What's the most you've paid for a core charge?

"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile)
10/22/2018 at 10:01 • Filed to: oppo questions

I ask, because a core of $268 on a $130 part is.... fairly substantial, I would think.

(Ranger/Sport Trac trans control module by Motorola)

DISCUSSION (23)

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/22/2018 at 10:07

Don’t know, never paid a core charge, I always have the old part out before I go pickup the new part.

IIRC the core charge on the axles for my vehicles was something like $75, on a $50 axle, but again, never paid one.

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness
10/22/2018 at 10:11

Axles sound about right. So much of them tend to be difficult to machine compared to the small amount that actually needs to be replaced by the rebuild.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
10/22/2018 at 10:14

Surprisingly, that was on the reman units.

The new ones did not have a core charge IIRC.

Either way, remans are the only way to go on 90s Mopar, the new units use a smaller diameter shaft prone to breaking under hard use.........Ask me how I know.

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness
10/22/2018 at 10:15

When it comes to breaking your shaft in a mopar , I think we all trust your experience :P

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles
10/22/2018 at 10:17

Especially when we’re talking smaller shafts........

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness
10/22/2018 at 10:17

The thing here is that local parts houses not only charge the $200 minimum imposed by Dorman, but also don’t have it in stock and charge far more for the part. So, the fiscal advantage of not having to pay a core charge in this case is... not there, really. Not in the context of getting it - time being money and money being time.

I hopefully got the last one in the batch at Whitney (was showing as 1 left), and Summit and JEGS are showing as over a week lead even with a $200 core charge. These things are hard to come by, other than used Ford OEM on eBay. Read: risky, unknown condition, still fragile from stock and not fresh inside - electronics nearly 20 years old.

I paid a core charge for a power steering pump at RockAuto a while back. $25, process was pretty painless. I also paid a $20 core on a $20 pair of calipers at RockAuto that I never got refunded... because I didn’t try, because I was putting the calipers on a project car that never had calipers in the first place and junkyard hunting was not worth the $20 to me.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/22/2018 at 10:21

Parts houses around here will order parts in without paying in advance.

I too generally just get it from RA as I can usually get the part+core for less than the part would cost at the local parts houses, so I usually don’t bother sending the core back.

Urambo Tauro > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/22/2018 at 10:26

I’ve never purchased any reman/rebuilt items through the mail. I try to always do that stuff locally instead. Walk in with the old part, walk out with the “new” one. Never had to pay for a core up front.

Except for one time, when I upgraded my brakes. Couldn’t turn in the old single-piston calipers as a core for my new dual-piston calipers. So that cost me an extra $50 per caliper, and I had to find another way to dispose of the old one s.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/22/2018 at 10:40

I think I had to pay $10 0 core charge for a $120 brake caliper, but that is the worst that I can think of.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness
10/22/2018 at 10:43

Our parts houses will often order in without paying in advance, but in this case, the arrival date of the part was an open question. Therefore, the only advantage to local parts house order vs. Summit would be less money laid out overall and temporary (maybe), but with more money laid out in the final reckoning, assured, and not by a small margin . *A ssuming that the core is refunded*, this is the best overall mix of schedule, cost, part support, and expected reliability/fixing it once.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Urambo Tauro
10/22/2018 at 10:46

I totally commiserate on the calipers, except for much less money. The Ranchero has a ScareBird disc conversion kit that required Celebrity calipers, which I just had to eat the core on. Rebuild stuff through the mail is something I try to avoid, but I’ve done it successfully via RockAuto, and in this case, the price difference is yuge, and the local parts house availability and lead time is worse, so...

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
10/22/2018 at 10:51

I can definitely imagine a small count part with high-quality machining and cheap wear parts like a specialty caliper running that high. In the case of the part I just ordered, apparently Dorman are short as hell on cores - only explanation I can think of for them enforcing a $200 charge with everybody. What happens (as I gather from my dad) is that the actuator motor in the transfer case goes bad and fries the contacts in the relay on the module, and it’s an oddball relay that’s soldered onto the board. Something that’s enough of a trouble part that Dorman has a whole rebuild infrastructure for it, but... not enough people are supplying cores.

Takuro Spirit > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/22/2018 at 10:55

$2000 for an engine core.

But I work in parts so it’s not abnormal to see for me .

