Hmmmm! Had the same problem on my 2.1 WBX a while back. Went thru two
REBUILT staeters fairly quickly. The third one got fried related to a
harness fire. I replaced it with an adapter available  from VC and put a
late model high torque diesel starter on it. Works fine so far. BTW, that
diesel starter was brand new, in the box, and cost under $100 delivered to
my front door. Worth looking in to. But be sure the starter killing problem
is solved first!

John
On Jun 26, 2016 13:10, "Michael McSwain" <michaelmcswain@gmail.com> wrote:

> I replaced my unknown age starter on my 1.9 about a year ago with a brand
> new Bosch.  Recently it started displaying the same symptoms as the
> previous one.  Turning the engine over seemed to get more and more
> laborious and eventually it stopped doing anything at all.  The last hand
> full of times it actually started, I turned the key and it turned over
> once,  then a 2 second or so silent pause then it turned over again and
> cranked up. Pretty much the same exact symptoms as the previous starter.
>
> So far I've jumpered around my ignition switch.  Nothing.  I cleaned my
> battery/body and transmission grounds.  Nothing.  I bridged the starter and
> solenoid posts with a screw driver and got a little spark,  but nothing at
> all from the starter motor.  Silence on all counts except for the fuel pump
> priming which has been happening all along.  Does this just sound like bad
> luck and it's a bad starter or is there something else that could be
> causing a premature failure of the starter?
>
> I also had my battery checked and it checked out fine.  I have one of those
> cigarette lighter volt meters that consistently shows 13.9 volts at speed.
> If it weren't a 1 year old Bosch starter I would have immediately assumed
> that to be the problem. Am I just in denial?
>
> Any thoughts would be much appreciated
>