Ecology Auto Parts

Heads up: while you can use card to pay for parts that you find, the entrance fee is $ 2 – 3 CASH
On the recommendation of a friendly O’Reilly Auto Parts guy, I visited Ecology to replace a teeny tiny broken plastic connector on my Silverado’s tailgate latch. Rather than paying GM $ 100 and waiting a week for an entire new latch, I found exactly what I was looking for at the junk yard and fixed it myself same day. Good as new!

We called and were quoted a price for salvage like another reviewer said but were given 50 dollars less then promised. Basically they get your car out of tow then drive around you around the corner then the tow driver writes you out a check, using the tow fee excuse. Keep that in mind when considering a quote. Was hung up on twice after calling them back after a quick conversation with my son about the fees, but when I called on a different line, she was sweet as pie. Very shady business practices…

HORRIBLE customer service. All those girls in the office need to get off their high horse and be more civil to the customers. Remember those people that you are treating like 2^nd class citizens are paying your salary.

Terrible costomer service, I’m even wring this review on the damn phone waiting in line only asking a question, the dumb bitch couldnt help but be rudly lazy and told me to go to the text window, I could have been off with my price quote but that fat cunt in the office trailer has no buissines ethics, in my book thats a fuckin write up,

My go to junk yard they have it all for us cars …
The years. Toll the body so refresh your mind and body you can roll back the years here

The cleanest best organized auto recycling yard in southern California. I Visit yards from Chula Vista (Today5/​22/​15) to LA on a weekly basis. Oceanside Ecology is the best. This yard is known for older cars but I was pleasantly surprised to find many very new cars in the yard. I also like the great selection of almost new tires and batteries for sale at reasonable prices. I often find cool items in this yard like vintage licence plate frames grill badges and emblems. The staff is friendly, and the yard guys will help you any way they can. The girls working the cashiers desk are very knowledgeable and friendly making this yard my favorite out of all the yards I travel to.
Safe yard
Clean yard
staff actually is helpful
Well organized
Selection seems to be getting BETTER with newer cars
I love being treated like a real person and a valued customer!

I had a problem getting the correct wheel for my car and since it was the same price to find one off the lot the manager Veronica allowed me to pick another. Thank you Veronica! I exchanged the old wheel with a good condition wheel that fits perfectly.

$ 25 for a light cover. Cheaper if you buy a new one. The prices should be posted in front so we know when we’re being taken advantage of.

Worst experience dealing with Ecology on the phone to buy a vehicle. Was quoted one price, called back and they refused to honor it.
Spoke with a manager and was basically told «so».

Awful customer service. The girl who works there is absolutely rude and uncaring about any of the patrons. They have several unresolved BBB complaints, which just shows how much they care.

Many people on here are commenting that they dont have in inventory list so you can’t find your parts. This is a pick and pull junkyard. That means you go there, pay $ 2 to enter, and walk around the acreage to find your own parts. I don’t think I would ever trust a junkyard that kept in inventory that intricate, seeing as the turnover for cars is so quick (new cars almost daily). You don’t pay by the brand of the car part, you pay a flat rate for what the car part is. That’s pretty badass to me. If you don’t have the time and patience to find your own parts, go somewhere else and leave the parts for me. I really appreciate the good prices.

Just returned from Ecology Auto Wrecking. If you plan on going, you should know before you go the odds of them having a vehicle you may need a part from is about a 2% chance… I should have saved myself the time and money walking the entire compound ($ 2.00 entrance fee). The cars are mostly pre 95’s and not a very good selection to boot. It was my first and last visit to the rip-​off-​yard…

Great way to get rid of your POS — er, junk — car.
My hubby’s crappy old Pathfinder was not able to be sold to a private party because the check engine light was on, and therefore it would not be smogable. We would have had to shell out $ 1000 to repair it in order to sell it (no thanks!) so we opted to junk it instead.
I submitted the form online. It was quick, didn’t ask a lot of questions. Then I got an email offer for $ 450 soon after. I called to accept and all they wanted to know what’s if the car drives, has air in its tires, has major body damage, and color. I gave them the VIN and license plate and that was it!
They came and towed the car two days after I got the offer online. The driver was very friendly and paid me in cash which was awesome. Very painless! And they took care of the paperwork. The towing and everything was included, so I got the entire $ 450.
So glad to have had this option as we did not want to deal with fixing up a crappy car and then going through the process of selling it. Ecology was great to deal with and they offered me $ 160 more than
did.

