Starter motor death

[skinnyman9000 0]

Its been on its way out for a while now, and tonight it final went and i had to resort to hitting it with a hammer, so basically i need a new one.

 

Now i've just had a look on GSF and thy do one for £45, or the Bosch ones are £80. Now, are the bosch ones really worth the extra money? Or will a £45 jobbie be fine?

 

Also, how much of a ballache is it to do? and i mean honestly too, should a slightly lazy person be looking at a garage job?

[Jim 2]

I've heard generally negative things about cheap GSF starter motors (surprise!) - I'd just get the Bosch one and know you can probably forget about it for the life of the car! Just drink less beer this weekend to compensate for the price difference ;)

[skinnyman9000 0]

Is it worth trying to clean up the old one? Or i this generally just a short term fix?

[The Hub 0]

The GSF starters are just reconditioned units anyway, you'll have to give your old one in exchange.

Changing the starter is pretty straight forward, just remember to slighty support/lift the engine so that the long bolt lines up easier and it's more or less bolt off and bolt on again :salute:

[davidwort 0]

the starter motor bolts go through to fix the front mount bracket in place, it's not a particularly difficult job but can be a little fiddly to get the bolts to bite back into the bracket.

if the starter needed to be hit it's probably just the solenoid and you can swap that without removing the motor, if you buy a motor from VW chances are it will be recon anyway, I saw one on a passat the other day which had a VW exchange part number sticker on the motor so a GSF bosch one would be much the same I guess.

[mic_VR 3]

I might have a spare starter motor lying around in the shed I might be able to send to you mate?

 

I assume they are all the same across the range???

[fla 9]

if the starter needed to be hit it's probably just the solenoid and you can swap that without removing the motor.

 

My starter solenoid is sticking atm, how exactly do you remove the solenoid with the motor in situ?

[davidwort 0]

trying to remember :scratch:

think there's 2 or three phillips screws holding it into the bracket that juts out from the side of the motor body

can't remember how easy they are to get onto though

starter.jpg[/attachment:209pz0ca]

[fla 9]

OK thanks for that David. Looking at the diagram perhaps it might be easier just to remove the starter, just in case the bolts are stuck solid (likely :( )

[davidwort 0]

they should be just small screws and shouldn't be that tight, but yes, don't chew up the heads on those.

[fla 9]

they're not reverse thread by any chance are they? I was dismantling, well trying to dismantle, an old starter and for the life of me couldnt remove the similar ones.

[fla 9]

Diagram was useful David - stripped the solenoid, cleaned up the piston and contacts, now it turns over beautifully. Bit of a pain to refit though, especially with the aircon pipes in the way. Those three bolts (torx) were bloooooody tight, needed to use some penetrating oil and a few sharp taps with a hammer.

[davidwort 0]

a lot of heating and cooling and salt spray up there on the front of the starter to sieze them up I guess, couldn't remember how difficult they were to remove, glad you got it done anyway.