Hey I was working on trying to fix my CEL on my teg and I noticed that the starter is gone. It won't even turn the car over? It was never the most dependable starter and more than likely I need a new one, but I want to ask if you can get away with changing the solenoid on the starter? Is the solenoid the part that wears out?

 

It's not the only thing that can wear out. You can remove your starter and take it Autozone (or similiar) and they can test it for you.

 

Commutator can also wear out which is the bottom half of the solenoid.

 

I took the entire thing apart like 1 hr ago and found that everything needed to be cleaned and repacked with grease. So I did that and took apart this one section which had the copper contacts of the selenoid and they were worn down really badly. So I mcgyvered them with some liquid soldeir and ground them down with a file and put eveything back together. Bench tested it and it worked like a charm. That was seriously the quickest fix I have ever done. I know it's cheeze dicking it, but I only wanted to see if the motor was shot, Now I need to go to the hardware store and pick up some 1/4 inch copper sheet and bend and drill some new contacts.