How much for a new starter

Happend to me with my first truck.two tow bills,four new batteries new starter just to find out the fuel selenoid wire was loose.

 

I feel your pain; just about every time I've ever put my truck in the shop for problem 1, get the truck back and 50 miles later there is a problem 2 totally unrelated-- sometimes wonder if they break things on purpose.

 

And this is why only I will ever turn a wrench on my truck. New starter can be bought for under three hundred, or buy the parts to rebuild your own for under 150. Can change it in an hour. The bonus isn't the money saved, it's knowing it was done right and there will be no more problems with it till it wears out a few years later.

 

Bought a new starter a year ago,it was $156 out the door with no core charge.
You have to shop around. I have a Freightliner but get parts cheaper from peterbilt. Ask Freightliner to match peterbilt's price,you'll get a no. At least it's only a mile between the two.

 

Few 'mechanics' know how to diagnose anything these days.

 

It pays to know how to work on your own truck. Buying a few tools is much cheaper than road service or going to a dealer.

 

And once you learn a bit, you only have to do things once instead of taking it back two or three times.

 

That is true. Often when something goes wrong with your truck it is a simple fix. I recall having an oversized load on my truck a couple of years ago. I pulled in to purchase fuel and to wait for my escort. When I tried to start my truck it would not do anything. I thought it might be the starter or batteries. I was not that close to a truck repair shop. I looked around my battery box and found a small wire that had broken on the solenoid. There was a parts store a few miles from where I was sitting. When my escort arrived I had her take to the parts store to get a connector and wire. It didn't take long to make the repairs and I spent about $10 or so on parts. Road service would likely have cost me at least $300. I probably spent about an hour, including the trip to the parts store. With oversize loads we can run out of daylight fast. I only needed the escort for the state I was in and by doing the repair myself, I also save the cost of putting my escort in a motel for the night. We got to the state line just barely with enough daylight to cut the escort loose. My total savings for this repair that I did myself was about $400.

I have had battery cables to work themselves loose or just a little corrosion can prevent a truck from starting. It is good to check them from time to time. I always make a point of checking for the cause of a problem myself before trying to call road service. It doesn't take long to clean a battery cable or tighten a starter or battery cable. In this business, time is money. Even when I drove a company truck I would usually check to see if I could find or fix a problem before calling for road service. You would be surprised at how easily you can fix some problems with only a pair of pliers and screwdriver. I keep a set of tools in my truck. I have changed belts, lights, air lines and done other repairs in a parking lot or on the side of the road on many occasions over the years. Quite a few years ago I broke a pipe or fitting going into my air take on the trailer. It happened just as I was pulling into the consignee to make my delivery. There was no place to get parts for many miles. As it happened, I was able to get a piece of galvanized plumbing pipe from the shop at the customer and make the repair onsite. I had to remove the remaining piece of the fitting from the tank and then install the pipe. I think it only took an hour or two and I was back on the road. Again, road service would have cost several hundred dollars and involved several hours more in lost time. I might have even had to layover for the night to get parts. Since I had tools with me, I was back on the road in a couple of hours.