Thanks to members responding to a recent post on here ensuring me that I could use a lot of 1997 XK8 parts for my 98 XJ8L I headed to a local salvage yard that had recently set out the XK. My primary hunt was for the wheels (although I like the large hub VDP rims better than the small hubcap XK rims, they were cheap and in great shape) But my list also included the throttle body, ECU, and transmission module. Before getting the wheels I went to the compartment for the ECU and Tran module only to find it already empty - so I got the 2 wheels from the right side and when I went to the left side to get those wheels the transmission module was sitting there in the dirt.
It's easy to know why a jag guy would grab an ECU (at our local yards with specials they can be as cheap as $18 BUT WHY would a jag person just chuck the tranny module in the dirt ? with so few of these parts still available I can't believe someone would do that. Giving people the benefit of the doubt I wondered if they broke it trying to get it out and threw it in the dirt to make sure someone didn't waste money buying it - but they are not hard to remove so doubt they broke it and if they did why not step on it - but just to chuck it out of the way while they took a different part doesn't seem right - these cars are not Chevy's produced by the millions. I have also seen nice XJ6 interior pieces just ripped out of cars and sitting in the mud at some local yards. I am always shocked when I see this type of thing with our cars

 

Salvage yard mentality has always escaped my rational. I have seen some "pickers" remove a part
from a car, then hide it in a different make and model so they could come back and get it if they found
they needed it later. The mentality of some is that everything else on the car is disposable save the part
they are wanting to remove. The fact that our cars and the parts we can use are precious seems to
escape everyone's notice save the one who sets the price for them.

 

Yes I heard all that and I'd chime in that some people just rip parts off the car and destroy everything else around it. Modules just smashed to get the little buls out, Center console components just torn out and broken to get whatever they were after. It is a bit of a downer when the part you wanted is there but destroyed....

 

Maybe we should get all the forum members to contribute to a Jaguar only parts yard. Of course
the logistics of such a campaign would be horrendous. It would probably not be able to sustain itself
but we can always dream.

 

I ran a Salvage yard for a couple years, at that point I usually didn't allow others to pull their own parts. For the simple reason, I felt every part was a potential sale, and if destroyed it was lost income. The owner of the salvage yard was amazed at this, and said he had never thought of it like that. As he had another yard, and they didn't do it like that. Shortly afterward he instructed his yard hands to remove parts that were in the way, and not to destroy them. After I was there for 2 years he said his core sales had gone up 13% which he attributed to having more parts to sell since they hadn't been destroyed in the process. He said before I came along he had never sold a speedo cable, as they were all destroyed when the engine and trans was pulled. He said he never realized how many people needed a speedo cable, LOL!

Jack

 

I’ve bought a complete XJ8 and a XJR from CoPart. Chewing the fat with the manager. He has had keys stolen or a fuse pulled so the next person checking out the car before auction can’t start it.

 

LOL Randy I almost fell for the parts in a different car thing last year there were brand new rotors and pads in a volvo so I was going to get them but luckily checked the parts number on the cellphone ---they were wrong - they were for a honda

know much about the transmission modules ? I was thinking at the most it could have been outside the car for 7 days (I got there a week after they set it out) BUT maybe the person that chucked it was there only a day or so before I got there ALSO it only rained one time the entire week --- the unit looks pretty clean - IS THERE ANY WAY TO TEST THEM with a multimeter that would be meaningful ? During a sale it would be around $17 on ebay they tend to go for $65+ so I am thinking it might be worth a gamble down the road if I need one

 

Transmission modules do not seem to be an item that goes bad often, however for that price I
might be tempted to store it in a static bag for possible later use. Some forum members might
even be able to use it, and then you could be the hero! Unless it is bad, of course.

 

I would get the VCATS info and write the SUFFIX on EVERY SINGE MODULE in the car so you know what it will fit.

I have six X308 sedans on my property so I did that on ALL the modules that matter.(just me thinking ahead)

 

I really don't like the self-service salvage yard model because of the behaviors described. Its one of the reasons I got into parting out Toyota Supras. Back 20 years ago I had a little accident with mine, already couldn't get many parts new and had to shop salvage yards. I noticed that somebody had thrown some greasy part they'd removed from the engine bay onto the passenger seat in every last one of them, ruining an otherwise good seat. Many also had doors or windows removed leaving the interiors exposed to the elements. And on the forum (or actually we had an email listserve at that time), everybody was looking for replacements for their sun-baked plastic trim or something like a power window switch. Nobody wanted stuff like alternators because you could still buy new or rebuilt ones. Its was the already obsolete and most fragile parts that were in demand. I'd also been restoring Corvettes and Mustangs and understood that an original date-coded alternator has little value at 20-30 years old but will eventually have significant value when its 50 or 60 years old. So I bought a whole parts car to get a new rear bumper cover and taillight for my immediate repair needs, sold off the interior immediately and stored the mechanical parts in my garden shed. That lead to another, then another, then another, etc.

