Autozone starter for Camry any good?

ezbtr

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It's a Nippondenso reman unit, same price and specs as I can find online. Just wondering if anyone has experience with these?
 

avenger79

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

i have used nippendenso parts in the past. Not specifically a Camry starter. they seemed to have worked as well as any others.

Autozone is usually pretty good except for having to make sure they get you the right parts. take in the old ones if possible.
 

dolluper

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

Any rebuilt is a role of the dice put it in and it starts ....thats good must be alright
 

CVX20SPRINT

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

I've been an auto-tech for more years than I want to admit(15 years at a GM dealer and a short stint at Toyota) and if it were my car I would take your own starter to a good auto-electric rebuilder.The off the shelf rebuilds usually get the cheapest parts installed and very often have no lube on the bearings.More or less just thrown together crap.Getting your own rebuilt is more often than not cheaper than the off the shelf crap.Toyota starters usually only require a $5 set of contacts to be replaced.Dealers here stock them.It's not hard to do with a basic set of tools if you're so inclined.JMHO.

Chris
 

642mx

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

+1 on rebuilding it. Starters are pretty simple to overhaul yourself.
 

ondarvr

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

I just did the starter on my daughter?s car, new and rebuilt starters started around $200.00 I bought the parts for $24 and it only took a few minutes to change them once the starter was removed.
 

ezbtr

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

been a few years, I'll have to get parts list - hell, should be easy to rebuild , in the past it was always the Bendix spring and contacts :)
 

bruceb58

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

Its only as good as the people that remanufactured it. Just for the hell of it, you should find out how much a rebuit at the dealer is. May be less than you think.
 
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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

For the money I would just get the autozone with a lifetime garantee.So what if it goes out in 2 years from now, just swap it back for another new one. I paid 175 for a rebuilt nissan alternator and in 5 days it quit. Took it back and got another one and if it quits 10 years from now I will take it back. Dealers dont sell them for 175 and the dealers wont take them back either .
 

bruceb58

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

I don't know about you but my time is actually worth something and if there is a chance the starter would die after 5 days, i would not buy it no matter what the warranty was. Had a Toyota Corolla years ago and bought the rebuilt at the dealer. It was actually cheaper than at the regular auto store.
 
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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

My time is worth something when it saves me money. Poor folks have to save a dime when they can.
 

bruceb58

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

I would rather by a starter from a dependable source than be on a trip or on the road far from home and have it fail.
 

xxxflhrci

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

Toyota starters usually only require a $5 set of contacts to be replaced.Dealers here stock them.It's not hard to do with a basic set of tools if you're so inclined.JMHO.

Chris

True...I got shanked by the local dealer on the parts, though....I took the starter apart on my truck and found the contacts worn. I did my internet homework and found a genuine Toyota repair kit that had the contacts and a few other small parts. It retailed for about 10 bucks. I went to the local dealer armed with the part number. The parts guy did some computer punching and said they did not have that repair kit. He said they only sold the contacts. I told him I would take 2. He shook 'em out of a bulk box, rang me up and said it would be 18 bucks and some change. I told him there must be a mistake. I only wanted 2, not the entire box. I was serious. I thought he had just scanned the wrong label. He said, "Nope, they are 9 bucks each."....Like a fool, I sucked it up and bought the parts so I could go home and put my truck back together......After the truck was all fixed, I did a little more internet homework and found out that a box of 100 of those contacts was 35 bucks...35 cents each is what they cost the dealer.:mad:
 

ezbtr

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

any good links to parts kits?
 

642mx

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

Go to your local Toyota dealer. They probably have this stuff on the shelf. Toyota sells them in kits. ;)
 

klrbruce

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

If you do buy the autozone starter, have them test it before you leave the store. My wife bought an alternator there and the first one she bought was no good, but didn't find out until after the install...(she installed it so didn't bother me too much)..
 

