$303 to replace a starter?

That seems like the going rate around here.

But given the rest of your story you don't need a starter -- unless the guy was reaching under the air duct to manually diddle the solenoid or something.

               118.00                     15.28                     ======                        303.01

Yeah those prices are fair. List price on the starter is around $145-225 depending if it's an AT or MT, and it calls for about 1.5 hours labor.

Probably he just yanked on the battery cables. Not much else he could do with his bare hands. The corrosion he is referring to would be on the ends of the cable. If the clamps are corroded that can cause the no start.

-jim

I thought this before I replied, then I thought "under the air cleaner???"

But yea. Always clean (and grease, if you have some Vaseline) the battery cables when you start getting these oddball symptoms. Do it twice when you replace the battery. A bit of oxide in between the battery and the cable won't hurt normal operation at all, but looks like an open circuit when that starter goes on and presents it's HUMONGOUS load.

The diagnostic for this is to turn on the dome light (or watch the dashboard lights at night) and see what happens when you turn the key. Normally the lights will dim a bit when things are cranking over. If they don't dim at all then the starter isn't drawing current. If they go out then the battery or the connections to it have problems.

Absolutely correct. Sometimes you will not see any indication of oxidation around the battery terminal (white powder, etc) but an oxide film on the lead battery terminal, dark in color, can present quite a resistive load under high current draw, as when activating the starter.

Vaseline works fine. It does not insulate the connection, but helps prevent the formation of this poorly conducting oxide layer.

Well according to the story he did something in a very short amount of time without any tools and said the problem was probably due to corrosion. those bits of information sounded reliable.

-jim

Or just plain looseness (of course, looseness, dirt, and corrosion often go together). The first step in diagnosing a starting problem is to see how far the electricity is getting -- and, as others have pointed out, conveying large amounts of electricity without too much voltage loss to run a big motor, such as a starter, is more demanding of tightness and cleanliness than just seeing a voltage at very low current, as with a meter.

The original poster might want to disconnect the negative lead of the battery, disassemble the air ducts enough to see what's down there, and just chase the huskier wires from each terminal of the battery to the ultimate destination. (Watching the Good Samaritan do his thing was a wise move!) A "battery brush" and a small wire brush will be helpful. If somebody reached under there and jiggled something and made it work... well, that might not be the only problem but it sure sounds like the place to look first. The negative lead goes onto the negative terminal of the battery last, after the work is done.

That will also help make sure the alternator's full output potential (sorry...) is reaching the battery, without which all else is only a temporary solution.

If it proves to need a starter: I don't know that car, but whether the original poster can readily see the starter, and visualize getting at it, will help him figure out whether it's likely to be a labor dominated job. As with many things in cars, especially transverse- engined compacts, the difficulty can range from easy, to somewhat challenging, to "how'd they get that thing in there, never mind how do I get it out?"

Cheers,

--Joe