GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

For the past 3 or more months, the Vibe has been needing the assistance of my glove box hammer to start
We believed it was always the starter, and as time progressed it became apparent it was the solenoid sticking. Whenever I would drive the car (allowing it to heat up) shut her down, and then try and restart her (either instantly or within a few minutes of shut down) it would just buzz when I pushed the clutch in and turned to key.

Hence, I came home to my parents (where there's actually a nice garage) for the weekend to work on the Vibe. Saturday night I pulled the TB and Intake Manifold off and removed the starter!


The starter was (at my guess) the original, being it was Toyota Denso.
One big thing I noticed was the plastic housing where the plug clicks into the solenoid. It was completely broken off!



This morning I went to AdvanceAuto to get it tested, and it didn't even try and work lol
Bought a new one, and installed! After it was all buttoned up I made sure to drive her around and get her really hot.


Finally proceeded to shut it off and start it; worked fine. Then shut it off, came back in 5minutes; fired right up!
Either it's just acting really good for me, or it was in fact a bad starter

What year Vibe, How many miles?
My brother's 05 Vibe just had it's first starter replacement at 200K miles. His starter motor was found to be "worn out". motor windings were shot.

2004 Base Vibe. Starter is assumed to have between 100,000 and 155,000 miles on it. Motor was replaced and idk if the starter came from the original or replacement motor! lol

Great job ! I replaced my starter @ 90K, im at 168K now. Seemed kinda early but what can you do ?

As a side note, you probably wont have to remove the starter again, but if you do...you dont have to remove the intake & throttle body. All I did was remove the cooling fan assembly to give me some more room. I recall there are 2 bolts to remove & I had trouble with one where I had to use an extension & feel around. Again, great job & you seem pretty happy with your Vibe. Its a great car to own & maintain.

The starter on my 05 was replaced at 150k miles. I bought the new starter but should have done it myself than paying someone for the change.

petervivian wrote:The starter on my 05 was replaced at 150k miles. I bought the new starter but should have done it myself than paying someone for the change.

I bought a new 1977 Buick Estate Wagon 350 V8 - the original starter failed during the then 12 month 12,000 mile warranty. Over a period of 10 years and only 48,000 miles I think I put 3 or 4 more starters in it - you could only buy rebuilt ones - not that a new one would have been any better. The person I eventually sold it to had the same experience. That, combined with an equally problematic ignition coil issue had me boycott any GM car until 2003 when I bought the 2003 Vibe - which was really a Toyota. Against my advice my son bought a 1996 Chevy Blazer. It was a lemon. Then he bought a Chevy Impala - almost as bad as the Blazer. Now he has a Honda Pilot.