Squealing brakes and the sound of motor vehicles colliding can occur at any time of day. Luckily on many of these occasions the only injuries are to the automobiles. Not only are the owners of the cars having a bit of luck, this may be a golden moment for you as well.

When autos are totaled, this means that the insurance companies will write them off as a loss. They will pay the insured owners the money that is due them and then they get rid of the vehicles. Sometimes the cars are sold to salvage yards, and sometimes they head to auctions where they are sold with titles, or certification, that verifies them as being salvage vehicles. These cars can even end up belonging to the wrecker companies that hauled them off. For savvy individuals, these collision vehicles can be a cheap way of fixing their own automobiles.

You can purchase an entire vehicle to use as parts or you can get one or two parts that you need. Today you can find salvage yards advertised online and in the yellow pages. Many salvage operations will check other companies for you if you are looking for an unusual or rare part and they will even get your part ordered. You can then pick it up in person or have it delivered. The delivery fee can be fairly expensive, so always try to pick up your parts if possible.

If you have had reason to buy parts for a car lately you realize how expensive they can be. An alternator for a Chevy short bed truck that is 15 years old can easily be $100-$150 or more. You can choose to find a rebuilt one but may only save $20-$30 in the process. However you can find practically new alternators that will fit your small truck at salvage yards and automobile junkyards on a daily basis.

These salvage alternators may only cost $50 -$80 and if you are willing to go and pull the part you need off of the vehicle you might save even more. If you have some tools and a little mechanical ability and knowledge, this is the best deal of all. The biggest advantage to using these salvage parts is that sometimes the vehicle that you are stripping for parts only has a few hundred miles on the odometer. This means that any usable parts you find are practically new. You will be able to get a lot of use from them for a very low price.

Totaled vehicles that are sent to a salvage facility often have an array of perfectly usable and undamaged parts. Rear end collisions may total out the car for a loss, but the door panels, interior seats and front of the car could be relatively unscathed. You might even find low mileage engines and radiators in these vehicles at half the price of rebuilt or new parts.

Likewise, a side collision will still leave many auto parts undamaged. You can find radios, CD players, brake components, wheels headlights, and motors for electric windows, windshield wipers, alternators, tires and seats that can be used for your car, van or truck. There is always a good chance that you will be able to find parts that you can use to replace your own that match perfectly. Front end collisions may destroy the engine, but again you can find like new parts on the undamaged portion of the vehicle, and side panels, rear windshields and mufflers may still be untouched.

The key factor that you must remember is to make sure that you are looking for the correct part by year and model. If the part you are replacing has numbers, always be certain that the numbers match. Any time that there is any question about the type of auto part you need you can check auto catalogues or online lists to find the number and description for the correct item. Many of the junkyard owners have computer systems and resource books that they will use to help you find what you need.

If you order the wrong part from a salvage yard or if you pull a motor that does not fit your car, you will not be able to just return it. Many of these companies operate on a sold as is policy and once you have the part in your possession you have to pay the money for it because it is now yours. Be sure and find out if there are any types of returns or exchanges at the salvage yard you are going to use.

Have you ever wondered why semi trucks use diesel engines and not gas engines? The answer is because diesel engines are more efficient, and they last longer.

A regular gas engine is powered be a controlled explosion of gasoline, which is ignited by a spark plug. Diesel engines don’t have spark plugs. They are powered by high air pressure combustion. Diesel fuel burns, while gasoline explodes. This allows for better fuel economy, as well as lower emissions.

Diesel engines are good for hauling large amounts of weight because the torque is higher than gasoline engines. The higher torque allows for a smoother start from a stop position, as well as the ability to pull the load at lower RPMs. (Revolutions Per Minute) The combustion engine also has less wear and tear, and a diesel engine will last much longer than a gasoline engine.

There are a few drawbacks to having a diesel engine, which may have contributed to their lack of use in cars in the United States. They can be hard to start in cold weather, which is why they have glow plugs installed. When the engine block and cylinder heads are extremely cold, they absorb the heat of the air compression, not allowing the fuel to combust. Glow plugs are small electric heaters inside the pre-chamber which allow the diesel fuel to combust. In many cold weather climates diesel engines are equipped with an “Engine Block Heater”, which prevents this problem from occurring.

Diesel engines equipped with an engine block heater have an electrical plug located inside the front grill. Just plug it in to an electrical outlet, and the engine will start easily in cold weather.  Also, the fuel can become thick and clog up fuel lines in extreme cold weather. This is called “gelling”. When this happens, you may have to wait for warmer weather, or push the vehicle (if possible) inside a garage and wait for the fuel to un gel.

Another unpopular feature of the diesel engine is the noise it produces. Diesel engines tend to be much louder than gasoline engines.

However, diesel engines produce much less carbon dioxide than gasoline engines, and most diesel engines can run on vegetable oil with little or no modifications, and they can also run on Bio diesel, which is a type of refined vegetable oil.

Diesel engines are in most semi trucks, and trucks are what transport goods from the manufacturer to the stores where you buy them.

Diesel engines are also popular in farm equipment, due to their durability and efficiency. Farmers in the United States can purchase “farm diesel” which is a cheaper diesel fuel that has a higher sulfur content.

Military trucks, whose dependability could be the difference between life and death because they are vital in delivering supplies to the front lines, use diesel engines, as did many of the first submarines.

Most buses have diesel engines. Busses are used daily and rack up lots of miles, so the durability and fuel economy of a diesel engine is an attractive feature.

The diesel engine today is a little thought of but important component to our infrastructure. The next time you shop at your local grocery store, remember the food you are buying there was probably farmed and delivered to the store by vehicles with a diesel engine.

Hi All, this online journal will be focussed on the use of salvaged autos. That is the rebuilding of cars, the stripping of totalled cars for useable spare parts and the regulatory framework governing this activity. We will not be giving advise on this matters, but we might write about everything .