How to junk a car in Chicago

How do you junk a car in Chicago?

To junk a car in Chicago, find the title or whatever papers you have, get an offer with the year, make, model and condition, and agree where the truck can load it. At pickup you hand over the papers, get paid, then pull the plates and send them to the Secretary of State or move them to another car.

That’s the whole job. Here it is in the order it happens, with the spots where people get caught out.

1. Find the title, or make a list of whatever papers exist. Check the glovebox and wherever the car’s mail ends up. If the title is gone, write down what you do have: a registration card, the bill of sale from when you bought it, an insurance card. Whether those are enough for a scrap sale is up to Illinois law, not to you or us, so tell us which papers you have and we’ll confirm on the call before anything is booked. Which papers a junk car sale needs sets out Illinois and Indiana side by side.
2. Write down the car’s details. Year, make, model and the VIN, which you can read through the windshield at the bottom of the dash and on the driver’s door jamb. Then what’s wrong with it and what’s missing. A stolen catalytic converter or a pulled engine changes the car a buyer is getting, so say so up front; the parts buyers look for explains why.
3. Get an offer, then ask two questions about it. Does any towing charge come off the number? And when, and how, do you get paid? Those two answers tell you more about a buyer than the number does. What each kind of buyer needs from you compares yards, private buyers and pickup buyers, and it helps to know the tricks some yards pull at the curb before you say yes. To get a number from us, send the car’s details; the tow is free and the offer doesn’t expire.
4. Agree where the truck will load it. Street, driveway, alley, garage, or a lot that belongs to someone else. Chicago streets come with their own deadlines, covered below.
5. Empty the car. Glovebox, trunk, door pockets, under the seats. Peel the I-PASS transponder off the windshield and grab the garage remote and any parking permit. Whatever’s inside when the car goes on the truck leaves with it.
6. Swap the papers and keys for payment. Payment happens at the car, before it leaves: cash, a Zelle or Cash App transfer, or another digital payment. Lost the keys? We buy cars without them. Mention it when you call so the truck comes ready.
7. Take the plates off. They stay off the car: Illinois wants them, and the stickers, returned to the Secretary of State or moved to another vehicle. Then call your insurer and take the car off the policy.

Which papers does a Chicago junk car sale need?

Start with the title, because Illinois law is built around it. Under 625 ILCS 5/3-117.1, whoever holds a junk vehicle has 15 days to surrender its title (or a salvage certificate, certificate of purchase or acceptable out-of-state ownership document) to the Secretary of State with an application for a junking certificate. Once that’s issued, the car is never titled again.

Scrap processors, the scrap yards at the end of the line, work under a tighter rule. Section 5/5-401.3 says a processor “shall not acquire” a vehicle without one of a listed set of ownership papers: a certificate of title, salvage certificate, junking certificate, junking manifest, uniform invoice, certificate of purchase, or “other similar documentary proof of ownership”. From a seller without a dealer license, the processor also records ID from two sources, one of them a driver’s license or state ID card.

So when the title has gone missing, don’t guess and don’t let anyone tell you paper doesn’t matter. Give us the list and we’ll tell you on the call whether the sale can go ahead. Selling with no title or no keys goes through the options. A car parked across the state line in Northwest Indiana falls under Indiana’s rule instead, and the paperwork guide covers that too.

Where can the truck load a junk car in Chicago?

A dead car on a Chicago street is already on the city’s clock. The City of Chicago’s 311 abandoned-vehicle data page lists what can get a vehicle classed as abandoned, and any one of these is enough:

• it sits on the public way “in a state of disrepair and incapable of being driven”
• it hasn’t been moved for more than seven consecutive days and looks deserted
• it’s been left on the public way without state registration for two or more days
• it’s a hazardous, dilapidated vehicle in full view, on public or private property

The city does tow abandoned vehicles, along with illegally parked ones. Then winter adds a second deadline. From December 1 to April 1, parking is banned from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. on 107 miles of signed arterial streets, snow or no snow, and cars left there are towed and hit with a towing fee, a ticket and daily storage. A separate ban covers another 500 miles of main streets once two inches of snow are on the ground. A car that won’t start can’t be moved out of the way. If yours is parked on one of those routes, get it sold before December, or before the first real snow.

If the City got to it first and the car is already gone, what to do when your car is at a Chicago auto pound sets out the pound’s charges, the 21-day hold, and how to tell whether an old car is worth reclaiming at all.

Away from the curb, the question is access. Four places cars usually sit:

• Garage. Tell us if it’s nose-in at the back of a garage, whether the wheels turn, and whether anything is parked across the door.
• Alley. Say so when you call, and move bins or other cars that would block the way in.
• Repair shop. If the car is at a mechanic’s after a diagnosis you didn’t like, tell the shop it’s being collected and settle whatever you owe, so they’ll release it.
• Apartment or HOA lot. Fine with us once you’ve cleared it with the manager or the association.

What happens to your plates when you junk a car in Illinois?

They don’t go with the car. Section 3-501 of the Illinois Vehicle Code tells the owner to remove the registration plates and stickers when ownership transfers and forward them to the Secretary of State, or have them assigned to another vehicle. The forms and fees for moving plates are on the Secretary of State’s page on transferring plates.

Timing matters at the curb. Because a car without state registration can be classed as abandoned after two days on the public way, a street-parked junk car should keep its plates until the truck is there. Take them off during the pickup, not the weekend before.

Then two loose ends. Call your insurer once the car is gone, and if the plate is on your I-PASS account, take it off there too.

How fast can a Chicago junk car be gone?

Same-day pickup is often possible, and the phones are answered from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Central, every day. Nobody’s rushing you, though. We don’t put an expiry date on offers, so hunting for the title can take as long as it takes. If there’s a second dead car on the property, it can leave on the same visit. And if you’d rather skip comparing buyers altogether, you can sell it to a buyer who tows it free and pays at the curb, or call (708) 663-1010.

Selling one for the first time?

Most first-timers ask the same few things, like who can hand the car over and what becomes of it once it’s towed, and the first-time seller’s guide answers them. The mistakes people make selling a junk car is a quick read before you agree to anything. If your car is wrecked, burned, flooded or stripped, what each condition changes at pickup is on the scrap car page, and the rest of our junk car guides are listed in one place.

Sources for this guide

• 625 ILCS 5/3-117.1 (FindLaw): surrendering the title within 15 days for a junking certificate.
• 625 ILCS 5/5-401.3 (FindLaw): the ownership papers a scrap processor must get, and the seller ID it records.
• 625 ILCS 5/3-501 (FindLaw): removing plates and stickers when a vehicle changes hands.
• City of Chicago, 311 abandoned vehicle data: the four criteria for an abandoned vehicle.
• City of Chicago, towing process: the city tows abandoned and illegally parked vehicles.
• City of Chicago, winter snow parking restrictions: the December 1 to April 1 overnight ban and the two-inch snow ban.