What to do with old spare car parts taking up space
Accumulated spare car parts left sitting in the garage can become overwhelming when you have no idea how to identify their value or figure out how to get rid of them. This uncertainty leaves people stuck with a cluttered workspace and no clear way to clear out the unwanted items.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from October 2026.
- It is not one crowd: 2 people on Reddit and 1 on Stack Exchange ran into the same thing.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Selling items to a local pick n pullDid this help you?
- 2Finding a core buyer for catalytic convertersDid this help you?
- 3Scrapping leftover exhaust piecesDid this help you?
- 4Listing parts on marketplace platformsDid this help you?
- 5Throwing pads in the garbage and rotors in the recycling binDid this help you?
- 6Leaving scrap metal on the curb for scrappersDid this help you?
- 7Taking them to a scrap yard or local auto parts storeDid this help you?
- 8Giving them to a regular repair shopDid this help you?
- 9Taking them to local scrap metal yards or vehicle recyclers to drop off for freeDid this help you?
- 10Using a town transfer station's dedicated scrap metal dumpsterDid this help you?
- 11Donating them to local artists, mechanic schools, or nearby auto repair shopsDid this help you?
- 12Chopping them into smaller pieces with an angle grinder to sneak into regular trash (dangerous for pressurized parts)Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I'm not sure what to do with them at this point.”source ↗
“I tried putting the old ones in the boxes the new ones came in, and putting them in my trash can, but the City of Tulsa trash service refused to take them.”source ↗
“When I tried just googling disposal of metal, I mostly just got services that would come to you and pick it up for >$50. It doesn't seem reasonable to pay as much as the new struts cost to get rid of the old ones.”source ↗
“So how should a DIY'er dispose of old large metal car parts, like struts?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 8How to get rid of a bunch of old landscaping rock
- 5Should I sell my failing car for scrap?
- 2How do I remove debris from my car engine bay without breaking anything?
- 2Can you throw an empty fire extinguisher in the regular trash?
- 2Kitten kicking litter out of the box and making a mess