If you’re a weekend mechanic in southern Minnesota chasing down forward car lift parts for a two-post lift you picked up used, you’ve probably already hit the same wall a lot of our customers hit: half the listings online are new-old-stock at a premium, and the other half are salvaged parts of unknown history. We’re Auto Lift Services, an Iowa-based lift installer and parts distributor, and we field calls almost every week from guys doing brake service and rotor swaps in their own garage who just want a straight answer on whether a used part is a smart buy or a gamble. This checklist is built from those actual conversations.
Give us the model and serial number and we’ll tell you what’s available new, and whether a used option even makes sense for that lift.
Start With the Serial Number, Not the Part Number Someone Else Gave You
Every parts conversation we’ve ever had that went smoothly started the same way: someone read us the model and serial number off the lift’s data tag before asking about forward car lift parts. Every conversation that dragged on for weeks started with someone guessing. We’ve had customers call in convinced they needed a particular cable or sheave assembly, only to find out once we pulled the serial number that the lift was a different generation than they thought, with different hardware entirely.
For a home garage doing brake and rotor work on a Forward lift, this matters twice as much, because older Forward models sometimes share a chassis with a part number that changed slightly between production runs. If you’re shopping used forward car lift parts on a classifieds site or at a swap meet, the seller usually can’t tell you which exact variant fits your lift, only that it “came off a Forward lift.” That’s not good enough when you’re about to trust that part to hold a vehicle in the air while you’re underneath it with a caliper in your hand. Write down the serial number, take a photo of the data tag, and have that ready before you call anyone, us included. It’s the single fastest way to know if a used part will actually bolt on, or if you’re about to waste a Saturday and some money finding out it doesn’t.
Cables, Sheaves, and Chains: Where Used Can Work
Not every component deserves the same scrutiny. Cables, sheaves, and chain assemblies are mechanical wear items, and if a used one is in good condition with no fraying, flat spots, or stretched links, it can be a perfectly reasonable buy, especially if you’re trying to keep a hobby budget under control. We’ve walked customers through inspecting these parts over the phone plenty of times: check for kinks, check for rust pitting on cable strands, and check that a chain hasn’t stretched beyond spec, which you can usually eyeball by comparing link spacing across the length of the chain.
Where we get cautious is when a customer tells us the used chain or cable came off a lift that failed for an unknown reason. We’ve seen service calls where a fluid line or cable assembly got pinched during a lift cycle and tore into a reservoir, and the shop had no idea it had happened until they saw the damage. If a used part’s history includes any kind of failure event, don’t gamble on it holding up under a vehicle in your garage. For everyday wear parts with clean, known history, used forward car lift parts are often a smart middle ground between new pricing and unknown risk.
Cylinders and Hydraulic Components: Lean New or Rebuilt
Hydraulic cylinders are where we push most home garage customers toward new or professionally rebuilt over used. A cylinder that looks fine externally can have internal seal wear, scoring, or contamination you simply can’t see without tearing it down, and a leaking or sticking cylinder under a vehicle mid-brake-job is not where you want to discover a problem. We do cylinder rebuild and reseal work regularly, and it’s usually a more predictable cost than buying a used cylinder of unknown condition and hoping.
If you’re doing rotor swaps that require lifting and holding a vehicle steady for extended periods, a compromised cylinder is one of the worst places to cut corners. We’ve had commercial accounts request itemized quotes that separate cylinder rebuild costs from labor specifically because they wanted to understand what they were paying for on this exact component, and that same logic applies at home. Ask any seller of used forward car lift parts for the cylinder’s service history, and if they can’t provide it, budget for new or rebuilt instead. It’s a small upcharge for a part that’s directly responsible for not dropping a vehicle on you.
Lead Times Are the Hidden Cost of Going Used
One thing hobbyist mechanics in southern Minnesota consistently underestimate is how long backordered parts can take, whether new or used. We’ve had cases where a specific gear or drive component was on a month-long wait from the manufacturer, and that’s for a part actively in production. Used parts can sometimes ship faster since they’re already sitting somewhere, but tracking one down that actually fits your specific lift generation can eat just as much calendar time as waiting on a factory order.
If your lift is down and you’re mid-project on a vehicle, that timeline matters. We always recommend calling around on availability before committing to either route, and being honest with yourself about whether you can afford the lift being out of service for a few weeks. A lift sitting broken with a vehicle stuck in the air, or worse, a vehicle you can’t safely lower, is a much bigger problem than spending a little more up front on a part you know is in stock. Sourcing forward car lift parts through a distributor who can check real-time availability saves you the guesswork of chasing used listings that may or may not pan out.
Freight, Fit, and What Arrives at Your Door
Even after you’ve decided on used versus new, there’s a logistics step people forget: how the part actually gets to your garage and whether it arrives correctly. Larger components like reservoirs, hydraulic units, or full arm assemblies often ship freight, not parcel, and that means questions about whether you have a way to unload a pallet, similar to the freight questions we field on full lift installs. For a home garage, that might mean arranging help or having a friend with a truck and a lift gate on standby.
We’ve also seen situations where a part shows up and the model number stamped on the actual unit doesn’t match what was ordered, because older equipment sometimes got field-swapped with a slightly different part at some point in its life. That’s another reason the serial number check matters upfront. When you order through us, we cross-reference the part against your lift’s actual documented specs before it ships, which cuts down on the back-and-forth of returns and re-orders that eats into your weekend project time.
When a Rebuild Beats Buying Parts At All
Sometimes the honest answer to a parts question isn’t used or new, it’s neither, because a full rebuild of the assembly makes more sense than piecing together individual components. If you’re staring at a cable, a sheave, and a reservoir all showing wear at once, buying each piece separately, used or new, can end up costing more in time and shipping than getting a rebuild kit or having someone walk you through a complete overhaul in one pass.
We’ve quoted jobs for commercial accounts that itemized sheaves and cylinder rebuilds separately because their procurement process required it, and that same breakdown is useful for a home garage trying to decide where the money should go. If your lift is older and multiple systems are showing age at the same time, ask us for a full assessment rather than guessing part by part. It’s often the difference between fixing the problem once and chasing forward car lift parts every few months as the next component fails.
Our Pre-Purchase Checklist, Summed Up
Before you buy anything, run through this: confirm the model and serial number off the actual data tag, inspect any used wear item (cable, chain, sheave) for visible damage or stretch, treat hydraulic cylinders as new-or-rebuilt-only unless you have documented service history, check realistic lead times for both used and new before committing, plan for freight logistics if the part is large, and consider whether a full rebuild beats a pile of individual replacements. That’s the same process we walk customers through on the phone, and it applies whether you’re in southern Minnesota, central Iowa, or anywhere in between.
Forward car lift parts aren’t one-size-fits-all when it comes to used versus new, and the right call depends on which component you’re replacing and what history you can actually verify. Wear items with clean histories are reasonable used buys. Hydraulic and safety-critical components deserve new or rebuilt. And when in doubt, a five-minute call with the serial number in hand will save you more time than an afternoon of scrolling listings hoping something fits.
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