Tubingluvr

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

My 2 cents worth......I have had very bad luck with Auto Zone so I try to stay as far away as possible(Wrong parts, defective parts etc.)

Years ago the fuel pump went out on the wife's Cherokee....so I picked up a fuel pump and proceeded to install it in the driveway in the middle of a Michigan snowstorm only to find out it was defective.......that was the last time I stepped foot in an Auto Zone store.

I buy 90% of my parts from Advance Auto these days.
 

Tim Frank

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

True...I got shanked by the local dealer on the parts, though....I took the starter apart on my truck and found the contacts worn. I did my internet homework and found a genuine Toyota repair kit that had the contacts and a few other small parts. It retailed for about 10 bucks. I went to the local dealer armed with the part number. The parts guy did some computer punching and said they did not have that repair kit. He said they only sold the contacts. I told him I would take 2. He shook 'em out of a bulk box, rang me up and said it would be 18 bucks and some change. I told him there must be a mistake. I only wanted 2, not the entire box. I was serious. I thought he had just scanned the wrong label. He said, "Nope, they are 9 bucks each."....Like a fool, I sucked it up and bought the parts so I could go home and put my truck back together......After the truck was all fixed, I did a little more internet homework and found out that a box of 100 of those contacts was 35 bucks...35 cents each is what they cost the dealer.:mad:

Plus shipping, plus handling, plus carrying cost for the inventory, etc
If they had to buy 100, they probably still have 90+.

What would you be saying if their response when you asked for the part was , "We don't carry that part. We have to buy in lots of 100 and we'd never sell them?"

They had the parts, you got them immediately; when would you have got your truck back on the road if you had decided not to get them there.
I am not sure why you feel cheated. :confused:
 

xxxflhrci

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

Plus shipping, plus handling, plus carrying cost for the inventory, etc
If they had to buy 100, they probably still have 90+.

What would you be saying if their response when you asked for the part was , "We don't carry that part. We have to buy in lots of 100 and we'd never sell them?"

They had the parts, you got them immediately; when would you have got your truck back on the road if you had decided not to get them there.
I am not sure why you feel cheated. :confused:

So, you don't consider 25x mark up to be a bit extreme? I do. I don't think parts need to be marked up that high to cover the cost of business.


Sure, I chose to buy the parts out of convience. They did not hold a gun to my head. But, I have also not bought a part from them in the past 5 years either. That transaction lost my business.
 

Tim Frank

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Re: Autozone starter for Camry any good?

So, you don't consider 25x mark up to be a bit extreme? I do. I don't think parts need to be marked up that high to cover the cost of business.


Sure, I chose to buy the parts out of convience. They did not hold a gun to my head. But, I have also not bought a part from them in the past 5 years either. That transaction lost my business.

Not exactly my point...
I was just listing some factors that go into their total inventory cost which allowed you the option of having the parts right off their shelf when you needed them.

The fact is that the inventory costs to a dealer impact the level to which they will drill-down and even carry a part. Some dealers will go the extra distance and carry the low cost, low sales items, but IMO are quite justified in marking up to a level that reflects some of the burden.

What neither of us know is what they actually paid their supplier or in what quantity they chose to buy. The fact that you found a box of 100 on the Internet at 35 cents/each really is irrelevent.(Price comparisons between store-front operations and Internet sellers is an apples-to-oranges deal). Would you buy 100 if you only need 2? (Then they'd have cost you 17.50 each....plus shipping...and maybe tax) What if you are a parts seller and only sell 6 per year. Would you buy a box of 100 for $35-, or say, go further along the supply chain and buy only 6, but for $3- /each? What if you just replenish the 2 you sell...and it costs you $5- each?

I've found what is far more common is that a dealer won't bother carrying parts down to that level of disaggregation...."buy a new starter or we can't help you".
Then you are at the $180- quantum level... or more.

Bottom line is you paid $18- that allowed you to repair your starter and put your truck back on the road immediately.
I would be thrilled to pay $18- in that situation.
 
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