes and let her go after confirming with her she was heading back to her home state.


Two things to learn from this. One if you have out of state tags tell the shop you just moved to the state your in and have not changed your tags yet.

The shop knows that if you are a transient customer that they will never see you again and can give you the royal screw over with no problems.

The second lesson is if you ask for the old parts back know what the part looks like.

Have the shop show you the old part on the car before they remove it so you can confirm it is the part quoted in the repair estimate.

Ok here is my twist on this ask for the old parts problem.

Don’t ask for the old parts but instead ask for the boxes from the new parts that were installed. Now confirming part numbers with a third party parts store is easy.

You will not have to deal with dirty smelly old parts.

You still have the trust issue to get around but we can be creative on this subject. We can tell the repair shop we collect automotive boxes for your box collection.

Yes they will think your weird but they will not think that you don’t trust them.

Or tell them you want the new boxes so when you need those parts again you know the correct part numbers.

Its funny when even a known felon will get mad at you when you do not trust him.

When it comes to larger more expensive parts you can tell the shop you want to save the box for warranty purposes just in case the new part fails.

This will make it easier for both you and the shop to receive credit should there be a parts warranty issue in the future.


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