Is this enough to diagnose my starter as crap

[haydenm315]

My car won't crank. This started yesterday morning when my sho nearly left me stranded at mcdonalds. I was able to push my car out of the spot and find enough space in the lot to pop start. I had to pop start my car to get home from work at the end of the day. Once running everything is normal.


I tried to jump start my car this morning and got barely any crank the first attempt, and no crank after that. If I tap on the starter housing it will sound like it wants to crank a little more, but not much. I'm hoping we can conclude it's a starter problem. I was praying for a bad battery or bad connection problem but it doesn't look so. IIRC I installed this starter about 3 years ago. I pulled it from my wrecked sho w/ 88k miles so it was no spring chicken.

Rockauto has a ton of starters. They even sell just the solenoid. Any recommendations? New or refurbished?

Here is what I've done/observed so far.

1. I checked the voltage at the power side of the solenoid and get 12.5 VDC I am hesitant to fiddle under there with someone cranking and doing that test from the other side of the solenoid. I have been shocked before by a starter. My friend was laughing and said he'd never seen someone get out from under a car so quick.

2. I have a 300watt alpine v12 amp hooked to a single 12" in subwoofer. The amp has a digital readout. I can turn the system up and the display reads about 11.5 VDC with the sub thumping on a bump bump radio channel if you know what I mean.

4. The solenoid has a lot of grease/oil from oil changes. (nice location), and the end cap on the solenoid jiggles a bit. I need to figure out a way to protect the solenoid. Oil filter relocation maybe?

5. I hear the click when you turn the ignition to start, and another one when I step on and off the clutch

6. If I tap on the starter with a hammer it sounds like it wants to turnover, but still doesn't.

Is it safe to say my starter said see ya?

 

[Bob Gervais]

Sounds like your solenoid has taken le crap. My 93 did the same thing, and the end cap on the solenoid was loose. I chose to buy a new starter from Autozone, IIRC it was around $120. It has a lifetime warranty though, and the 93 is my only car, so I wanted to get something that would hopefully last a while. It's been in for about 6 months with no issues.

 

[NJSHO]

I would say so. Starters are one of those things that are probably better off bought in the store. They are heavy so shipping is expensive. Most of them are refurbs and there have been many cases of "new" refurbs not lasting very long. Get one from a store with a lifetime warranty that way if it does crap out you dont have to wait for another one to ship. Autozone is pretty good if you ask me since you could get a replacement refurb, should the initial one you purchase ever crap out, starter from any other autozone store.