Pain in the buttocks

[punishercb]

My car seriously can't go a month without breaking. Anybody feel like fixing my starter for me?

 

[wret]

We are all fundamentally lazy but there are two instances when it is beneficial to appear otherwise: when you are asking for help and when you are giving it.

 

[uni_gst]

Hah, I've broken 3 starters already. Just buy one from Pepboys or Autozone, they come with a life-time warranty. Been into 4 starters now without paying a single $.

 

[TurkF26]

If you have gone through 4 starters, id really really consider buying an OEM one. yes you have to pay more for it, but whats worth more to you, a little extra for a a++ part or the amount of time each time to change the starter out?? 4 starters is just plain nutz...

 

[uni_gst]

Yeah 3 times and the 4th is the one that I am currently using... But I broke the other starters in less than 1 month each one

 

[TurkF26]

how are you breaking starters??? they just stop working, breaking the teeth, ????? sounds like something else that is causing the starters to go out.

 

[uni_gst]

Well everytime I took out the starter it had the bolts broken ( Except for the first time that it actually had something inside broken ) But by that time I had 3 of my motor mounts broken so I thought that the impact of the engine back and forth might have put some stress on the bolts causing them to break. But I really don't know what exactly could've caused that.

 

[TurkF26]

WHAT? you broke 3 motor mounts??? how did you do that??? 3 broken motor mounts???... im lost for words...

 

[punishercb]

We are all fundamentally lazy but there are two instances when it is beneficial to appear otherwise: when you are asking for help and when you are giving it.

I suppose I'm also fundamentally fed up too. It's my starter, it's dead as a doornail, but the rest of the car has juice. I checked the wires and there's no break in the circuit either. I don't really know what to check now. BTW, I wasn't really looking for a direct answer. I just felt like reminding everybody know that dsm's are the most unreliable car out there.(almost.)

 

[Doug99RS]

I suppose I'm also fundamentally fed up too. It's my starter, it's dead as a doornail, but the rest of the car has juice. I checked the wires and there's no break in the circuit either. I don't really know what to check now. BTW, I wasn't really looking for a direct answer. I just felt like reminding everybody know that dsm's are the most unreliable car out there.(almost.)

More times than not the condition of the vehicle is a direct result of the owner's care, choice of repair parts or driving habits that cause the vehicle to be "Unreliable".

 

[punishercb]

More times than not the condition of the vehicle is a direct result of the owner's care, choice of repair parts or driving habits that cause the vehicle to be "Unreliable".

So by driving it as a daily driver, changing oil every 3000 miles, always maintaining it, and never beating on it means I'm not taking care of it? Hmm, good statement jack***. Sorry if I'm being a ***k but I know that I take extreme care of my car. Anybody could vouch for me. This thread's pointless, I was just tryin to make conversation.

 

[Doug99RS]

So by driving it as a daily driver, changing oil every 3000 miles, always maintaining it, and never beating on it means I'm not taking care of it? Hmm, good statement jack***. Sorry if I'm being a ***k but I know that I take extreme care of my car. Anybody could vouch for me. This thread's pointless, I was just tryin to make conversation.

OK cupcake, don't get your panties in a wad here. If you would re-read what I said it included the phrase "more times than not" which for those with any reading comprehension could see that that could also read "there are some people who don't neglect their cars". But if the shoe fits, you're the one that put it on and not me.

I made a statement based on years of experience HELPING others and fixing cars professionally. While you may not like the statistics it still holds true. Many people say their car is in great shape but when it comes down to it and you start grilling them about the details you'll find the car still needs work.

First off... did you buy your car new? Frequently someone will assume I'm being that jassack towards them when in fact they have spent $1,000 in repairs because they just bought the car from someone else who neglected it. That means it wasn't the new owners fault but the car was still neglected.

Next they use sub-standard parts from various places. New means new. It doesn't mean junkyard and new to me, it doesn't mean remanufactured and it doesn't mean borrowed from another car that ran a year ago before the engine locked up and it has sat ever since. Remanufactured means professional rebuilt by a company and not a hack and his shade-tree mechanic. So... there's another opportunity for helpful people being mislead by poor choice of words used by the person with a problem car.

