GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

for 2 days the vibe was cranking slow. thought it was the battery, but after it failed to start i connected jumper cables with no effect. someone suggested whapping the starter (even though i didn't think that was the cause i tried it) it did crank. drove it to the self help garage here at Little Rock Air Force Base, turned it off and when it failed to restart had to bang on the starter again confirming the issue
wish i had my computer or a good phone signal so i could have viewed some posts on the subject because it took some sweat and worry to find the upper starter bolt..not until the new starter arrived did i figure out the top bolt screws into the opposite side

Starters seem to be one of the more common problems for Vibes. Not that they are a weak point, just that they are bound to wear out after so many miles. Glad you figured it out and thanks for the info!

I had a new 1977 Buick Estate Wagon that probably went through 5 starters in the ten years I owned it - only put 40,000 miles on it in that 10 years. The first one went out just before the then 1 year warranty ran out. Seems you couldn't get new starters - only rebuilt ones. One of the rebuilt ones went out after 6 months - only had a 90 day warranty and in that 6 months I only put about 1,000 miles on the car. The shop did find a way to get the starter replacement free but still charged me labor. It also went through about 5 ignition coils in that 10 years. That soured me on GM for the rest of my life.

I was just glad it went out while i was here and not on the road during my 519 mile trip home for christmas

I put my third starter in at 165 000 kms, but to be fair the second one I just pulled off a junkyard vibe in the winter and it turned out to be a bosch refurbished one so I wasn't expecting much. Now that you know how to do the starter removal you will be able to do it quite quickly haha.

Glad this ended up with a positive outcome. Another reason all of my cars were manual transmissions. With battery issues and/or starter trouble, just give it a push. pop the clutch and you up & running. I've had to do this several times over my 35+ years of driving and the cars always started!

jake75 wrote:I had a new 1977 Buick Estate Wagon that probably went through 5 starters in the ten years I owned it - only put 40,000 miles on it in that 10 years. The first one went out just before the then 1 year warranty ran out. Seems you couldn't get new starters - only rebuilt ones. One of the rebuilt ones went out after 6 months - only had a 90 day warranty and in that 6 months I only put about 1,000 miles on the car. The shop did find a way to get the starter replacement free but still charged me labor. It also went through about 5 ignition coils in that 10 years. That soured me on GM for the rest of my life.

Sounds like my mom's old 69 Torino GT fastback. Nice car, but we put in at least 5 or 6 starters and/or solenoids in the 10 years she owned it. I think we did 3 of them in one year. And it only had like 69,000 miles when she sold it.

tpollauf wrote:Glad this ended up with a positive outcome. Another reason all of my cars were manual transmissions. With battery issues and/or starter trouble, just give it a push. pop the clutch and you up & running. I've had to do this several times over my 35+ years of driving and the cars always started!

Very true. I've push started my Mustang more times than I could count. Usually a dead battery though as it killed them about every 2-3 years. Built in jumper cables!