Starter motor dying?

M

mjennings23

Senior member
 North West
Fairly sure my starter is on the way out, the car is getting very slow to crank recently from both cold and hot. Battery is sitting at 12.6v when the car is off and 14.5v on, and it's only 2-3 years old, so no issues with that (plus the car is used daily and has gradually been getting slower to crank over the last few weeks). Alternator is also new last year so charging is working fine.

So I'm assuming that the starter is the next port of call. Going to grab one from ECP over the road and get it done at home this evening, but just wanted to see if anyone else has ideas on what it may be?
 
Well, it was indeed the starter. New one installed and it's jumping to life immediately upon turning the key.
 
In no shortage of time either. Barely cranked the engine when leaving work, took 5 or 6 attempts! Was half expecting to be asking the security guy to help bump start her!

Totally dead when I tried it at home too, not a sound or anything from the starter. Hooked it up directly to the battery after removing it to see and it was spinning at probably 1/10th the speed of the new one, so I expect it had run out of grunt to crank an engine over.

Still, 15 years isn't too shabby for a starter to go.
 
It will probably just be the solenoid or possibly the brushes.... they are quite serviceable and parts not expensive. You may as well pull it apart and have a look just out of interest
 
I might do ordinarily, but there's a bloody large surcharge on these motors to ensure return of the core part it seems. Total cost for me was £250, of which £150 is a returnable deposit for bringing the battered old one in.

So as much as I'd love to pull it apart, in this case it's just going straight back to ECP!
 
mjennings23 said:
In no shortage of time either. Barely cranked the engine when leaving work, took 5 or 6 attempts! Was half expecting to be asking the security guy to help bump start her!

Totally dead when I tried it at home too, not a sound or anything from the starter. Hooked it up directly to the battery after removing it to see and it was spinning at probably
1/10th the speed of the new one, so I expect it had run out of grunt to crank an engine
over.
Click to expand...

The starter on my car died on me through the winter. One moment it worked fine the next it had got fed up and packed in. Bought a new one of Ebay for about 70 odd quid fitted it myself with a bit of swearing, not to bad a job to do on a cool winter's day.
Glad you got it sorted 8)
 
mjennings23 said:
I might do ordinarily, but there's a bloody large surcharge on these motors to ensure return of the core part it seems. Total cost for me was £250, of which £150 is a returnable deposit for bringing the battered old one in.

So as much as I'd love to pull it apart, in this case it's just going straight back to ECP!
Click to expand...

Got you. I guess that's why the incentive is so large. Easy process for them to refurb and resell.
 
To be fair it's a simple enough job, just a bit blind in that you're working on feel for the cable connections at the back.

Also it's good fun when you need to get it done while there's still light and you've just had to drive home... Was very careful to avoid touching any metal parts I didn't need to... Typically it's right next to the coolant hoses to the heater matrix too :rofl:
 
my starter @ 145K km z4 coupe 3.0si 2006

when the starter make some grinding noises its time to replace it :thumbsup:

i replaced with a refurbished starter :thumbsup:

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