I had the original replaced on 12/04.
Then that replacement died on 02/04. The mech. said it must have been a bad one...

Last night the relacement (of the replacement) starter died.
Thats 3 in 3 months.

Waiting to hear back from the dealer- who replaced the first two. Hopefully he won't say "Ok sir, we replaced the starter and it's ok now".

Anyone have this many problems with the starter? I know ford starters suck, but this is crazy. I belive the first 2 replacement were referbed, so I'm going to insist on a NEW starter this time.

 

Haven't had a starter fail in years.

Maybe if you told us exactly how the starter failed, we'd be able to help figure out what the cause is.

 

Sorry about the lack of details. I was in a hurry to get out of work last night.

Problems:
The last few time the temp dropped below 0, the starter won't turn. When I tuen the key, all I get is a metallic "click" from the starter.
I have tried to "lightly" tap on it with a hammer to unfreeze it with no luck. It's under warrenty so I didn't want to start whacking away it.

I have taken it to the same dealer 3 time within the last 3 months for this, and all they can do is replace it with a refurbished/USED unit. The service mgr said it's ford's policy not to use new parts on replacements. They just send the old units back to ford for testing, which I don't think happens either...I would think they just recycle them instead of test them.

I have had to replace 2 ford starters on my old trucks after about 70,000 miles, which is normal, but my 98' truck like to eat these things up. Maybe it's the cold weather, or maybe I just got a bad batch of them. Either way, I was going to replace it with an aftermarket starter because I don't trust the referbished p.o.s. they have installed.

...but i still love my f150!

 

They just click? Makes me wonder if something else is wrong. Too much of a coincicence to have 3 starters fail with the same problem. That kind of failure usually points towards some other problem that's causing the starter to not work right.

The dealer needs to do some trouble shooting. Failing that, an engineer should have been called in by now.

 

There was a common problem with the lead wire to the starter, the connector was bad had the same problem this sloved it. Sounds to simple but who knows???

 

Sometimes starters are shimmed so the line up right with the flywheel. Is it possible someone replaced the starter and didn't reinstall the shims (assuming it had them)?? I know that can cause problems with the internal parts, over-running clutch drive, etc. Can it cause the problem you describe? That i don't know.

-Jon

 

This sounds as good as any and it makes sense too. Think about it. The starter acts up, they change it. While changing it, the have to mess with the cable. This might temporarily fix the problem until days later when the cable eventually arcs and resistance goes up. Put a new one in and they jiggle the wire again... Keeps happening until the cable fails completely.

 

That's something to look into. No starter will work with a weak battery. And they all get weaker "subzero".