erikgrad

Somewhere, on another vehicle forum, I have read about the starter becoming weak and dying because an engine was oil starved in a cylinder (it would be a different make of car entirely, possibly from when I had a Focus?). Anyhow, that could be what happened here. The piston in one cylinder is binding from lack of oil, the starter is burning itself up trying to force it to move. Eventually, the cylinder loses all oil, starter finishes itself off trying to turn that cylinder over. They replace the starter, never bother to check it afterwards, or pretend they didn't notice how rough its running, which is dumb. Since the cylinder was exposed to the elements, its worth taking it to another shop to be torn down for forensics, make sure they did not drop something in there. It'd have to be something big, so it's going to be obvious if that was the case.