Updated 07/01/06

Frequently Asked Questions:
 

Why don't shops like to have customers bring in their own parts?

There are actually two major reasons. 1) The shop labor estimates are based on the expectation of making part of their income on the parts. 2) We have no control over the quality or fitness of the parts supplied by the customer. Often the parts brought in are incorrect or of a brand and quality that we would not normally use. It is also a problem in case of possible defects or warranty claims, as the parts supplier also knows nothing about the shop who did the installation, and cannot offer often critical installation information. On the other hand, in the kinds of weird cars that many of our customers come up with, some shops give up trying to find stuff and turn the customer loose to scrounge. If you need something that we have available, your favorite mechanic is welcome to contact us and we may be able to work with them.
 

What is "NOS" ?

Parts in sale or clearance lots or for vintage cars are often described as NOS. This refers to "New Old Stock:", as distinguished from replacements or reproductions. The parts are new, usually in original packages, but have been around for awhile. They are often items that are no longer available (NLA) or no longer supplied (NLS) as fresh stock.

Do you do backorders?

Backorders are items not in stock at the time they are ordered but placed on a list to be shipped as soon as they become available. Everything listed on our parts lists was actually confirmed to be in stock at the time it was posted, and is tagged SOLD and then removed as soon as feasible when it is sold out. Many of our clearance items are no longer readily available from our current suppliers, and so backorders are not possible. Some items are currently available and could be reordered. but prices may vary. If you are interested in something that is marked SOLD or has disappeared from the posting, please inquire and we will be happy to check on current availability.
 

Who are "BDM Enterprises" and "deathmonkey.com",  who designed this website?
BDM Enterprises was originally our son, David Malki, and his best friend, Stephen Hall. They have been writing and drawing since they were little kids, and about 8th grade they came up with the phrase "Brazilian Death Monkeys" and liked the way it sounded. It has nothing to do with Brazil (except the flag is a neat design), nothing to do with death, and the only monkey involved is Albert, their stuffed orangutan, who was their mascot through middle school, high school, and college. They have used the name for various projects that they and their friends have perpetrated. David graduated from the film program at Chapman University in Orange, CA in 2002 (and won Best Student Film that year!). He is now a freelance film editor in Los Angeles,  He also writes a comic strip that is now also a book; check out www.wondermark.com
 

What's with the "Metric System"?
The "metric system" of measurement is just about the only living remnant of the French Revolution. The idea was to make a logical system of weights and measures based on something very basic: the size of the Earth. They took the best number available for the section of the Earth's circumference from the Equator to the Pole through Paris, and called 1/10,000,000 of this value "1 meter". So measurements up and down from that are in increments of 10's. And then a cube 1/10m on a side is a "liter" or "litre", (about 10% larger than a quart), units again going up and down in increments of 10's. And 1 millileter (1/1000 liter) of pure water at its maximum density is 1 gram.
This involves auto stuff in two major ways: engine displacements measured in liters; specifications quoted in millimeters, and hardware made in metric dimensions. A lot of people hate metric specs, but it isn't hard to convert with a couple of basic equivalents. On engine sizes, 100 cubic inches is 1638 cc (cubic centimeters, equivalent to milliliters) or 1.638 liters. So a 1600cc engine is very close to 100cid; and a 1.0L engine is about 61cid. (my own tickler for remembering this is that back in the late 60's, the smog requirements exempted anything under 50cid, which is 819cc. So Fiat underbored the 68-70 850's to 817cc to get under the wire.)
The easiest way to deal with length measurements is to remember that 1 inch is 25.4mm (millimeter), and 25:1 is close enough for most things. So 1/4" is just a little bigger than 6mm; 1/2" is almost 13mm; 3/4" is almost exactly 19mm. In common bolt sizes, 5/16" is just a few thousanths smaller than 8mm. So 50mm is just about 2", etc. In bearing and piston sizes, 1.0mm is very close to .040", so that a .010" undersize or oversize is .25mm, etc. And of course the easiest thing about it is that if the 6mm tool is too small, look for a 7mm or 8mm without figuring fractions.
This is all neat stuff to know if you're working on most European or Japanese cars, but there are exceptions. The Brits didn't "go metric" until 1975, and they did it the same way as the Americans: new tooling is metric, but old tooling still in use was not retooled. So most common English cars are not metric, except for things like the air cleaner bolts on the late MGB's and brake hoses on 75-up Jaguars. The other thing you run into on the earlier English cars, like MG-TC's and such, are British Standard hardware and Whitworth fasteners. These are just weird; some will kind of interchange with some inch or metric tools but don't count on it. Some Whitworth bolts may the same pitch (number of threads per inch) as a the common American bolts, but the angle on the thread is different so they don't actually interchange correctly.  Some Volvos were assembled in England during the 50's and 60's, used a lot of English and American stuff in them, and were inch spec until 75. One bit of hardware trivia: the early Nissan/Datsuns were copies of British Austins, and so you will find a lot of inch-sized hardware on the Datsuns through the 60's, and even later where early parts are used on later cars. The oil pressure switches on most Japanese cars are 1/8 BSP (British Std Pipe), which is similiar to US 1/8NPT except for a sharper taper and about 1 thread per inch finer; and both are slightly smaller and finer than 10x1.0mm. So when trying to put an accessory oil gauge onto a Japanese car, you have to find a BSP adapter or t-fitting. (We carry a t-fitting that allows you to retain the light switch.) . And the Brits went to American thread pipe sizes in the 50's and 60's!
 

