My car is 97 with only 110k miles.

Background is:

I just replaced the original starter a couple of months ago, Failure was that it just cranked slower and slower until it quit, and was totally fried when autozone tested it. No battery/electrical issues were found.


The new starter worked great for about a week and then the car started becoming more difficult to start. The new starter intermittently cranks slower than it should and every few rotations just stops - it doesn't have the power to turn over the engine. This behavior is unpredictable - it sometimes starts strong and sometimes struggles. Once the car starts, it runs perfectly fine.

This has nothing to do with battery condition. I drive two 50 mile legs each day and so maintain the battery fully charged at 12.6v. I have tried jumping also and symptoms are the same.

I made sure all relevant electrical connections were clean while troubleshooting the last starter, so it's not any of those.

The car has no other problems whatsoever.

My first question is, do you think anything could be wrong with the car that could have caused damage to both starters? Or do you think both failures are a random coincidence?

What do you recommend I do with the current stricken starter? Are these symptoms enough evidence of failure to warranty it?

 

has the battery been tested? and yes you can get a bum rebuilt starter.
after my factory original crapped out I went through 3 in about 2 years. the third one
has been in there about 7 years now.

 

A failing ignition switch may the issue.

However, if that is or already has been ruled out, return the starter for a replacement or refund, if a refund is possible.

What brand and from whom did you purchase the replacement starter?

New or re-manufactured?

I'm assuming it came with a LLT?

 

As flynlr said, you probably have a starter going bad. The quality of rebuilt starters is pretty poor and it is not uncommon at all for the rebuilt starter to fail very shortly after it is installed.

 

I picked up one of those Autozone starters awhile back and it worked fine on the first day. The issue came back on the second day. They tested it on their machine and it showed as fine. I had them give me a second one which has been working fine. My guess is maybe there was an issue with the starter connector on the first unit. Maybe that's something you can look into. Maybe use a test light to see if the signal is passing through the harness to the starter's wire?

 

It was actually a new starter, an 'Ultima' brand one, made in China. And got it from O'Reilly actually. It is still working mediocre as before and hasn't actually failed to start the car yet. I'm sure it's not the ignition switch because when the starter stops turning it slows down first, and then usually starts turning again if I keep holding the key on start, so I don't think there is an interruption of power to it.

When I replace it, do you think another Chinese one or a rebuilt is better?

 

I would hope that the starter you want to replace is under warranty so you don't have to pay for another. Unless you are willing to pay for another, I think you will have to get the same thing under warranty.

As far as which is better, a rebuilt or a new Chinese starter, based on what I have read here on the org, you are screwed either way.

 

I went through a bad new China starter a while back. It lasted a couple of days before failing. Then I got one that was rebuilt in Mexico that lasted for roughly 4 years.

The Mexico rebuilt failed when the 99 was out of town like 6 to 9 months ago. We had to get a shop to install an Ultima from O"Reilly. So far the Ultima has been working fine. Though I did return the Mexico rebuilt under the LLTW so I have an another rebuilt sitting in the Ultima box waiting to be deployed.