How do you change a 1995 Dodge Neon starter and what is a fair price for a starter with built on solenoid?

Answer 1

Note: On the older starters and some newer ones their main fault was the copper terminal would get worn out on one edge of the solenoid bolt. All you needed to do was remove the bolt that the positive cable attached to and rotate it 180 degrees and go again. Some solenoids you can do this with and others you can't. Also, most of the times it is just the solenoid that is bad. If you find a starter/alternator repair shop locally you can buy just the solenoid pretty reasonable, $10-$30. Some parts stores carry them. Beats $100-$300 for a new starter. Starter replacement is a pain on the Neons. Plan to spend a good hour doing it if you don't know a lot about cars. 1) Remove battery and battery tray. The upper bolts on the battery tray are easy to get to (2-13 mm). The ones under the battery are trickier (2-13mm). The highest bolt can be loosened from the top and the lower bolt loosened from the bottom. You only have to loosen these bolts 2-3 turns. 2) Remove the cooling fan in front of the battery. (2-10 mm bolts) It may be helpful to remove the other one or at least take the bolts out. Some cars have 1 fan and others have 2. You can get the 2nd fan out without taking the top radiator hose off by taking the radiator brackets off of the top of the radiator and a few wiggles in the right direction. 3) There is 1-15 mm bolt that goes into the starter from the battery side/transmission side. Remove it. With both fans removed you can take a deep socket, 13 mm, and ratchet and remove the Positive cable from the starter. There is barely enough room but if you hold onto the socket you can break it loose. Then use the deep socket in your fingers take the nut off. Be careful not to drop it, especially in grass. There is also a Brown wire that engages the starter. It has a push button release you have to press to pull it off. 4) If you have the right tools you can then remove the last starter bolt from the engine side from the top. A box end 15 mm wrench sometimes works or even better the new ratcheting GearWrench with the flex head works great. If you don't have that you can take a long extension or several extensions and go from underneath the car. A wobble joint works better with the extensions if yo have it and is quicker than a wrench. 5) Slide the starter out and the new one back in. Pay attention that the negative battery cable attaches to the bottom starter bolt. It won't start without it. There is also another accesory wire that goes on the positive cable bolt on the starter. Be sure that is on when you reassemble it. Everything else is just reverse of what you did to take it apart. Remove the neg battery cable and then follow the pos cable to find the starter. Remove the wires and mounting bolts and work it out. Call a couple of local parts stores for prices.