Packing Car Parts for Sea Freight: A Checklist

A container is not gentle. It is lifted by crane, stacked, and moved for weeks by a ship that rolls. Parts that were fine when the doors closed arrive broken for entirely predictable reasons, and almost all of them are avoidable.

1. Drain the fluids

Engines, gearboxes, axles, power steering racks and whole vehicles must be drained. This is a shipping requirement rather than a preference, and it is also self-interested: oil that escapes in transit ruins whatever it lands on, and in a mixed load that is somebody else's goods as well as yours.

2. Crate or palletise anything heavy

An engine on a pallet, strapped down and ideally in a frame, arrives. An engine sitting loose on the container floor moves, and something it hits does not arrive. The same goes for gearboxes, axles and subframes. Palletising also means the unit can be moved with a forklift at the far end instead of by four people and a hope.

3. Blank off anything open

Intake and exhaust ports, oil galleries, hydraulic unions. Tape, caps or plugs. It keeps moisture, dust and debris out during a voyage where condensation inside a steel box is guaranteed.

4. Panels and glass

Painted panels scuff against each other, so wrap them individually and separate them with cardboard or foam. Stand them on edge rather than stacking them flat — a flat stack concentrates the whole weight on the bottom panel, which is the one that arrives dented. Glass and light units want a rigid box and enough padding that nothing can press on a corner.

5. Label everything, and match it to the packing list

This is the one that decides whether an arrival is smooth or a three-week argument. Every crate, pallet and loose item gets a label. Every label matches a line on the packing list. Record part numbers and engine or gearbox codes on the list, not just descriptions — "engine" is not an identification, and if there is a dispute about what was in the box, the packing list is the evidence.

6. Load the container so nothing can move

Heavy low, light high. Fill voids rather than leaving gaps, because a gap is somewhere for the load to build up momentum. Brace and strap. If you have a vehicle in the load, pack the loose parts around it — that is both the most stable arrangement and the cheapest use of the space, which is the whole point of consolidation.

7. Photograph the load before the doors close

Costs nothing, takes two minutes, and settles almost every argument that can arise about condition or contents at the far end. Photograph individual crates as they are packed and the whole load before sealing.

What actually causes disputes

In practice, very little damage comes from the sea. It comes from loose heavy items moving, from panels stacked flat, and above all from unlabelled parts that nobody can match to the paperwork on arrival. Get the labelling right and most of the risk disappears.

We pack, label and document export orders as standard. See export destinations or read the paperwork guide.