“I would probably go on a civic group on Facebook and buy it off a member.”
When is longevity and reliability a problem for a car owner? It’s one of those good problems to have, but we learn from a recent TikTok clip that cars lasting more than a quarter century can become a real headache for mechanics trying to do minor repair jobs on them.
The clip from Mark Morales, owner of Mozalez Auto Repair (@mozalez_autorepair), shows him trying to problem-solve after he’s spent some time under the hood of a 1999 Honda Civic. His problem is trying to replace a tensioner pulley on the car’s air conditioning system and finding no suitable parts available at any supplier locally.
“You can’t find it anywhere, so I’m gonna go to Tractor Supply, I’m gonna go Home Depot, Lowe’s, and see what I can find because you can’t find it anywhere,” he said in the clip that’s been viewed just over 2,100 times.
Morales explained that the pulley itself had worked loose and separated from the engine while the Civic was being driven. As Morales pointed toward the mounting location, he identified the less obvious piece holding up the repair: a spacer normally sits within the assembly, filling the distance between the pulley and its mounting point and allowing the components to line up correctly.
So, while he understood the problem, he was finding himself at a loss when it came to actually making the repair.
The missing item was a fairly simple piece of hardware, yet he couldn’t move forward with the repair without finding a piece that matched the original dimensions closely enough to fit the pulley properly.
In essence, the long-running Civic had turned a straightforward repair job into a scavenger hunt. Instead of moving directly from diagnosis to installation, Morales’s only path to a fix required him to compare measurements, search through parts diagrams, investigate used assemblies, or determine whether another application contains a compatible piece.
Viewers were happy to chime in with ideas to help solve the missing part problem.
Several recommended finding a donor Civic at a salvage yard, with one commenter suggesting that Morales pull the spacer from another 1992–2000 model using a similar engine. Another advised turning to a Civic group on Facebook, where an owner dismantling a car might have the otherwise insignificant hardware available.
Others favored fabrication: “Machine one up,” one viewer wrote.
Another commenter said a machinist could likely reproduce the piece quickly, noting that machine shops are often useful when original hardware is no longer easy to obtain.
A few viewers proposed looking beyond Honda altogether. They suggested possible substitutes from Jeep 4.0-liter engines, Isuzu NPR trucks, industrial supply catalogs, or pulley kits that include separate bushings and collars.
Those recommendations were not verified in the clip, but they reflected the kind of widespread knowledge that becomes essential when a direct replacement is not sitting on a parts-store shelf.
One viewer summed up the broader frustration, offering, “Dude this my life. I work on a lot of ‘old’ cars and its crazy how hard these parts can be to find.”
The search appears to have eventually produced a lead. PartsGeek commented on the video, prompting an enthusiastic response from the shop.
“Yes @Parts Geek for the win!!!!” Morales replied.
The exchange didn’t make clear the nature of the solution, but it showed that there’s value in widening a search beyond the suppliers he would normally use for a routine repair.
Morales’ moderately wild goose chase for a part is likely to become more commonplace as Americans keep their vehicles longer. S&P Global Mobility found that the average vehicle on U.S. roads reached a record 12.8 years old in 2025, while the average passenger car is even older at 14.5 years.
That creates additional business for repair shops and parts suppliers, but an aging fleet does not guarantee that every component remains readily available. The aftermarket is generally strongest for frequently replaced items with broad demand.
Manufacturing and marketing a specialized spacer, bracket, collar, or piece of mounting hardware may be an unattractive business proposition for manufacturers, who’d rather sell the larger assembly containing the part at a much higher price point.
That leaves mechanics with a growing contradiction: More cars are remaining repairable for longer, but completing some jobs requires increasingly creative detective work.
Motor1 reached out to Morales via direct message and phone call. We’ll update this if they respond.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motor1.com?
– The Motor1.com Team