Save Money and Install Your Car's Starter Youself

With automotive parts and labor being so expensive right now, it is much easier to fix your car at home. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to do this, just about 10 minutes of your time and a few tools you probably have lying around the house. If your car starts making a clicking noise every time you try to start it, your starter may be bad. Does it sometimes start and not make the click, or does it always click when you try to start it? If you hear that click every time, it sounds like you need to replace your starter.

To begin, make sure you have some tape and a marker available, as well as sockets and wrenches. In order to reach the starter, some cars have to be raised into the air for you to fit underneath. In this instance, you want to chock the tires in the rear and raise the front of the vehicle off the ground using a jack or lift. If you have to raise it, make sure to disconnect the negative battery cable before you raise it, and take off all the electrical connections and fasteners beforehand.

To start, remove the negative battery cable from the terminal and disconnect the wires leading to the solenoid terminal. Make sure you have the tape and marker ready, so you can write on a piece of tape where each wire came from so that you can reattach them correctly later. Again, on some cars you have to remove the front of the exhaust system from the main pipe to reach the starter. So if you need to, now is the time to do so.

Now to begin removing your starter, you want to loosen all but 1 of the mounting bolts, and keep a firm hold on the starter while removing all of the bolts but that 1. Now you can remove that last bolt and then pull the starter completely away from the flywheel, releasing it from the car. You should always look at the starter drive pinion gear and the flywheel ring gear for wear patterns. If you have a lot of wear on only a few teeth, you will have a metal build up and this is what was causing your starter to not engage and work properly. So when they are worn very badly, you should look around the outer edge of the flywheel and see if there is damage there as well. If there is too much damage or wear, you will have to replace it also. Now make sure that all of your electrical connections are tight and no wires are going to fall out of place.

To reinstall a new or used starter, always make sure you and or brush away the paint on the mounting point so you get a good connection. Now you will reverse these steps to reinstall.

To begin, keep a tight hold on the starter and place it inside the edge of the flywheel and begin to place all the bolts in place and tighten them. You will want to leave one loose, so that you have the opportunity to turn the starter into the correct position before you tighten it down. Now if you had to remove the exhaust system, you can completely replace it. The next to last step is to reconnect each of the wires to the solenoid terminals, as they were when you uninstalled the old starter. Look at the tape and the notes you made on the tape to know where each wire goes. Now all that is left is to place your vehicle back on the ground and replace the negative battery cable and start your engine.

So the next time that your car starts to make a funny noise, don't automatically take it to the mechanic. Save your money and check out these articles. You just fixed your starter at home, we can get through other small repairs at home too. Look for more of the Vehicle Repair For The Average Joe to help you keep your car running good.