The fun ones are the ones that exceed the price of the part, though. They must REALLY need cores back to rebuild.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Takuro Spirit
10/22/2018 at 11:01

Yep, I can see that for an engine core, and I might ought to have excluded them. I think Turner charges something like that for Rover four-banger cores, and there was (presumably) a hefty charge when my dad got a Jasper unit for an Astro a while back. Engines and trans are about the only thing I can think of with cores on that level, but I think in a lot of cases a home mechanic won’t ever be paying the charge, as they can order the longblock or shortblock, go to the parts house with the core, and walk out with fresh.

In my example case for the post here (something I ordered this morning), a core charge exceeding the cost of a used part by four times is straight up wackballs.

Urambo Tauro > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/22/2018 at 11:02

Yeah, my brother had to get some fresh calipers for his Saab through RA, and the process went smoothly. Only thing I didn’t like about it was the wait time. I don’t usually encounter problems with rebuilt /reman parts , but there’s always th at possibility , and the local parts store’s turnaround is usually just a day or two (sometimes same-day if I get there early enough) . But yeah, I could be swayed to deal with t he shipping time(s) if t he price difference was substantial.

dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/22/2018 at 11:07

Excuse my ignorance, but what even is a core charge?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford
10/22/2018 at 11:19

You buy a part, but either because new supply is limited or it’s a remanufactured part from a stock of old, remade parts, they charge you a deposit. The deposit is refundable, contingent on you bringing back in an old, dead version of the part that is not completely wrecked (sawed in half, previously set on fire, etc.). This is most common with parts that only were made for a number of years for a given model and that would be very expensive to tool up to make new versions of, but which fail in ways that can be fixed easily.

The most classic example of this is brake calipers. The slide bolts wear out, the seals go bad, the pistons sometimes corrode... but all those things are way cheaper for a remanufacturer to replace with fresh parts than to get a quality high-nickel cast for a new caliper and machine something like eight surfaces on. The machined surfaces and body of the caliper aren’t what fails... usually.

Therefore, the cheapest whole part that can be reproduced is a factory casting that has been cleaned, coated, polished, rebuilt with new parts, and reissued - but there’s a catch. If they sell you one, that’s one they won’t ever see again. That’s a part they won’t be able to sell in future, because unlike with completely new parts they can’t just keep rolling to match demand. If you throw your caliper on the junk heap, that’s not something they can turn into money.

So, to keep the reman circle of life flowing, they say “well, the price of the part is x, but the core charge is y”. If you want to be a dick and hurt their ability to reman in future by not bringing them something that’s worth money to them , the price is x+y. If you are going to be a good-guy-greg and enable them to make a cheap part and help some poor sucker down the line, the price is x, because they will refund y or simply not charge it if you come to the store with your dead version in hand.

Everybody wins... mostly. Up until the remanufacturer is having such a hard time getting cores that they move (as in my example) from basically cajoling to nearly *threatening* people to get fresh ones.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Takuro Spirit
10/22/2018 at 12:11

I definitely have you beat there. And yes, it very much is “we absolutely need cores to rebuild.”

Mitsubishi 3000GT ECM, toward end of production. $2000 core charge. $920 part charge.

Pre-1/1/86 Dodge Daytona C/S Saginaw 12:1 power steering rack. $1200-1500 core charge if you can find it , $250-300 part.

But the winner? Chrysler 04762697. $4,000 core charge when available.

dtg11 - is probably on an adventure with Clifford > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/22/2018 at 12:13

okay, that makes sense. Thank you for fantastic explanation!

Takuro Spirit > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks
10/22/2018 at 12:16

I was excited but then: MOPAR NO LONGER SUPPLIES THIS PART

Zaxbys > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/22/2018 at 12:35

I had a friend replace the battery in a 2nd Gen Prius. $1k for the battery and $1k for the core.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Takuro Spirit
10/22/2018 at 14:50

NOBODY supplies that part. Best damn K-block transmission, even threw it in Minivans, and they barely even made enough to cover service demand.

Kinja'd!!!

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/22/2018 at 15:07

It makes a lot of sense on something like an ECU. Generally you’ll have a single $2 component go bad, maybe some corroded connector pins or cracked soldered joints... We’ll say $20 to repair a component that may cost $500 to manufacture. It’s definitely in their best interest to ensure a supply of parts they can fix for a big return and still sell cheap enough that people will buy them instead of scrapping the car. ECUs are pretty reliable units, so by the time one wears out due to age (or the OEM’s patents expire) , the car itself may not be worth the cost of a new ECU, so there's not much market for them.