I gotta Vent! Napa screwing me over... :(

[r0lf-]

Well... this morning I went out to the local napa to pick up a starter to replace my old one. I go there and pick up a starter, come home and start installing it.

So I put the power to the solenoid and start tightening the bolt. I get about 3/4 of the way there and the freaking solenoid cover explodes into 5 pieces. So im a little upset that they are selling this garbage... I go back and im expecting a new solenoid atleast if not a refund on the starter so I can get a real quality part. Right? Wrong.

The parts guy tells me I was overtightening the bolt or that my wrench was at a funny angle. Ok, even if I was at a "funny angle" the damned solenoid shouldnt be exploding if there is the least bit of pressure on it. My old starter could be tightened every wich way.

So he wont give me a new solenoid and tells me he can talk to his parts guy tommorow and he'll sell me a new one now. Maybe I can get a refund tommorow or something. He brings out a whole new starter and rings it up. I tell him I just need the solenoid and he gives me some big fit. Then on top of that they are out of stock on them.

Man did I give that guy a piece of my mind. Swervin, your right. You do get what you pay for... I shouldve done it right the first time and got a quality piece and pay a little more.

Sorry, that just really ticked me off.

[1FaastC10]

if it were me, he would've either fixed it, or walked funny. i would've crammed the starter somewhere very uncomfortable.

[76HighSierra]

Well, I've learned from hard experience, that if your main cable is on the terminal incorrectly, this can happen when tightening it down. If you'll look, there is a little tang on the main battery cable. It fits into a slot on the solenoid. If this tang was NOT in this slot when being tightened, the result is what you described. Ask me how I know, it's happened to me. Don't be so quick to blame the parts store for something that may have been your own fault.

[87 STEPPER]

I don't under stand are you saying NAPA part's are sub standard?

Did you go with the El-cheapo unit or not?

Year's ago i bought a 2yr warrante starter for my Astro van from NAPA and i think i paid like 85 bux for it and it was a very high quality unit and it never gave me a problem.

The reason i went there in the first place is i didn't want to install that 30$ junk that discount and at the time keystone were pushing.

But your right it should not fall apart upon tightening the nut/bolt.

why didn't you just throw your recipt on the counter with the starter and demand your money back.

And if the parts boy still gives you a hard time call the cop's.

How about going to another NAPA store? They all honer the Nation wide warrante you know! That's if you got it.

[Destructo]

If I ever replace my starter i'm going to order a mini starter from summit. I mean whats not to like about that sweet gear reduction sound? They sound awesome when you crank it I think, plus less battery power usage and they don't get as close to the headers.

[corn]

broken solenoids must be pretty common. I went to the local Oreilly auto parts a few weeks ago & bought one & the guy behind the counter opened the box to make sure it wasnt broken before he handed it to me.

A couple days later I decided to just replace the whole starter & took the solenoid back to Oreilly's to swap it out & a different guy helped me. Again he opened the starter box to make sure the solenoid wasnt broken. Figured it must be pretty common that they are broken...

[1FaastC10]

sounds pretty bad that they're broken right off the shelf. if they have to check whats going out the door, that throws up a flag of a problem right there.

destructo, why not go with an AC Delco gear reduction starter? i believe it was the 5.7 Vortec trucks that had them as an option. should be alot cheaper than the stuff you're getting at Summit.

[r0lf-]

Well... everything is back working again. I ended up going and getting a really heavy duty solenoid at (of all places) autozone. it was actually a pretty nice unit for how much it costs.

I was going to goto the local high performance shop, but they charge an arm and a leg for everything and some of the guys are jerks.

[MIKE'67]

Did you ask to talk to the counter man's manager? Anyplace can get a jerk employed now and then. That's why they have managers to weed them out. I have found NAPA parts to be of very good quality. Much better than Autozone.

[roadking]

replaced bat. cabel recently, guess what i did, yea i over tightened nut, silynoid cover breaks. 12.00 lesson for me.

[r0lf-]

Well... I guess you guys are right. It was a $12.00 lesson. Its really not worth my time to talk to anybody about getting my money for a 12.00 part. I was just really ticked off about it.

Everything is good and I need to get on with stuff I REALLY need to take care of like SCHOOL and family