Know how to turn a wrench and know what you’re looking for when you get here. Learn how to walk the sections and know which yard you’re looking for when you get here. I’d say they have a reasonable selection of older vehicles up to about early 2000’s. After that you’re looking at vehicles that are likely still on the road, or didn’t survive the cash for clunkers ordeal.
This place will not hold your hand, it’s a yard full of vehicles in various states of decay. If you’re the kind of person who will just show up to remove a tail light, you better know how to open a trunk with no internal escape latch when you realize there’s no way to open the trunk without a trunk popper. It’s that level of problem solving that you really have to understand when you go to places like these, and yes. I take issue with some of the 1 star reviews on here with people who obviously don’t understand how auto wreckers operate.
Bring a haynes or chiltons or a factory service manual, and make sure you bring a dolly or a wagon for your tools. It’ll help when you’re tired from pushing and pulling and lifting all of the parts that you’ll need to move to get to parts that you need.
Also there’s never any guarantee that any of these parts will work. I believe Ecology lets you pay a deposit for a warranty or take it as is. I’ve been in situations where I’ve utilized the warranty and have been in situations where I didn’t pay for it and things were fine. YMMV.
Just be smart about how you do things here and you’ll be fine.

I doubt very seriously that anyone at Ecology cares about Unilocal but I want to let my fellow Unilocalers know what to expect at the auto wrecking yard.
Entry — $ 2.00 and your tool bags will be checked at the entrance.
Attire: Must have closed toe shoes.
Parking: street parking. Careful, some of the ‘No parking any time’ signs are hidden; they will ticket and tow in the area.
You need all your own tools, cart etc because they don’t have anything to borrow.
There are some great finds at ecology but you have to know what you are looking for and then be wiling to do the work to strip it off the cars.
The workers at the entry seemed friendly but most of the other people we encountered lacked manners or courtesy. Maybe they don’t expect to see 2 girls go beast mode cutting sheet metal :-)
If its raining hard they give a good discount to anyone crazy enough to do their grunt work in the rain.
Today was ½ price day which they have every 3 or 4 months. Truthfully, I’m not sure if the prices were marked up in order to mark them down. I think my husband got better prices for similar items about a month ago.
Plan on getting dirty.

The young lady on the phone was nice, the man in the parts section that i got forwarded to was not helpful and had no idea what cars in the lot. If a vehicle log was established it would save me and others time in our day from searching for a car thats not there, making the experience less of a hassel would be great

I stopped in here this morning to pick up a few hard to find pieces for my truck. Decent selection of vehicles. They are somewhat arranged by make and model. Everything is easily accessible, so getting the parts off only took a few minutes. I found the few pieces that I needed and they let me have them for free. They were just dumb little plastic pieces that I broke on the windshield wipers. I saw a few other things that I wanted to pick up, but I didn’t have the right tools with me. I’ll stop by later on this week and grab them.
All-​in-​all, not a bad place.

Decent stock of cars, okay prices… Not cheap, but better than anywhere else… Bring cash, your own tools, and wear normal shoes! They will not let you in with flip flops ladies…

Omg the service there is horrible! Especially the two girls working the cash register in the front, they are so rude and have a bad attitude.

Just got home after walking the entire yard. All attempts to call this place resulted in the phone being picked up and hung up immediately. As already stated they have no inventory, but I can break it down easy for those interested.
85% Domestic with most models being early 90’s to late 90’s. Anything over 2000 is not going to be here. At best 5% of domestic models where «newer».
–As for imports that leaves the other 15% of the inventory.
Not much for inventory unless you yet again are looking for older models.
Most common was the 93 and down camry and also later model tercels.
A few accords and civics but not much.
Saw a couple eclipses.
All in all if you have a 86 – 96 model domestic car this a good place to pull parts, but other than that enjoy the rust and the slum.