Is your merchandise covered by a "Lifetime Warranty"?
A few of our product lines are covered by a manufacturer's lifetime warranty, but most of the European and Japanese manufacurers do not play the American market warranty game. Our importers will normally warranty items for periods from 90 days to a year in cases of obvious defects in manufacturing, and usually if they've done something stupid when they made the part, it will become obvious fairly quickly. The length of the warranty has no real relationship with the quality of the part; some of our most reliable brands do not advertise a warranty at all. A manufacturer's rep for a battery company told me once that their "lifetime" battery was actually a 5-year-type battery, and if someone kept the car longer and kept the paperwork, they would warranty the battery and charge it to advertising. And of course, there is always the question of defining "lifetime." Bendix, for example, used to advertise a lifetime warranty on their pads, but actually, one has to have sent in the card when the brakes were purchased to claim the warranty, and they will only replace them once. The other day a customer was telling me about the great deal he got from a discount store on a starter, and that he had gotten seven starters under warranty. Fortunately, he does most of his own repairs; I wonder if he would be so enthused about replacing it seven times if he had to pay for labor. We went through the same thing on one of my in-laws' cars: didn't think it was worth more than a cheapo alternator. After the fourth failure, we went to one of our good sources and got her a real alternator, which outlasted the car.

Why are some items "dealer items" ?
 Car manufacturers make some items in their own facilities, and only sell them through their dealer network. Typically these are body and trim items, some emission and electronic items, some switches and knobs, and other items that vary from factory to factory.  Some car companies operate a parts manufacturing subsidiary that sells items on the "aftermarket" as well as through the dealers. Examples are AC Delco (now Delphi in Europe) and Motorcraft. There are other items that the factories buy from specialized component manufacturers on exclusive contracts that do not allow the component manufacturers to sell on their own. Items that are usually available from independent sources ("aftermarket") are ones that the component manufacturer retains the rights to sell to customers other than the factories (one example is Robert Bosch electrical and fuel injection components), or repair items for which there is sufficient demand to pay an independent manufacturer to tool up and duplicate.

What do I do if I have a car whose maker is not selling cars in the US any longer?
Many companies that leave the US market maintain parts warehouses to support their customers for quite a long time, but their inventories do tend to shrink after time. Examples are Fiat, Daihatsu, Peugeot, Alfa. British Leyland, now Rover Cars, has contracted with several independent importers to warehouse factory parts in the US, through their "British Heritage" division. (We stock a pretty good assortment of the MG/TR parts, including things that were originally "dealer parts." ) And Yugos, where the whole country was discontinued (there is an embargo against any exports from what is left of Yugoslavia), fortunately were made from Fiat tooling and are similiar enough to Fiat 128's so that most parts will interchange, and many of the parts are made outside of Yugoslavia. There are independent specialty importers who source parts in Europe for many of the orphans. (Japanese orphans are pretty much dependent on the factory warehouses.) We deal with some of these, and may be able to refer you to someone if we don't have the item.

What have you wondered about the import parts business? E-mail us with your question, and we may include it here. importautosbdo@juno.com
 

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