Replaced entire starter or just contacts?

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Kigiin

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Around 85k miles when starter started failing my mechanic replaced entire starter. He nor I knew about just replacing contacts. Now at 172k it's failing again and I told the mechanic to just replace contacts. He is questioning why not replace entire starter again given the labor necessary to get to it.

I prefer not to spend more money than I have to but could this starter from 85k miles ago fail in other ways in the near future?
 
pegasis0066 said:
Around 85k miles when starter started failing my mechanic replaced entire starter. He nor I knew about just replacing contacts. Now at 172k it's failing again and I told the mechanic to just replace contacts. He is questioning why not replace entire starter again given the labor necessary to get to it.

I prefer not to spend more money than I have to but could this starter from 85k miles ago fail in other ways in the near future?
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What would he charge for new starter vs. just contacts?

To me it falls into the category where if you're doing the work yourself and not paying for labor the starter contacts can make sense, but once you're paying for labor - since a rebuild could cost more in labor it might make more sense to pay a little extra and just get a new one.

Similar to brake rebuild or cv rebuild - rebuild kits are cheap but the labor is more to rebuild than to just replace so you could end up paying close to the same amount (best case) as if you bought new.

but the contacts won't have a warranty whereas the new part should have a warranty of sorts.

also unless the starter were bench tested you wouldn't know for sure if the job was good and there are other things that can go wrong with a starter besides the contacts. so if he's gonna bench test it you would have high confidence in the rebuild, otherwise the rebuild could be bad and you could be paying to go back in and replace in x months. but the bench test adds time to the rebuild and provably diminishes the cost effectiveness.

also - just curious what brand new starter is he using? the oem denso ones are reman only not new (iirc).

so if the savings are enough to make the risk worth it go for it. personally if i were paying someone to do the work i'd get a new one installed. but hey - if you do buy new keep the old one i you wanna have it properly rebuilt for next time ;)

Sent from my iPhone using IH8MUD
 
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agaisin said:
but the contacts won't have a warranty whereas the new part should have a warranty of sorts.
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Sure they will, OEM parts carry a warranty - whether it's contacts or a whole starter. However it's likely not longer than the intervals a starter will fail.

This is one where it's good to inspect the starter and then decide what to do. If you get it apart and the contacts look worn, replace them. If you take it apart and the contacts look good, then maybe there's another issue with the starter and you'd want to replace the whole thing.
 
Trunk Monkey said:
Sure they will, OEM parts carry a warranty - whether it's contacts or a whole starter. However it's likely not longer than the intervals a starter will fail.

This is one where it's good to inspect the starter and then decide what to do. If you get it apart and the contacts look worn, replace them. If you take it apart and the contacts look good, then maybe there's another issue with the starter and you'd want to replace the whole thing.
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don't mean to be negative/cynical but i question how practical the warranty on contacts is. who pays for the labor to get to them? how do you prove it's the contacts and not another part of the starter? I can start to see where it's not even worth it for the mechanic to do the contacts job bc imagine how much time he could spend troubleshooting a $30 part vs just swapping the starter.

remember the op is paying someone to do the job - does it make sense to have them inspect the starter in order to decide what to order vs just having a new starter ready to go, in n out?

if one is doing the work himself that's where the cost savings on a rebuild are bc of not having to pay labor - just imho.

when i think about it more - even when doing the starter job on your own - because of the effort to get in there on our cars it already makes me and others question whether contacts make sense vs new/reman. some other rebuilds are no brainers when doing the work yourself bc they're quick/easy to get in again if needed. this starter contacts job not so sure it's in that category.

Sent from my iPhone using IH8MUD
 
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In my 80 I purchased a Toyota remanufactured started from CDan. When the time comes for the 100 I will be doing the same. With the amount of work involved in getting to the starter, I'm looking to do the job once and not multiple times.
 
I vote contacts, that's the part that failed so that's the part I would replace. Do new or do contacts, you'll be at it again in 60-100 kmi anyway. If you're really thinking long term I would run 2 sets of contacts and then change the starter (starters originals + 1 R$R). The rest of the starter should have some wear by the time two contact sets are toast. I just replaced contacts recently and the plunger was looking rough so next time I will probably do the whole starter.
 
