Starter replaced and it sounds bad (2009 Accord)

General Discussion
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TLDR back story: Original 12 year old starter went bad and I got stranded. Went to the mechanic right across the street. Got the car and it sounded bad. Four days later it died again. Mechanic said the part he got was actually different. The nose cone was a little off. Put the proper one in this time and it’s fine.

He did sound genuine in his story about getting the wrong part, but ya, he should be comparing the old to the new before doing the job, but you could tell this guy was practically a one man shop and had too much on his plate. He also should have known it sounded funny when the job was done and I pointed that out to him.

It’s a franchise that is beside the commuter train station, which is why I would go there. However, this guy bought from the old owner and he just does not seem nearly as professional.

He actually forgot to reset the oil life thing on my 2009 Accord a few months before this debacle.

And now I find out, my cousin, who lives five minutes away, was using him for a little while as well on a hand me down Focus. She got the alternator replaced and a few days later she broke down. And what do ya know, she used the same mechanic. I don’t know how she ended up going to him as she’s not a train commuter like me, but I guess it’s because that chain has a pretty decent reputation and I know it’s cheaper than the two closest to her because I’ve been to both before.

Anyway, same story. He said he got the wrong part. I did the starter on my old Fusion a year ago by a mobile mechanic my coworker has a used a few times, and he has excellent reviews. This is apparently much easier on a Fusion than an Accord. He compared the two side by side before doing the job and he said F*CK!, because the nose cones were slightly different. He had to call his part courier guy to bring another, from 40 minutes away so he had to push back his other appointments and just hang around for a while. He said this has happened a few times with that part service before. Though he said to be fair, the box did say the correct part number so who knows what the hell happened.

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When possible, I prefer to have a faulty starter fixed by a local auto electric shop, rather than put in a different one of uncertain quality or fit.

I did once buy a rebuilt and install it myself. That was fast, which I needed then, and worked out well.

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Getting the wrong part or a defective part, that is a pretty common thing in my diy auto-repair experience, especially bad for some reason w/starter motors. I’ve got a bad starter motor from an auto parts place two times in fact, at different times, different auto parts places, but both for my Corolla. The first one wouldn’t even click. I returned it for a store credit, and had the original rebuilt by the local auto-electric shop. Worked for many years, but eventually got balky. The second time, the one the auto parts store gave me clicked ok, and made a great spinning sound. Unfortunately it was only the motor that was spinning, the gear popped out but remained stationary while the motor spun. Good for sound effects, but not so much for starting the engine. I returned the faulty one, and got a Denso branded replacement. That one has been working for quite a few years without any trouble.

I’ve also got parts in boxes with a label stamped w/ the part number I intended to purchase, but I find out to my dismay later, the part inside the box isn’t that part number. I think this happens at the parts store, where the staff will get 3 items so the customer can inspect them to see which one will fit, and then they fail to put the other two back into their correct boxes.