A Bad Starter; My Mighty Jaws

This is my car. I inherited it from Anvil, who was JC's dog prior to me. The story goes that JC had a '98 Dodge Durango that Anvil used to ride in. When he was 12 or so, he got to where he couldn't jump into it any more. So JC sold the Durango and bought the '93 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon you see here.

Sometime in late November or early December something called the 'starter' stopped... well... 'starting' and the car wouldn't go. It's been so cold and/or wet outside the last few months that JC couldn't (or wouldn't) work on it. So I've been a pup without wheels (although I did get to ride in the Impreza, which is rare).

Finally, last weekend the weather was decent enough for JC to get to work on getting my ride back on the road. I was stationed outside on my long lead so I could supervise. It took him about 3 hours to get the old starter out, and I heard a lot of words I don't think I'm supposed to repeat. I dunno how many times he crawled under the car, and then back out, but I think it was at least thirty.

After getting the starter thingie out, he took it up to the auto parts store where they tested it, only to find out it wasn't busted. I don't think JC was too happy. He came back home with a replacement one (something about they're cheap enough, and with this much effort, he wasn't going to put the old one back in, since who knew when it might actually fail). He turned the key, and it still didn't start. Lots more words I won't repeat (I kinda went and laid under the Impreza at this point). So then he took the battery up to the auto parts store and tested it, and it was good, but had some corrosion on one of the terminals (now I'm just repeating what I heard, because I really don't know what half of this stuff means).

He returned, installed the battery, and yay! my car started. He let it idle for about 15 minutes, and it seemed to run OK. So I hopped in the car, as I thought it would be a good idea to take it for a test drive. JC backed off the parking pad, put it in forward, and it died. Uh-oh. It didn't sputter or anything, just went instantly dead. He tried to start it again, and there was this clicky-clicky sound like before, but it didn't start. I hopped out, and he attached my lead back to the Impreza so I wouldn't get underfoot while he tried to figure out what went wrong.

He poked around under the hood for a couple minutes, tried it again, and it started. I don't think he was really happy about this, because he didn't do anything. It just started working again. So he put it in gear and pulled up the driveway. Without me! Was he going somewhere without me?!? That's not gonna happen!

I decided I should catch him before he left, so I used my super-sharp teeth, and cut myself loose. [jc: Exhibit A by the guilty party shown here] Then he backed back down the driveway, saw what I did, and I think he started to panic (you might remember what happened when I stood in the middle of the street at night). He jumped out, opened the back door of the car, and called for me, and I came flying around and jumped in. Heck, I wasn't really gonna go anywhere, I wanted to test drive my car!

After he finished fussing at me (something about getting run over and something else about destroying a perfectly good 15' lead), we went for a cruise, and everything seemed fine, but he was a little concerned about the unexplained stoppage. It was nice to get out, sit in the front seat, and check out the goings on in the area. It was about 60 degrees out, and there were lots of people on motorcycles. We got back, and he decided before taking the car anywhere again, he'd check a few more things over the next weekend.

Yesterday (a week after he replaced the starter), he checked everything over and spent an hour under the car pulling the wires off the starter and cleaning all the connections a second time. After he took it for a test drive (without me!), he proclaimed it 'Safe For Sherman' (I like the sound of that), and we're ready to rock'n'ride again. Tomorrow we're supposed to go to the park after he makes an apple pie.

So it looks like I'm a dog with wheels again, and we'll be able to hit the parks (it's started to warm up, which I suspect is more the reason than the car. He'd really let me ride in the Impreza, even if it does mean he has to pick up the fur I leave behind).

Now if I could just get over these wintertime itchies and scratchies, everything would be cool.

*woof*

[jc: Net result was 5 hours and $48 replacing a starter that wasn't bad due to a misleading diagnoses. Headlights were bright, battery voltage was good, a 60 amp battery booster didn't help, so the evidence seemed to indicate a bad starter solenoid. The only saving grace is the old starter did sound a little rough, but who knows if it would fail in a month or 10 more years. At least it wasn't a $300 part. I did however, have to grind down a box wrench to fit the one of the three bolts on the brace that keeps the starter from being easily removed... Always something.]