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Self-service is cheaper and suits bolt-on parts you can reach: mirrors, trim, seats, alternators, wheels. Bring your own tools and expect to crawl. Full-service is the answer for engines, transmissions, doors and anything you would rather not drop on yourself, and the staff usually test and clean the part first. Ask which style the yard runs before you drive out, because the two are not interchangeable.
Body panels, glass, mirrors, lights, interior trim, seats, wheels, and mechanical assemblies that either work or do not: starters, alternators, engines, transmissions, differentials, modules coded to your car. What is not worth it is anything that wears as a consumable or fails with age, such as brake pads, belts, hoses, filters and most rubber. Airbags and seatbelt parts are their own question and many yards will not sell them.
Full-service yards usually give a short guarantee on tested mechanical parts, and self-service yards usually sell as-is or offer an extra fee to cover a return. Either way the labor to fit it is yours, which is the real cost if the part fails. Ask what the return window is, whether it is exchange or refund, and whether you need the tag that was on the part when you bought it.
The title in your name, photo identification, and the keys if you have them. A yard that will take a car with no title is a yard to be careful with, because until ownership transfers the car is still yours on paper. Ask for a bill of sale, and check whether your state DMV wants a release of liability filed. Do that the same day; tickets and towing charges follow the registered owner.
They come out before anything else. Fuel, oil, coolant, brake fluid, the battery, mercury switches in older cars and the air conditioning refrigerant all have to be captured rather than left to drain, and refrigerant such as R-134a is recovered with a machine, not vented. A yard that is doing this properly looks organised: sealed drums, a depollution bay, cars stacked after they are drained rather than before.