Next would be the ass-clown that likes to shift at the rev limiter everytime and launches at 6K everytime he lines up next to even a simple cavalier with a body kit. They assume that the rev limiter is the safety feature used to protect the vehicle and going to that limit everytime is still considered "Normal" driving. Yet when they blow out their clutch, syncro's are gone and axles break that the car was a piece of crap.

Bottom line is that your comment (and many other people's) about the car being a POS has more to do with the driver/owner than it does the car yet people don't take responsibility for their own actions. It's a generalization that promotes more ignorance and finger pointing at the car instead of owning up to laziness or simple failure of a part due to age and mileage.

Don't take it as a personal attack. You made a generalization about the cars, I made a generalization about the owners. You didn't say mine was a POS and I didn't say you neglected your car.
Doug

 

[punishercb]

I see what you're saying Doug99RS. I def. understand that some people trash their cars. I am not one of them. I apologize for being touchy, broken cars tend to do that to me. Anyways, thanks for your help and I do appreciate the help you give us. I did fix the problem though, turns out the mechanic that replaced my starter didn't completely clip on the wire connection and it fell off. (guy before me made the mistake of going to firestone...ugh) My car was well taken care of though. It's just when my car breaks it's always the kind of problems that leave me stranded. a.k.a. in the rain w/ a dead phone in 35 deg. weather! Tends to make me verrrry grumpy.

 

[Doug99RS]

I definitely understand the heartache. You know... lining up next to a truck, people saying they're going to beat you, you saying no and then you lauch at a mear 3,000 RPM and snap goes the axle.... I know the frustration you speak of. I'm glad that you can chalk this one up to someone else's screw up.
Doug

 

[punishercb]

Yeah, unfortunately I'm not even lucky enough to say my car breaks when racing. By the way, I thought the problem was fixed but I guess not. I took the starter out and cleaned the terminal which worked for a couple times and now it's not working again. When a buddy of mine tries starting the car, I can hear a weird clicking noise from the engine bay. I'm thinking it's the starter solenoid. My question is, is the starter solenoid the cylinder right on top of the starter motor? Because if that's what it is I might try replcing that first. Thanks again man.

 

[Doug99RS]

If you got it working for a little while and it's back to not working then it would make sense that it's either shot completely and your work was just a band-aid OR that it was something like a connection that you disturbed that made it go back to working for a little while. I would verify connections one last time such as at the battery and the starter (including any ground straps maybe being shared by the starter bolts) and then probably replace the starter.
Doug

 

[punishercb]

If you got it working for a little while and it's back to not working then it would make sense that it's either shot completely and your work was just a band-aid OR that it was something like a connection that you disturbed that made it go back to working for a little while. I would verify connections one last time such as at the battery and the starter (including any ground straps maybe being shared by the starter bolts) and then probably replace the starter.
Doug

Well I'm thinking that the starter might just be bad because I double checked all my wires and ground wires like you said. The starter solenoid is right above the starter right? I mean like right above the actual starter motor. I can hear a quick ticking noise when trying to start the engine. It's not the starter teeth or anything, it just sounds like a solenoid about to die. I'm kinda pissed too because the starter is only about a year old. Is it possible to just take off the solenoid on the starter and get a new one? Because the teeth on the starter still look new.

 

[Doug99RS]

Well I'm thinking that the starter might just be bad because I double checked all my wires and ground wires like you said. The starter solenoid is right above the starter right? I mean like right above the actual starter motor. I can hear a quick ticking noise when trying to start the engine. It's not the starter teeth or anything, it just sounds like a solenoid about to die. I'm kinda pissed too because the starter is only about a year old. Is it possible to just take off the solenoid on the starter and get a new one? Because the teeth on the starter still look new.

The starter solenoid is part of the starter as far as replacement goes. If you've got a junk one then you should be able to pull it off and swap it with the other starter or try and clean the solenoid part of it. But most of the time you'll need a starter if you've already tried cleaning it once before. A quick ticking noise could be high resistance in the circuit. This is created by corrosion internal to the solenoid, poor connections, or high resistance in the wiring. Remember that on a wire with no load the resistance may be within spec. Once you put a load on it the resistance will go up. That's why I was suspicious of the wiring. But you may just have a bum starter.
D

 

[punishercb]

Alright, well I'll check the resistance and hopefully that will help me figure this out. I got a feeling it's a bad starter though. Guess I'm gonna have to hit up the store and see how much it's gonna cost. More money down the spiraling eclipse black hole........yay!