Tools Needed For A Starter Motor Replacement
Sockets and a socket wrench or torque wrench. Screw driver. Pliers. Extra mounting bolt or starter bolt pieces.
Luckily, replacing a starter is not a difficult task. In most cases, it's a fairly simple process that anyone with basic car knowledge can do.
NOTE: Many vehicles need to be raised up to reach the starter. On others, obtaining starter access can be difficult. Check your vehicle repair manual for location and replacement details.
Due to the complexity of starter motors, the average amount of time it takes to completely replace a starter is generally between 2 and 4 hours. If your car has an easily accessible starter and you take it to a mechanic worth their salt, your time should hopefully be closer to 2 hours rather than 4.
A brand new starter could cost you around $50 – $350, while labor costs from a qualified mechanic could range between $150 – $1,100. In total, replacing a bad starter motor could amount to between $200 – $1450.
Can you jump-start a car with a bad starter? Most of the time, NO, you can't jumpstart a car with a bad starter unless you repair it. When the battery is dead, jumper wires or boosters are employed. You use a second battery to provide the necessary electricity to start the car.
So can a bad starter drain your battery? The short answer is: Yes, it can. It could also drain the battery even faster if you repeatedly try to start your car with a faulty starter. A faulty starter is also one of the leading causes of battery overcharging.
Many cars have an easily accessible starter that can be removed and replaced in under an hour; however, others are significantly more problematic. They can be hidden beneath other engine components, such as the intake manifold.
Replacing a starter motor isn't the simplest job for a mechanic. Quite often, there are a lot of components to get past to access it. It can take a good couple of hours to clear the way, remove it, pop its replacement in place and put everything back together again.
If you know the symptoms of a bad starter, you can shock your vehicle back to life long enough to get to a mechanic by giving your starter a tap with a hammer or solid metal object.
A brand-new starter can range from $80 to over $350. For a qualified mechanic to replace or rebuild your starter, you can expect to pay between $150 and over $1,100. These estimates vary dramatically depending on the particular issue and the make, model, and year of your vehicle.
CAUSES OF FAULTY STARTERS: CAUSE OF FAILURE
Electrical connections faulty. Solenoid switch (engaging relay) stiff or faulty. Electric motor damaged electrically. Single-pinion gear, starter pinion or freewheel damaged.
Feed ¼ cup (2 ounces) starter with ½ cup (2½ ounces) all-purpose flour and ¼ cup (2 ounces) water twice daily (approximately every 12 hours) and let it sit, covered with plastic wrap, at warm room temperature.
A bad starter actually sounds quite a lot like a dead battery – you turn the key, and all you hear is a click. It might not be the entire starter, though – it could be a weak component known as the solenoid. It prevents the starter from creating the correct current to start your car.
In most cases when a starter goes bad, it's completely random with no warning signs or symptoms of mechanical failure.
A starter motor's lifespan varies between automobiles, but you can expect to get about 100,000 miles out of the factory starter. Stringer Auto Repair advises that your starter may start to go bad once the odometer has reached this coveted mileage milestone.
Push-start the vehicle if you have a manual transmission.
Once you've got some speed going, release the clutch and your car should start. Press the clutch back in and give your engine some gas and you're good to go! This will definitely work with a bad starter, but it could also work with a bad battery.
Average car starter lifespan
A car starter can give you around 80,000 starts before you should expect it to struggle, regardless of the mileage you drive. This is around 150,000 miles for some cars, while some starters can last the vehicle's life.