starter replaced

[Phil Rose]

After a year of worrying about my wimpy sounding starter (not overly 
long cranking times, just a weak-sounding "crank"), the starter 
suddenly called it quits last week. I'd been suspecting a weak 
battery (although no other signs of that being the case) or possibly 
that notorious cable splice-under-the-carpet issue. My sudden 
"no-start" problem was a failure of the starter to crank at 
all--complete silence when the ignition key was turned. The DVM at 
the battery terminals and at the jumper post gave identical readings 
(about 12.45 volts), so I ruled out the splice problem. Measuement of 
voltage at the end of the ignition wire and at the field wire showed 
that 11+ volts was getting to the starter when the key is turned. 
Finally, a good 12V source applied to the starter failed to generate 
any action.

Conclusion: Time to "replace what had broke" (i.e., my 18 yr-old starter)

A local parts supply stocked the official, genuine Bosch 
Remanufactured-in-Germany (not merely "rebuilt", says Bosch) for 
$135. Seemed a reasonable price for the "real deal".

As others have mentioned, the basic R&R is pretty straightforward. 
However the sticking point in removing my old starter was the highly 
corroded power cable stud/bolt. Even with lots of P-Blaster applied, 
the nut seized up with several threads left to go. As many of you 
know, there's precious little room to turn a wrench (or use a saw or 
a torch), and I wearily spent hours lying beneath the car trying to 
get those heavy cables off the old starter so it could be pulled out. 
The old stud finally snapped in two, and the job went quickly from 
that point on. One item to note is that this particular replacement 
starter had a very short stud for attaching the power cables (half as 
long as the original); hence it was necessary to *not* re-use the 
old, thick plastic spacer (used a single 8 mm nut and washer to hold 
down the pair of cable lugs).

I also spliced in a new spade connector and a few inches of 10-gauge 
wire even though the old (red) ignition wire was actually in pretty 
good condition. Reconnected the battery and ol' Lago cranked with 
strong, reassuring sound and fired up faster than it ever has in the 
past 10 yrs. I've been dreading the need to replace the ignition 
switch, but this time managed to duck that bullet...

Phil
-- 

Phil Rose.....Rochester, NY USA
'06 A3q 3.2 V6 (17K, silver) Judy's
'00 A6q 2.7 biturbo 6-spd (120K, black) Marc's
'91 200q	(165K, Lago blue) mine
Gone to Audi Valhalla:
'91 200q   (Tornado red)
'89 100 (Bamboo gold)