Starter motor Bosch or OEM Volkswagen

I replaced the starter in my '09 with a reman Bosch back in '20. Been flawless ever since, can't say enough good things about mine.

I literally just did this job on my mom’s 08 528xi last weekend. I used a NEW Bosch starter (I specifically avoided remanufactured).

For me it was the starter. It was replaced a few years prior at a local mechanic and I don't know what brand they used. I got the part numbers and bought a Bosch equivalent from fcp for less than 300.\n\nI dont know exactly why and neither do the mechanics that wanted an answer if I found one. The old starter spun fast enough to start injection. Maybe just not enough power to get it past the initial revolution after firing. All I know is its been close to year and hasn't done it once since I replaced the starter. It now starts first time everytime.

Mine made that noise a few years ago; ripped it apart and re-greased it, and the sound went away until this summer, and I gave in and bought a new Bosch unit.

But a lot of stuff is available as white label stuff, ie: the starter cost the same as any other car starter when I got the generic Bosch version.

DIYer advice: when I go on RockAuto's website, I see that Bosch offers 2 different starter motors: one for the manual, with 0.8 kW, and one for the automatic, with 1.0kW (click on the Info buttons for that information).

I replaced on my 2016 with a brand new Bosch. In 2019. Still going strong

The newer Bosch and subsidiary starters use a different kind of magnet that is more fragile. Apparently, people were whacking them pretty hard and breaking the magnets, hence the sticker.

I think the napa one is most likely to last more than 10 minutes. But my car is on its 5th starter with barely over 100k miles because the previous owners mechanic kept using anything but Bosch.

Bosch reman last 10k for me