Auto and Truck Repair and Advice
Serving the Gainesville and Hawthorne Florida Area
Automotive Starter Repair
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Starter Replacement: $100-$250
(Prices good for most cars and light trucks)

Your starter is what gets your car going: it "spins over" your engine.

TAKE NOTE: if your engine "turns over", in other words makes the r---rrrr---rrrr sort of noise it normally makes when you turn the key all the way to "start", YOU DO NOT HAVE A STARTER PROBLEM.
The ONLY thing the starter does is turn the engine over.

NOTE: BAD STARTER SYMPTOMS ARE VERY CLOSE TO BAD BATTERY SYMPTOMS AND BAD ALTERNATOR SYMPTOMS You MUST have a fully charged battery for your starter to operate properly. The ALTERNATOR keeps your battery charged. Symptoms of a bad starter:

If your lights are bright with the engine off, but they get really dim when you turn the engine over with the starter, and the engine turns over very slowly, you may have a starter problem. If freshly cleaned battery terminals get hot along with the entire battery cable (positive and negative) you probably have a bad starter.

HINT: Often you can tap on the rear of a starter that does NOTHING: (that is, you turn the key and get only silence: no rr-rrr-rr sound) and make it start one more time.
What happens is the brushes wear out in the starter, making a bad electric contact. Tapping on the back of the starter with a hammer jars the brushes back in place, where they'll make contact one more time.

Another way starters fail is in the "bendix" or starter drive. Your car will start to turn over with the starter, then suddenly make a rrrrrrr-ing! kind of noise, and the engine will stop rotating while the starter motor keeps going!

Buy a Replacement Starter from PartsGeek.com - Click Here

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We also serve the surrounding communities of Alachua, High Springs, Hawthorne, and Newberry!

Thank you for visiting the ECONOMECHANIX WEB SITE. Please feel free to comment. We also serve the surrounding communities of Alachua, High Springs, Hawthorne, and Newberry! Gainesville has been my home since 1974, and I've loved Gvl and the Gators since I came here in the fall of 1974 to attend the University of Florida. I loved it so much I stayed and opened my car repair business. Originally it was out of the back of a 1963 Chevrolet wagon, but in 1977 a fellow mechanic and I opened an auto repair shop with actual walls, etc. I stayed in the same location for 26 years, and recently moved my operation to property I bought 15 miles east of Gainesville. I am doing most all the repairs myself now, having reduced my overhead from $1500 per month to practically nothing. I do work by appointment only. I mostly work only on my established customers cars, but I will occasionally take on new clients. E-mail me and I will either make arrangements to look at your car, or I will recommend you to someone who will.

George G. Scott, Jr.