So I recently had my starter replaced because I was too busy to do it myself. I got a rebuilt starter off of ebay for about $22.

Anyway, I kept the old starter, because the symptoms seemed just like my experiences with Toyota starters needing contacts inside the solenoid. It would just make a single click and not crank. If you cycled it a few times, eventually it would start.

The starter is actually a ND starter similar to the Toyotas, so I went to my buddy that works on a bunch of Toyotas and sure enough. Same contacts.

I forgot to take pictures of it with it apart, but here are the old contacts:





They are worn very thin on the edge where the plunger inside hits them. We just cleaned up the plunger with a sanding block.

The contacts can be acquired at a Toyota dealer for $10 or less each. Probably cheaper from ebay.

 

So as you suspected, it was the contacts.

I wonder, do we blame LR for specing a not so good starter, or Denso for building a weak solenoid?

It just seems to me the solenoid contacts should be about the cheapest "high" tech part in the starter, (the bolts are cheaper) - hence, why are the contacts the weak link?

 

I don't know. It's got a bunch of miles on it, and I don't think it's a rebuild. It's certainly a dealer replacement if it's been replaced before.

The Toyotas from the mid 90s up to mid 2000s did the same. I've heard that maybe weak batteries can cause the contracts to wear faster? I don't know.

 

That is kind of my thinking - routine low battery voltage due to the design of the charging system.

It seems these new Pulse Width Modulated regulator designs just cannot fully charge a battery. As such, the solenoids have more amps than planned for routinely running thru them. I found that when I was having starter problems, (but did not know it), that if I kept the battery on a CTEK trickle charger overnight, that I never had a starting problem first thing in the morning. If I did not put the charger on overnight, then I got clicking first off and then eventually turnover.

Finally the light came on, I put a new starter in and problem solved. It was that I had been looking at every obscure system, keys, immobilizer, battery, grounds, you name it, everything but the starter. Also it does not help that the power cable that comes off the positive battery post and goes down to the starter continues on to the alternator - that injects another variable into the equation.

We appreciate the followup.