A couple weeks ago I wrote about how my car wouldn’t start, and since then it has been sitting in the drive way not going anywhere. We made out fairly well on one car, although it was challenging at times and we burned a lot more gas driving just the big SUV. Today that came to a change though. It is once again alive!
It took a couple weeks due to time, weather, and lack of tools. Weather has been cold and wet and I don’t have anywhere to do any work to the car except in the drive way. About a week ago after I had tried checking all the things I could with the tools I had I was pretty sure it was the starter itself on the car that as gone. Luckily all I needed was a new socket set and found one on sale for only $20. It’s a good set and I really should have had one ages ago.
After many YouTube videos for research and a pretty big scare one night I was ready to get to work. After the car had sat about a week I though it would be wise to take it for a drive so it wasn’t just sitting and things getting ceased up. So I went out and tried to push it and get it going by myself with a bump start. The only problem is our driveway is on a hill and I had to push up the hill. Didn’t quite have it in me by myself and so I ended up calling from my cell phone in a panic for Jen to come out and put the break on because I was just barely able to hold the car from rolling down the hill, across the yard, and into our shed.
Yesterday came and the weather was beautiful, so when everyone else was out in the morning I went out and took apart the car a bit so I could get to the starter. Pulled it out and right away saw what the problem was. There was a braided wire from one part of the starter to the other that had broken. Jen was thrilled with the picture I sent her with the starter on the kitchen counter.
After considering just trying to repair the connection a friend reminded me that there is lots of current that flows there and if it broke it could be because something else in the starter is not working right. Found a used one at a local salvage yard but they weren’t open until today. They have all their parts catalogued and organized so when I stopped by they went right to it and brought it to me, all tested and ready to go.
Today on a lunch break I went out and put the new starter on and everything else back together and it started the first turn of the key. This makes me a mechanic now right? I’m very excited that I was able to get this fixed for about $100 when the part itself was quoted at almost $300 not including labour.
Sandy McFadden 