[Christ]

Originally Posted by JacobAziza

If you buy a replacement starter from an auto parts store, they come with a lifetime warranty.

I've had to replace a couple (long before I started shutting the engine to save fuel), and all you do is walk in with a faulty starter, tell them your phone number (because I had lost the receipt but they keep records in the computer) and walk out with a new starter (also with the same lifetime warranty.)

So for the cost of replacing the starter just once you get a lifetime of starting it at every stoplight.



Someone posted here recently pointing out that if you start accelerating immediately after starting, it is irrelevant whether the computer is compensating for the temperature because high-idle/open-loop have the most effect at idle or steady state (low throttle, low RPMs)
How many seconds of idling is equivalent to starting your engine? - IWillTry

EGADS Jacob! I forgot about the lifetime warranty...

That brings the score down to "if you can change it yourself, you've only got to save one starter's worth of gas in the WHOLE LIFE OF THE CAR!" (if you don't count your time.)

I'm pretty sure that the average person can save $200 worth of gas in the lifetime of the car (the cost of the Saturn's starter) with not too much problems.