A few weeks ago, my car died. Wouldn't start. Finally had to jump start it and drove it straight to the mechanic to replace the battery. It was about 5 years old, so I figured it was about time.
Fast forward and the past week or so, I had a few times when I got in and turned the key and nothing happened. Turned it again and it started right up. That got much worse yesterday and when it took 3 or 4 tries to get it started and today when the last couple of times I wasn't sure it was going to start at all.
Needless to say, I was back to the shop for what I figured would be a new starter. I'm not much of a car guy, but I know the basics and it turned out I was right. Fortunately, I had nowhere I needed to be and they were able to do the work right away and had the part in stock. About 45 minutes and $486.00 later, I was on my way.
The only thing I'm kind of wondering now is if it was actually the battery causing the problem a few weeks ago or if it was the starter beginning to fail. Doesn't really matter at this point, and the battery was 5 years old, so probably would have needed replacing soon anyway.
New car starter = $486.
July 19th, 2007 at 05:14 pm
July 19th, 2007 at 07:37 pm
I'm wondering though... is it the case that when your starter starts to go, it excessively drains the battery in trying to start? Or is that just an urban myth/old wives tale kind of thing.
July 19th, 2007 at 09:56 pm
July 20th, 2007 at 05:37 am
boomeyers - Yep, I'm used to it. I figure as long as the car doesn't cost me much more than $1,000 or so per year, it is still way cheaper than getting a new one.
July 20th, 2007 at 07:34 am
Also, it probably wasn't the battery causing the original problem, but after 5 years, changing the battery might not have been a bad move anyway.
July 20th, 2007 at 08:18 am
July 20th, 2007 at 09:25 am
July 22nd, 2007 at 05:44 pm