When Mercedes proposed today’s Ask, my mind instantly went to the Cadillac XLR and its infamous taillights. After a quick Googling, I can confirm the XLT tails are still going for a pretty penny, with a low of about a grand and a high of $3,000 or so. But they’re out there, so not exactly unobtanium. More like “unobtanium without a lot of cashium.”
Some parts, however, are much harder to find, at any price.
Mercedes has this tale of woe:
For me, it’s this damn wheel:
I’m trying to restore my 2012 Smart to as close to factory condition as possible. It shipped new with these wheels. As it turns out, very few Smarts ever came with these wheels in America
I should never have sold mine!
There’s a set for sale in Tampa, but the guy refuses to ship and didn’t even respond to my message, anyway.
All the others are in Germany and are like $400 per wheel, plus shipping and import duties, and that’s a hell to the no.
I occasionally find entire Smarts for sale with these wheels, but I don’t feel like buying a whole car just to steal its wheels.
I feel you, Merc.
How about you? Have you encountered a required part that was so Unobtanium it may as well have been mined from Pandora? See you in the comments!
Top graphic image: GM
The rear vent window stainless steel trim for a Citroen SM.
B5 S4 – probably everything
Suzuki Swift GTi/GT cold start valve. They ALL go bad around 10 years which is a problem for a car pushing 40 years old. The idle basically never stops surging and your car sounds like the Tardis. Most people just blank them off, but then you have issues warming the car up in cold climates. When you could get them they were around $250, which I could afford now, but not back then.
If you own a first generation Fiat 124 Spider, specifically beginning in 1972, the Abarth 16-valve head that was offered is extremely rare. Sure, there are plenty of the factory dual Weber 40 IDF carb and manifolds floating around, but the 16V head is worth your first born.
Almost became my car but bailed out when learning about c5 Vette EBCM. Went back to Miata
I drive a 2002 Turbo Beetle.
I’m sure there are parts for it that are hard to find.
I take my car to a shop that specializes in VW/Audi. The shop has it’s own little salvage yard with a bunch of old VWs and Audis in it.
It might not be new, but my mechanic can find basically any part that needs to be replaced in his yard. And, he’s been doing it long enough so that he knows which parts are OK to pull used, and which ones we need to find new.
Fortunately, my two toy-ish cars are both very easy on parts. My Miata NB has a huge support network and my ’97 Chevy 1500 could be entirely rebuilt just from what’s in stock in the back room of a Autozone.
I have a 2002 Dodge Dakota with a 5.9 V8. Apparently, they only offered it with this particular ECM PCM for that one year, and they are no longer supporting the part. I went to start the truck two winters ago, and it would crank and crank but wouldn’t start. Turns out the part failed. The part basically doesn’t exist. I ended up having to pay $800 to buy one off Ebay that was “remanufactured” by some shop. It came in, didn’t work. Had to return it for another one (the only other one they had in stock), and that one did work. But I dread any other problems like that…
Dual Mass Flywheel for my Rover 75. It’s already 100,000 miles past due replacement, so I’m trying to not shunt the driveline too much…
Toyota does not sell windshield gaskets or an OEM clutch plate for a first gen MR2. The windshield leaks and I have no way to repair it. The clutch had to be replaced with aftermarket.
This might be a really stupid suggestion, but could you not, like…caulk it? That would essentially permanently bond the glass to the frame, unless you cut the caulk if you have to replace the glass, but it could work, maybe?
basically anything interior. Some hard parts are also getting more rare, but the Land Cruiser hard parts are all pretty durable so junkyard parts can be rebuilt pretty effectively as needed.
As a Polestar owner my entire car will soon become unobtainable thanks to our friendly federal government.
I decided to part ways with my 23 year old, 275,000 mile 300m over a thermistor probe that was diagnosed as the failure point in the A/C. It wasn’t so bad when I was working 90% remote and the office was only 2 miles from my home. But when the company decided to close that office and transfer my team to an office halfway around the DC beltway, I said hells to the no on keeping a daily driver with no A/C.
The part was no longer available new, online pickin’s were slim, and I didn’t feel like paying a shop to install a used part — that’s if I could even find one that would. And after having torn apart the interior and dash to replace the mode door and blend door actuators in the heat of two consecutive summers (I knew I should have done them both while I was in there the first time!), there was no way I was putting in that much effort again myself.
