Stan in Oly, WA
Well-known Member
I changed the starter in my wife's Camry last week, following the good advice I received here---for which, thanks very much. I talked to the mechanic who does work on my vehicles that I can't do myself about what starter he would have used. He said Denso made the best starter for that car, but his computer showed that there wasn't one available in Olympia (different times!), and his next choice would be Bosch. NAPA could get a Bosch that day, so I went with that. When I went there to get the starter, I asked them to bench test the one I'd taken out. The person who tested it told me that it had failed, but I didn't see the test myself.
When I put in the new starter and tried it, it acted just like the failed one. With a sinking feeling I put jumper cables on the car and it started. I felt stupid and sick that I had paid about twice as much for a Bosch starter as for a no name one when it looked like all I had needed was a battery. The next morning I went back to NAPA before they had sent the old starter away and asked them to do the bench test again. I watched it this time. It failed because the shaft with the starter gear extended and ran with full power, but would not retract. When tested, the battery registered 44 amps. A new battery (along with the new starter) put everything right. No wrenches or computers were fried in the process because I followed the advice here and disconnected the battery before installing the new starter.
I was much relieved that I hadn't installed an expensive starter when all I ever needed was a new battery, and I know I should leave it alone and be happy, but I still find it odd that the battery and starter would have failed at the same time. One of the countermen at NAPA commented that a battery with that little cranking power left could damage a starter, but I'm skeptical about that. Some people at the counter at an auto parts store have backgrounds in vehicle repair, and some are just clerks, but their name tags don't say which are which. Does the coincidence of the simultaneous failure of these parts sound like it was just that---a coincidence?
Stan
When I put in the new starter and tried it, it acted just like the failed one. With a sinking feeling I put jumper cables on the car and it started. I felt stupid and sick that I had paid about twice as much for a Bosch starter as for a no name one when it looked like all I had needed was a battery. The next morning I went back to NAPA before they had sent the old starter away and asked them to do the bench test again. I watched it this time. It failed because the shaft with the starter gear extended and ran with full power, but would not retract. When tested, the battery registered 44 amps. A new battery (along with the new starter) put everything right. No wrenches or computers were fried in the process because I followed the advice here and disconnected the battery before installing the new starter.
I was much relieved that I hadn't installed an expensive starter when all I ever needed was a new battery, and I know I should leave it alone and be happy, but I still find it odd that the battery and starter would have failed at the same time. One of the countermen at NAPA commented that a battery with that little cranking power left could damage a starter, but I'm skeptical about that. Some people at the counter at an auto parts store have backgrounds in vehicle repair, and some are just clerks, but their name tags don't say which are which. Does the coincidence of the simultaneous failure of these parts sound like it was just that---a coincidence?
Stan