Been slowwwly hoarding critical(?) spare parts from breakers when opportunity arises.

- Ignition coil set
- Throttle body
- ECM w/immobilizer(?) module & keys
- Rear differential
- Cats shocks (full set)
- Supercharger
- MAF
- Misc smaller parts

Currently no issues related w/Jag; it is running fine
Wise or not? Throwing away $$$?

 

The problem is you can hoard as much as you like but the thing that will break on you're car is that oen thing you didn't hoard.

 

I done it the other way ..I have changed all the parts that I cannot change on the side of the road in france, fuel pump/starter/alternator/waterpump/thermostat/brake discs and pads. then I carry spare coil/aux belt/fuel pump/sparkplug/hoseclamps+ tools for each job.
No good to me if its at home in the garage.

 

I have a few spare parts that are known to routinely fail stored on my garage shelves (Denso MAF sensor, coolant reservoir and caps, refurbished brake pedal switch assembly, emissions purge valve, VVT solenoid O-ring seals, etc.) but nothing overly expensive or elaborate. As others have pointed out, it's a crapshoot attempting to predict exactly what you will need as the years pass by and I know we will not keep this car forever....

 

As early as 1998 I was already having trouble finding some parts for my Supra so I started my own sort of "part-of-the-month club". Every time I had to order something I needed right away from Toyota, I'd add one or several small items that I figured I'd need eventually. Then in 2002 I had a little accident and found that Toyota's own new rear bumper covers were not a very good fit as they'd changed suppliers and materials. I wound up buying a whole parts car to get a factory original rear bumper cover. Selling the extra parts started me buying wrecked/blown Supras and either parting them out or rebuilding them.

Now, I'm in a single-family neighborhood so I wasn't just parking them on the lawn, but I would dismantle them and store the saleable parts inside my shop building. Then I started filling the garden shed out back. Some parts like trim/weatherstrip, electronics and crash parts were in very high demand but nobody wanted used alternators, power steering pumps, stock wheels or anything they could still buy new, rebuilt or aftermarket high-performance versions so those kind of parts accumulated. Eventually the garden shed had zero garden stuff in it, plus I was paying monthly rent on one of those self-storage units. Finally I reasoned that there was likely no profit in keeping all those more common parts. I sorted through my stash, kept the best one of each for my own spares and offered the entire contents of the storage unit and shed for $750 on the forum to the first person who showed up with a big rental truck. It was all gone within a few days.

At this point I do have almost one of everything that I could rebuild my Supra from the ground up if need be. And I've used quite a few of my replacement parts already. There were a couple of trim pieces that were already NLA when I started and just never found in decent shape on a salvage. But if you are going to travel in an old car, then it does help to be able to throw a few spares in the trunk. I drove from Fort Worth to Toronto once for a Supra owners event, had to change a clutch slave cylinder along the way and that was one of the small parts I tossed in. Beats the four days I spent in the middle of nowhere Arizona once waiting on a fuel pump to be delivered.

But I guess the moral to the story is that hoarding spare parts can be a good strategy for long-term ownership, but be careful not to let it get out of hand. I'm also into NCRS and a good friend of mine died unexpectedly leaving his daughter to deal with a similar hoard of Corvette parts. I put her in contact with somebody who would give her a fair price for it and make sure the parts all found their way back onto classic Corvettes. But you don't want your family having to go through that. They might even just not want to mess with it and throw it all in the garbage. Make sure to label everything carefully and write the price on the tag/bag so that your family knows what they've got, just in case. They could contact the local Jaguar club for help liquidating the hoard should you wind up not using it.