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Starter Motor - Rebuild or Replace?
phantom - December 17th, 2005 at 08:24 PM

Hey yáll,

The starter in the bug showed some nasty signs tonight of suffering an imminent death, so I'm looking at fixing it next week before the Xmas break. I had to change the starter in the buggy a few months ago so should be OK doing the physical work. I now have a dead starter on the shelf and an almost dead starter in the bug.

So the question is......are these things easily rebuilt?

Probably 10 years ago in Canberra I had a Ford starter rebuilt fairly cheaply, and took about a day. I have no idea what VW starters are like to do this to.

Can anyone advise if it is worthwhile chasing up an auto-sparky to rebuild it, or whether it would be cheaper to replace? Last 2nd hand starter I bought (earlier this year) was $85. Or, anyone in Canberra got a spare 12v bug starter lying around?

Yogie - December 17th, 2005 at 08:54 PM

I have a 4 brush starter motor being rebuilt now and it will be about $90 for it if that helps.

Yogie

tassupervee - December 18th, 2005 at 07:36 AM

M8
Have you starters rebuilt by an autospark.
You know exactly what you are getting and there is a fair chance the spark will R & R it for much the same cost. Its a day job only.
The phone is your friend.
L8tr
E

oval TOFU - December 18th, 2005 at 09:44 AM

rebuild... cost me $120 and it works great.

akean1 - December 18th, 2005 at 11:16 AM

if its just the brush's that are worn out, its pretty easy to solder new ones in. not sure about other problems with polarising etc.

blutopless2 - December 18th, 2005 at 05:09 PM

depends on what needs to be done... if the windings are stuffed then do a price comparison on a new/second hand vs rebuild... if its just the brushes then change them yourself as its pretty easy to do and cheap to buy the brushes.

phantom - December 20th, 2005 at 12:36 AM

Did the pricing today, still have some to do tomorrow....and I know which way I'm leaning!

Auto-Elec #1: Rebuild $180 - $200
Auto-Elec #2: Rebuild $200 - $250
VW Mech: 2nd hand starter - $88
recon'd starter $170

One more call tomorrow to make but I can see which way I'm going so far, considering we're days off Xmas and I need to get this car going as cheaply as possible (c:

MikeM - December 20th, 2005 at 09:14 AM

Talk to ClassicVW(Pacific) about a new starter. You'll be surprised how cheap they are.

dusto81 - December 20th, 2005 at 03:25 PM

Volkspower in Melbourne reconditioned my starter motor for about $500+ when I didn't know a thing about VW's.

Now I know where I wouldn't go