Starter Repair at our Winter Haven shop

A weak battery and a bad starter sound almost identical from the driver's seat, so we test the battery and cables before touching the starter. Then we measure voltage at the starter itself during a crank. If full voltage arrives and the motor still will not turn, the starter has earned the blame.

Sometimes, and that is exactly the problem. Tapping can jar worn brushes back into contact for one more start, which tells you the starter is on its way out rather than fixing it. It is a way to get home once, not a repair to rely on.

Heat raises resistance in the windings and connections, so a starter that is already marginal cannot pull the current it needs once it is heat soaked. In Central Florida this shows up as a car that will not restart after errands but starts fine the next morning. It gets worse over time, not better.

On most vehicles today the solenoid is mounted to the starter and the two are serviced as one unit. A few designs allow the solenoid or contacts to be replaced separately. We will tell you which your vehicle takes and what the difference means before we start.

A failing starter draws more current than it should, which is hard on both the battery and the charging system, and a shorted one can pull current while the car is parked. That said, a battery that dies overnight is usually something else in the vehicle staying awake. If your battery keeps going flat while parked, that is a parasitic drain hunt rather than a starter job.