This is also why I’m skeptical every time I see an offering in SBSD that says the A/C “just needs a charge”…
A good condition OEM steering wheel for my 03 Civic. It’s only got two airbags, and I’d like to keep some semblance of safety, so aftermarket is out. The original is pretty gross and toasty after 23 years, so I run a crappy cover on it; but I prefer the original. NOS if you can find them are like a quarter of what the car is worth, used ones are always just as bad, even the Acura EL leather wrapped ones are pretty thin on the ground these days.
I’ve found a few places that will wrap them in leather, but again that’s around $800, for a car that is; at best worth 3K.
My 2003 SL 500 which I bought new needs a new red driver’s side mat and a replacement for the cracked centre brake light. Non OEM available for the light but horrible quality.
2006 BMW: check engine light delete
For the Viper, it is almost easier to answer what *is* available vs what is unavailable.
To their immense credit a group of owners has been working with Stellantis about building some more stock of commonly used parts.
New Zenith-Stromberg carburetors for TR6.
Almost all off the diesel-specific parts on our ’14 Cruze Diesel. DPFs are especially unobtanium, but so is one of the EGR cooler hoses on the back of the engine.
Conveniently, this is the one we had fail back in February, and the dealer master tech essentially made something up that works (thankfully the design basically allows for using regular clamps, making it totally serviceable).
But there’s a reason I just bought someone else’s hoard of parts that they had collected…just in case. It includes a DPF.
There are a tonne of weird parts that are for single transitional years or low-volume variants of the 996 that are impossible to find, but the weirdest thing that was impossible to find was something that everyone is going to have to replace: the speakers. After a few years of ownership the front speakers in my 996 were starting to buzz at low volumes, and, being 24-year-old speakers, I couldn’t blame them.
First, I looked them up: they’re a nonstandard diameter and mounted TO the speaker grilles. Ok, then I’ll try to find a pair: no longer available through Porsche. That’s fine, I look elsewhere. Out of stock, out of stock, and out of stock are the responses I get. I finally find a pair at an Atlanta-based shop and order them as well as new hardware.
A week later I get a parcel with the hardware and a receipt that states that the speakers were out of stock and my order has been refunded. I wanted to shake the fulfiller who did not reach out to let me know before sending me useless mounting clips.
Eventually, I found a guy out in CA who has a kit for retrofitting the speaker grilles to accept 3″ speakers, including new pigtails for wiring (because of course the proprietary speakers had proprietary plugs…)
I replaced all of my speakers with the new setups and couldn’t be happier. Plus, if I ever have to replace them again, I can use universal models instead of going on my wild goose chase.
Not truly unobtainium, but absolutely ridiculous. The BMW F33 roof hinge cover. It’s a maybe 1 inch by 4 inch plastic cover for one of the hinges of the hardtop convertible roof. They randomly break, very annoying.
If you want the OEM replacement, it only comes as part of a parts pack that includes other hinge pieces, and will run you $500-$700 IF you can find one. For a piece of plastic that breaks frequently, and a hinge that never does.
Everybody just uses cheap aftermarket solutions, which will run you $20-$70 depending on if you wanted it pre-painted or not. Yet another example of BMW whiffing on a simple piece in a complicated engineering solution, shrugging their shoulders, and walking away.
For the Starquest platform, for being a somewhat obscure car it’s actually not that hard to find the important parts, mostly because a couple people buy out the whole used market for part-outs.
The hardest thing to find are original-fit rear shocks. They still make front shocks, but it’s easier to cut off the hubs and weld on coilovers than it is to find good rear shocks. One guy sold adapters for an MR2 shock to fit, but it’s definitely not the same, and those adapters are hard to find as well…
For my 85 C10, nothing. For every single part on that truck there are at least 6 different companies offering replacements or upgrades all at varying price points. I am convinced you could do a David Tracy style build of a “new” 85 squarebody.
The Evo 9 is a different story. More parts are discontinued every day, there is still a large aftermarket, but some stuff is still unobtanium. The part I worry about most is the head. The Evo 9 was a 1 year only car and was the only car with the 4g63 that also got Mivec (Mitsubishi’s variable valve timing) they stopped producing the heads some years back, used ones command thousands and are bought up quickly.
This is why I won’t buy a Saab. I occasionally find really nice 9-5 Aeros for sale (some even wagons!) but I refuse to pull the trigger because I have no idea how to replace anything that breaks
For my 1968 Olds? Hood hinges. They were 1968-only and only for the Cutlass/4-4-2. Skylark or Chevelle hinges won’t work. And they are terrible. ’68 Cutlass hoods don’t open very high and I have the bumps on my head to prove it. Dashboard pad is the runner up here.
For my Subaru? A lot of things. If a CV Axle goes bye-bye, it’s time to go beg on forums. Forget finding interior trim or sheet metal.