Eventually I had accumulated so many alternators, brake calipers, wiper motors, that I could barely move around my own shop. I temporarily moved a bunch of parts to a self-storage unit and was going to build a larger garden shed but the cost of lumber skyrocketed during the pandemic and made me rethink that plan. I came up with a strategy to get rid of the excess but still make sure the greasy parts would be available for someone's future restoration or repair. I picked through and kept one each, the best of everything for my own spares, then offered up the entire inventory on the forum for $500 to anyone who would come clear out the self storage unit all at once and dangled the few remaining "holy grail" pieces of trim as incentive. I immediately had a couple of people wanting to come from across country with a truck and trailer and it came down to whichever one could get here first. Now the parts are all still safe, stored in a weathertight building where another forum member will plan to sell them on ebay after he retires (which was my original plan, but not at $79/month for self storage). At this point I don't ever find any wrecked Supras here in Texas worth parting out as the surviving examples are either well protected in somebody's collection or too far gone to be worth messing with. Most likely I won't be parting out any more as I've run out of storage, but I figure I rescued enough parts to make five complete interiors.

When my neighbor's Porsche had a catastrophic engine failure and salvage yards wouldn't offer what he thought it ought to be worth, I suggested a strategy that I had used successfully once before. He contacted the local club and had a "party". They stripped his Porsche mostly down on a Saturday, another guy came three days in a row and picked the rest of it clean. He sold the interior for more than the salvage yard had offered for the whole thing, ultimately he said he got three times what he would have gotten plus the assurance that the parts were all going to good use. You couldn't do that with just any car, probably only work for enthusiast cars like an F-type but that may be another alternative to letting the salvage yards waste most of it if somebody didn't want to DIY.

 

Yes, I remember some "pick-a-part" yards in Irving and Dallas that were absolutely horrible. I believe your
model of recycling is much more sustainable. I have never let any of my cars fall to the yards as the offered
return was always far below the true value of the remaining good parts. I remember a '65 Mustang that was
"totaled", retained and repaired, that an ol' Grand Prairie Texas boy is still drivin' around in today. You couldn't
pry it away from him with a 5 foot crowbar.

 

great point motorcarman, I usually write the vin on parts and I took picture of the vcats sticker BUT considering how many pics I loose on the phones over time probably good idea to write on the part or on a tag inside the zip lock bag they are in

Pdupler great point about the windows being down - that drives me nuts and in my area it seems 60% of the higher end cars have windows down or out and as such interiors just rotting away. I had mentioned the quality interior parts on the XK and if any members here had been interested I certainly would have thrown some plastic over the windows to help them out But the door pockets on what was very nice shape were full of water from the one rain we have had in the last few weeks - i did put the center console (that was in great shape) back in the car in case anyone would need it

My other favorite salvage yard behavior is when guys cut every wire, hose or brake line that is in their way. Of course the other side of salvage yards is the cheap prices - in the past I have purchased leaper hood ornaments, key fobs, door cards, power antennas and such for just a few dollars. I just got a spare Interstate H8 battery dated 2020 for $30. A few months ago I got 4 almost new Michelin tires already mounted to 4 really decent AL rims for my Cadillac for less than $70 (a couple times a year they do tire sale at $15 each)

 

Ed, that is really true of most of the salvage yards I have had the displeasure of sorting through.
That is great about the tires and rims. In my local area, X308s rarely come to the yards.

 

Oh, yes, I have seen that too and it always steams me. Just recently, I posted on here about how a mouse had gotten into my Xj8 and surgically cut 18 wires in the forward harness. Wiring is another part that you just can't get anywhere except from a donor car. Most hoses I can forgive because over time they get positively fused to the nipple that they're clamped onto and would have been damaged during any attempted removal or they're so old and crispy that I wouldn't want them anyway. Wiring can get crispy in the engine bay too, but if its a late model wrecked car, somebody needs to save the wiring and store it away for when people do eventually need to replace crispy wires.