Am I being ripped off or just ripped off?

Tiny
JVANBRUGGEN
  • MEMBER
  • 2001 DAIHATSU CHARADE
  • 800 MILES
I bought a little daihatsu charade a mth ago. It hadhad a new engine put in and and driven for 800km. Within a day the starter motor burned out. The guy who sold it to me replaced it. Within 3 days it burned out. He replaced it again.2 days later it burned out. This time my husband offered to pay half to make sure a new rather than rebuilt starter was put in. A week later it burned out. The mechanic /guy who sold it to us now says it happened because the new key we had made was faulty and causing the starter motor to stay engaged. That would make sens eto me IF that had been the key used all the time but the first 2 burnt out while using the original car key. His theory on that is that the 1st two were rebuilt and bad starters, the 3rd and 4th were because of the key and now wants 200 dollars -which we don't have to repair it so essentially we are going to have to write it off and take the loss. Does any of his reasoning make sense to you? I wish I could make a donation but we are broke
Saturday, August 24th, 2013 AT 10:18 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
KHLOW2008
  • MECHANIC
  • 41,814 POSTS
Starters burns out only when the ignition switch is not returning to non-cranking position after the key is released. The mechanic should have caught the problem earlier.

Such problems are usually due to key cylinder faults and too bad it happened to you.

If the key cylinder is still useable without any sticking, you can instead rig a push button start to crank the engine. This would be much cheaper as you do not need to replace the steering lock.
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Saturday, August 24th, 2013 AT 11:56 PM
Tiny
JVANBRUGGEN
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
Thank you very much. Your answer is appreciated and I think I'd be safe to say that all 4 starter motors burnt out due to the same problem and the mechanic is making an excuse to try and avoid having to pay for a new one himself
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Sunday, August 25th, 2013 AT 2:13 PM
Tiny
KHLOW2008
  • MECHANIC
  • 41,814 POSTS
You are correct.

For one starter to burn out it is possible the starter is faulty. For a second one to have same problem means very low possibility and for 4 starters to have same problem, it sure is hard to swallow.
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Sunday, August 25th, 2013 AT 5:21 PM

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