Where Do You Buy Your Parts

[Jezclayton]

I must have owned Transits for some 25 years now and always used to go to the parts counter at my local Ford dealership where the assistant would pull up an exploded diagram of the relevant area of the van and you could order just about anything, be it a bolt, a piece of trim or a full heater motor. I am based in Berkshire and it seems that the Ford dealerships here no longer have such parts counters. Instead you speak to reception, she puts you on to someone in service who calls someone from parts who then comes out to the service desk. He asks what you want, but frankly you can't be arsed to try an explain in detail to a guy with a pen and pad ( just show me the diagram) and he will invariably order the wrong part. Of course if you had seen the exploded diagram you could have told him it was the wrong part, or just pointed at the bits you want. Bugger me, they can't even order a set of floor mats for my van which is currently a 72 plate Custom Limited DCIV Automatic with Single Passenger Seat. The last set he got in weren't even for an automatic. WTF.

Rant over. Where do you guys go to buy parts for your van now. What would be really great would be to call up an exploded diagram online, note the part numbers and order.

Is this too much to ask?

[metalworker0]

well i used to do that with other older fords ..parts were then about, lets say the part was £15 in your head when you went there ...you'd pay something like £26...fast forward 20 years different part .you're thinking £15 its actually £115.

Yes, my local ford dealer does not have microfiche any more ..but they do show you the computer screen.

I now look all over the place.. mainly ebay .
Rule 1 - look for genuine brand new ford parts and find the cheapest
Ruke 2 if that cannot be done or too expensive,look for new branded parts from manufacturers you recognise as being good -
Borg and Beck
Delphi
lochhead
Girling
Elring
Meyle
Payen
bosch
Denso
Sachs
Fag
NSK
SKF
NTK
Timken
Valeo
Monroe
NGK
Garrett
Mintex
Siemens
First Line
Ferodo
AP

Also genuine ford parts can sometimes be called ..
motorcraft
fomoco

for even older ford parts ENFO written in ford script stands for "English Ford" a lot of people think its ENOTS but they are wrong

when you do the search ,,,put brand in the search title and tick the box that says "include description"

The exploded parts diagrams and part numbers are at "catcar info"
https://www.catcar.info/ford/?lang=en

so it works well to, just put the "part number" into ebay followed by "ford" and tick that box "include description"

all the best./mark

[Jezclayton]

Hey Mark, that's really helpful, especially the catcar link which I hadn't come across. I think it will be eBay for me as well but at least catcar will help identify the part I am searching for. Sensory assembly part number 1791866 sounds so much more descriptive than that light thingy between the sun visors.

[dumper]

I’m lucky with my local Ford parts department the guy running it now started as a apprentice there in the early 90s so his switched on so not a problem for me with them

[themountain]

This was super handy, thanks!

well i used to do that with other older fords ..parts were then about, lets say the part was £15 in your head when you went there ...you'd pay something like £26...fast forward 20 years different part .you're thinking £15 its actually £115.

Yes, my local ford dealer does not have microfiche any more ..but they do show you the computer screen.

I now look all over the place.. mainly ebay .
Rule 1 - look for genuine brand new ford parts and find the cheapest
Ruke 2 if that cannot be done or too expensive,look for new branded parts from manufacturers you recognise as being good -
Borg and Beck
Delphi
lochhead
Girling
Elring
Meyle
Payen
bosch
Denso
Sachs
Fag
NSK
SKF
NTK
Timken
Valeo
Monroe
NGK
Garrett
Mintex
Siemens
First Line
Ferodo
AP

Also genuine ford parts can sometimes be called ..
motorcraft
fomoco

for even older ford parts ENFO written in ford script stands for "English Ford" a lot of people think its ENOTS but they are wrong

when you do the search ,,,put brand in the search title and tick the box that says "include description"

The exploded parts diagrams and part numbers are at "catcar info"
https://www.catcar.info/ford/?lang=en

so it works well to, just put the "part number" into ebay followed by "ford" and tick that box "include description"

all the best./mark

[Jezclayton]

Do you think catcar will ever get updated. At present (for the Transit Custom at least) it only covers up to pre-facelift models. Whilst this is fine for many parts, . . . . .