[Aroy]

Normally the starter motor for small petrol cars last the life of the car. My 11 year old Esteem has never given me any starter problem. Of course that does not preclude bad manufacture or inferior materials cropping up once in a while.

In a Diesel car or a bigger engine the starter motor needs to be proportionately bigger, and there comes the problem. Most of the starter motors are quite small, hence may go bad faster on larger engines.

The solenoid of the starters is supposed to be sealed, but if you have traversed water a lot or the atmosphere is extremely polluted, the the contacts may oxidize and need cleaning. Similarly if the brushes wear out faster, the commutator will need cleaning.

In my opinion, once you cross 50K km, getting the starter serviced (Clean the commutator, change the brushes, lubricate) is a good idea, and should cost less than 1k at a good auto electrician. A.S.S. of course will charge you three times (and add service tax and VAT too!).

[vigsom]

^^ I agree with Aroy on preventive maintenance on the starter ; but would say that it should be done once in 5 years ; ultimately the starter wear is based on the no. of times the car is started

A simple guideline is shown below:

• typical no. of times the car is started in a day=6
• days in a year when car is used =300
• no. of starter starts in a year=1800
• starter starts in 5 years=1800*5=9000

So perhaps 9000 cycles is a fair frequency for a starter service ; anybody on the forum working with Lucas/Denso could throw more light