Originally Posted by MichiganHummer

After all that it was the starter. I tried to return it under warranty (again) and rockauto.com said "you seem to be having issues with this product, so we will refund your money instead of replacing a second one under warranty". (I had noticed their price for the "acdelco gold" starter had went down from $180 to $140). I also noticed they sell a "Genuine GM" REBUILT starter for $240.....

I never understood why you could get same parts as "ac delco" and as "genuine GM" as I thought ac delco made most parts for GM. But the rebuilt GM one being considerably more than the New ac delco sure made me question the AC Delco quality further. So I search reviews and found a few saying the AC Delco gold is basically Chinese components in a AC Delco box. (Which matches my experience).

Couldn't get my brother in law to let me borrow his as he was working so I just ordered a new cheapo one from rockauto for $67. Purely just to test to see if all my tests were correct and it's the starter itself. New starter showed up today (24 hours after ordering as im lucky to be a few hours from their warehouse, I usually get parts in 1-2 days with ground). Put her on and it started 15 times in a row with no problems so far. (Couldn't get it to start twice in a row, or hardly at all with the AC Delco that was 6 months old)

Thank you again Neal for all the help. Your a true hero in my book. Silver lining.....I now know a crap ton more about these trucks and troubleshooting electrical. 😅

Originally Posted by hummerz

ACDelco is a DISTRIBUTOR! NOT a MANUFACTURER!

Btw, Your thread showed a defective starter early on.

Originally Posted by MichiganHummer

Thanks for clarification on AC Delco vs GM but it honestly doesn't really fully address the question. Isn't it the case for some parts GM makes their own and for others they have others they source them through Behr, AC Delco, Bosch ect?

For the starter comment, I guess that's easy to say now. The whole point of this thread is to properly diagnose the problem and not just throw parts at it. To me, there was no way to know for sure but doing the exact process Neal walked me through.....but I'm all ears, pleas tell me how early on it was clear it could only be the starter.

(And that's completely ignoring that 2 brand new ac Delco starters were put on in little over a year with BOTH acting the exact same way. I feel that anyone that's fair would admit that alone tells you it's likely not the starters)

Originally Posted by legerwn

You do need to be careful when purchasing online, eBay, amazon and the likes but Rockauto looks to do a good job of making sure they are advertising exactly what they are selling.

Neal

Originally Posted by MichiganHummer

I'm not trying to advertise for anyone.....but I have to really give credit to rockauto. I have used them for years and had very few problems ever. I tend to use them to get higher quality replacements for a good price. (Usually OEM equivalent for LESS than the cheaper aftermarkets locally). It's a huge bonus their warehouses are close by and I get parts in 1-2 days. These starters were the first thing I ever had to return. They sent me a replacement with no hassle. Then when I tried to get a second replacement, they offered to refund me instead. (Cut their losses so to speak instead of keep replacing them at a loss). They also lowered the price of these starters which tells me I'm not the only one that had problems with them.

I ordered the new cheap Chinese starter before returning the AC Delco to make sure it was the problem, so I will try to return the AC Delco for refund and report back. If they do refund me, I don't know what bad anyone could say on rockauto, because no other company would do that after already replacing starter.