AimCOtaco said:
I vote contacts, that's the part that failed so that's the part I would replace. Do new or do contacts, you'll be at it again in 60-100 kmi anyway. If you're really thinking long term I would run 2 sets of contacts and then change the starter (starters originals + 1 R$R). The rest of the starter should have some wear by the time two contact sets are toast. I just replaced contacts recently and the plunger was looking rough so next time I will probably do the whole starter.
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I am not exactly following you here. Never having seen the starter or contacts, I didn't know you could run two sets of contacts? Also what do you mean "starters originals + 1 R$R"?
 
The contacts and plunger are wear items. Not too many other things that are likely to go bad.

But another thing to keep in mind if the 100 starter is anything like the 80's -I don't know- is that there is potential for less than optimal installation of the contacts if attention is not paid to proper alignment -which most commercial techs probably would not care much or at all about I suspect. A bit of subtlety to this. So you'd also have to trust your tech that he will do that bit correctly or the lifetime of the contacts and plunger may be greatly reduced.

One of those jobs I'd try to do myself if at all possible timewise. Fun. If you don't have time and don't mind the $$ and will pay for big labor anyway, heck just replace the whole thing with a reliable reman for peace of mind.
 
A reman starter from NAPA or equivalent is $70 with core trade in. A reman starter from Toyota or the local parts store should be the same, they are all rebuilt at the same factory (that's what spresso says)
 
Lowe Toyota said:
Contacts and plunger through me is ~$50 starter is ~$218. Just depends on what is wrong with it.
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For a difference of $168 I'm going to replace the whole starter. The chance of assembling the contacts/plunger incorrectly and having to go back in a second or third time is just not work it. Time is money!
 
Anthony.L said:
For a difference of $168 I'm going to replace the whole starter. The chance of assembling the contacts/plunger incorrectly and having to go back in a second or third time is just not work it. Time is money!
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AMEN !!

I like working on my truck, but hate having to go in and replace something again within three years. If the new part is not cost prohibitive (in my case $168 is not), then put in a whole new unit.

It's all personal preference and also depends on your wallet and how much time you have to rework things.

Likewise, I would be surprised if your indy would be willing to do just the contacts for fear of it coming back on him. And the starter on this rig is far more difficult to access than say...on the 80.

YMMV
 
If I were paying someone to do this job for me, I would likely have the mechanic do the whole starter. That being said, I replaced my contacts 8.5 years and 60000+ miles ago and all is still well knock on wood!
 
petrotk40 said:
A reman starter from NAPA or equivalent is $70 with core trade in. A reman starter from Toyota or the local parts store should be the same, they are all rebuilt at the same factory (that's what spresso says)
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Totally not true. A cheapo aftermarket starter is not reamaned in the same place as a Toyota one.
 
I was told by someone very informed from a Toyota dealership (and this jived with what I was told at a local parts supplier) there are just a few remanufacturing facilities for starters in the US; namely the upper midwest region. This is not to say the $70 NAPA reman starter is the same as the $220 Denso reman starter nor the same as the Toyota reman starter...I'm sure there is a significant difference in the internal components, country of origin for the same components, etc.

I was also told Toyota does NOT rebuild their starters and Toyota does NOT offer new starters for sale. Having gotten less than 75k miles out of the last replacement starter I bought from Toyota I don't have difficulty believing this information. It seems folks are getting north of 100k miles out of their original 100-Series starters but not nearly the same life out of the Toyota remanufactured starters. And for the record I do understand the starter's life isn't necessarily related to "miles"...but starting clicks.

Further, I was told, although no exact percentage to quote, there are a fair # of reman starters that don't work right out of the box; bench testing would at least be prudent especially given the amount of labor required to R&R a 100-Series starter.

The last one I installed is still going strong; it was sold to me as a brand new Nippon unit from a local starter specialty shop. However I suspect it too was a remanufactured unit since it was less than $250.
 
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