I went to a parts store earlier to see if they have part looking for. Clerk all of sudden goes, Holy E36 M3 it’s true. Huh??
Guy shows me a pop up on screen stating once parts were out of stock for this vehicle they no longer can order them. Then tells me they’ve heard rumors of companies not being allowed to manufacture parts for certain older vehicles. So basically this is they’re way of getting older cars off the road. Blew my mind hearing this.
Car in picture is a 1999 escort ZX2. Yea I know nothing special but I like having a cheap beater.
Guess it’s off the JY and hope used parts work out.
Yeah... That's pure bologna. Nobody is banned from making parts.
The OEMs expect suppliers to manufacture replacement parts for up to 10 years after EOP, but the Chinese will make them as long as there is demand.
It sounds like the company is just trying to get parts out of the warehouse and not reorder them. They might have to order parts in quantity and they don't want to sit on a pallet of parts for a car that is not very common.
IIRC, manufacturers are required to sell parts for a model for a certain number of years after the last one is sold -- it's like 5 or 7 or something. After that, it's up to them to decide how long they want to make them. Some manufacturers (such as Mercedes) never stop making them, others (in particular Ford) are infamous for discontinuing parts as soon as they're legally allowed to.
So I'm not at all surprised that you can't get ZX2 parts, but it's not the government trying to force cars off the road. It's just Ford being cheap.
What did the 99 Escort need?
Yeah... I know it sounds crazy, but it turns out that parts store looker-upper guys are often full of E36 M3.
The only thing remotely possible is that some manufacturers (cough Chrysler cough) will put a copyright on, say, the design of the bends in a hose, and the aftermarket won't be able to make one without paying a royalty. That isn't "the government preventing it", that's the manufacturer using existing laws to prevent the aftermarket from making parts without giving them a cut, too.
Most parts are available by demand. Time limits are bogus.
No demand no parts. Besides, all of the aftermarket places still supply parts.
Will
UltraDork
8/3/19 7:09 p.m.
I mean...yeah, the government has this rule for F-14s so Iran can't get any parts for theirs. But I'm pretty sure a ZX2 isn't a threat to national security.
rustyvw said:
It sounds like the company is just trying to get parts out of the warehouse and not reorder them. They might have to order parts in quantity and they don't want to sit on a pallet of parts for a car that is not very common.
This. The government certainly isn't telling any manufacturer that they can't manufacture car parts. I mean, except maybe cars that originally came with a .50 caliber machinegun or something :)
Don’t get me wrong I thought guy was full of E36 M3 too. But.. nevermind not going down that rabbit hole.
Im looking for check valve that goes in between the intake and brake booster
I haven’t looked online yet for this part. I’m sure I can find it or something similar. Just caught me off guard curious if anyone heard of this
In reply to Subscriber-unavailabile :
That's a relatively obscure part
Is it unique to Escort or will some other Ford have the same? Maybe Focus?
In reply to John Welsh :
I haven’t spent much time really looking for this part yet. I’m experiencing a random little loss of brake pedal pressure. Doesn’t happen all the time though. The brakes work great. But every now and then I’ll be sitting at a light an the brake pedal will slowly keep going. Not loosing any fluid, I’ve bled the brake couple times. Figure maybe the 20 year old valve is starting to go and want to replace it see if that fixes the issue
Also the booster and master cylinder and fairly new parts. But I know “new” parts don’t always work
ShawnG
PowerDork
8/3/19 9:13 p.m.
The check valve has nothing to do with the pedal continuing to go down after you've stopped the car.
Your master cylinder is bypassing fluid.
That doesn't sound like the check valve. If the check valve goes bad you won't have any pedal assist. It will just take a lot of foot pressure to use the breaks.
John Welsh said:
In reply to Subscriber-unavailabile :
That's a relatively obscure part
Is it unique to Escort or will some other Ford have the same? Maybe Focus?
It's not a check valve, it's a venturi or sometimes called a jet valve.
I saw one on a new Chevy.
You know that's a Ford you are trying to buy parts for, right? The only compaies worse at supporting older cars are out of business.
Streetwiseguy said:
You know that's a Ford you are trying to buy parts for, right? The only compaies worse at supporting older cars are out of business.
I think Ford actually destroys all the parts for Obsolete cars 10 years after the assembly line shuts down on that model.
mad_machine said:
Streetwiseguy said:
You know that's a Ford you are trying to buy parts for, right? The only compaies worse at supporting older cars are out of business.
I think Ford actually destroys all the parts for Obsolete cars 10 years after the assembly line shuts down on that model.
They raise the price of parts in stock a certain percentage every year, and when the sales of that part drop low enough, they discontinue the part.
The realist in me says that parts in inventory take up space, and (IIRC) are taxed as property, and need to pay for their upkeep somehow.
The cynic in me says, when they do finally scrap all of the old inventory, they can claim a wildly inflated number as a loss, like for instance $120 NPT fittings.
It does happen! I have a 91 Escort that is off the road due to a bad turn indicator switch. Even my junkyard searches have come up empty. I have also had to get creative on those hoses that have different size ends. PCV hose on an 03 Focus could be found, but expensive. One of those "HELP" items at the parts store was an adapter for this fix.
I am sure a lot of parts are designed to get them out of warranty! This will sometimes sweep cars from the road pretty quick. I have a Mercury Mystique that had a wiring something replaced under warranty that was just a bad part! The replacement...the same part! Next time it goes out, no warranty and the only replacement is the same defective part...if you can find it! Bad module on a 99 Escort that is not available, but kills the air conditioning by telling the computer that you are at WOT all the time. In Texas, no AC is a death knell for a car!
I may be a conspiracy guy, but I would not be surprised if certain parts are subjected to extraordinary conditions once the warranty mileage has been hit. A little extra voltage here, a little extra heat there and poof goes that part!
Just my paranoid moment!
Bruce
In reply to L5wolvesf :
WOW that is cheap. Those were $200+ in the mid 90s.
If it's anything like the turn signal switch in my early 80s Mazda (it probably is, the left half looks almost identical, as does the thrice-damned turn signal cancelling mechanism), you can disassemble them and clean up the contacts with Scotch-Brite and they'll work great again.
