Starter reliability/life span

[Giller]

Originally Posted by peterbrown77

Why can't Porsche find better suppliers? Starters, water pumps, radios....I've never seen a car with so few miles generate so many problems from accessories with which other manufacturers have achieved bullet-proof reliability 30 years ago. I "get" that brakes and tires are going to wear faster on a Porsche due to alignment settings and trade-offs between performance and reliability. However, a starter should never fail - nor a water pump. It's not exactly doing the toughest job in all of autodom, all it needs to do is spin under no-load. The last time I had to do a water pump on a mainstream car was in a 92 Ford with 260,000 miles on it. I couldn't exactly fault the car. I don't think I've replaced a starter since my '87 Cherokee.

I truly believe some of the problems reside in that these cars have such low mileage. Vehicles that sit for periods and don't get driven do tend to have more problems. There are a ton of people on here and who own these cars who would argue they are extremely reliable - they are also the ones who DD and put lots of mileage on them. The more you drive them - the more reliable they are, for the most part.
And - there are also lemons in every batch. Lots of people out there hate Fords for similar reasons.

[peterbrown77]

Originally Posted by Giller

I truly believe some of the problems reside in that these cars have such low mileage. Vehicles that sit for periods and don't get driven do tend to have more problems. There are a ton of people on here and who own these cars who would argue they are extremely reliable - they are also the ones who DD and put lots of mileage on them. The more you drive them - the more reliable they are, for the most part.
And - there are also lemons in every batch. Lots of people out there hate Fords for similar reasons.

I wasn't defending Ford, just saying that was the last water pump I did. I've also had Volvos, Subarus, VWs, that never needed a water pump. The current champion is my '05 Corolla with 242,000 miles on it that has NEVER needed a part. Ever. Never been in the service department. Original light bulbs for Pete's sake. Tires, brakes, gas, oil. Yesterday I put in a new clutch "just because" I figured almost a quarter million miles was enough to ask and i'd rather do it at my convenience than the car's. Lo and behold, it was only about 60%-70% worn and I probably could have milked another 100,000 miles out of it.

Oh, and guess what - my synchros on the Corolla's 5-speed are PERFECT, unlike that POS Getrag unit in the Boxster. I'll tackle that next spring but it's unforgivable IMO. Synchros should never wear out in normal use.