Starter Luck

[Caithness]

So my starter is going...even tapping it doesn't help anymore. Adding more power via cables and friends running cars seems to be keeping it going.

...and then every once in awhile it finds that sweet spot and seems to run perfectly.

This is on a 91 Mercury Grand Marquis.

How long do you guys think I can push my luck? ...because in three weeks the car is gone.

...think she could manage? What have you guys done in similar situations? The car is a $500 car...so buying a re-man started for 100 bucks is pretty steep even though it's pennies.

[CanadianGTR]

You're a Nissan guy... you should know that when tapping doesn't work, you need to upgrade to smacking, then to violently mashing, then with increasingly larger and denser objects.

I'm sure you can make it 3 weeks. Just don't stop the car where you don't want to be stuck.

[Terrh]

true story



the starter died in my 1984 mazda b2200 Diesel around christmas 2003.

I was broke. No money. Couldn't find the part even if I got money. Like you, it went down the same path of needing more violent smacks and eventually it still wouldn't do ****.

Got it push started (it was stick), and then I just didn't shut it off again. Until april. 4 months later.

[raijin-xiii]

true story



the starter died in my 1984 mazda b2200 Diesel around christmas 2003.

I was broke. No money. Couldn't find the part even if I got money. Like you, it went down the same path of needing more violent smacks and eventually it still wouldn't do ****.

Got it push started (it was stick), and then I just didn't shut it off again. Until april. 4 months later.

and it wasn't stolen?
are you sure you live in windsor.

[Terrh]

I lived in brantford at the time

and it was a giant POS, I was surprised it never got stolen too.

[TK-GTS]

how much fuel did u go through?

[Caithness]

Four months of running the car straight???

...what? Really?

Nobody steals these vehicles...why risk going to jail over a piece of crap car when you can risk going to jail over a remotely expensive one.

[raijin-xiii]

Four months of running the car straight???

...what? Really?

Nobody steals these vehicles...why risk going to jail over a piece of crap car when you can risk going to jail over a remotely expensive one.

because it's easy

[Caithness]

...but no more easy than stealing some 5K Civic.

[Terrh]

it was diesel so it hardly used any fuel at idle overnight


it sure was nice getting into a warm vehicle every morning too. I'll miss /that/ part of that truck.

[TK-GTS]

i call BS on the 4 months part i would belive it if u said until you ran out of fuel but 4 months isnt beliveable.if you did then how did u full it while it was running since any gas station ive ever been to would stop you before you could fill up with it running

[Terrh]

call BS all you want, it happened

It actually was shut off twice during those 4 months. Both times when it ran out of fuel. Push started it within an hour both times. Once on the 401 near woodstock and the other on HWY 3 near blenheim.

the 401 one really sucked, if it had 3 more KM worth of fuel in it I would've been fine, I thought I could make it but couldn't. That was a lot of walking.


Many gas stations either don't notice if you leave stuff running - or don't care about diesels since diesel is a much smaller risk. I was refused a fill once (before I ran out of gas the second time, on hwy 3) and that sucked because I couldn't find anywhere else to buy fuel and had no other options. I suppose the smarter thing to do would have been to buy a gas can and fill it like that, but hindsight is always 20/20.