legacycentral bbs

So I went to leave for work this morning and the car wouldn't start. I heard a quiet tick and a humming when I turned the ignition, probably from the starter. The dash lights were on, never went out so I don't think it's the battery. If the battery was dead all the lights would usually go out on crank. Anyways i'm checking everything. It was running fine the day before when I got home from work, I parked it and I didn't touch it until this morning. So idk what happened. I checked all my connections and everything, I had AAA on the way to see if a jumpstart would help. I'm on the phone with my buddy seeing if he can think of anything and I get back in the car and crank it and it fires right up... So i'm wondering maybe my starter is failing? It's just weird it would not crank over for like 15 mins and then out of no where it fires it. Thoughts?

Contacts in starter are dirty, very common and cheep to fix. I just replaced mine and total cost 11$.

Common failure on these old subarus. Junkyard time. Starter is very easy to pull and $15-$25.

You can clean the contacts and its free. I've never have replaced any of my starters. I use my starter a lot (50-100) daily.

If they're not worn through.

True.

I'll pull the starter and take a look, see if it's worn or anything. I'll report back!

Was it cranking just not starting? Like did you hear a "tick tick tick tick tick" just not igniting?
If so, other possibilities:
Sparks to all cylinders?
Is there Fuel from the pump?

Man I'm telling you, my Subaru coulda been yours!
I just went through these issues and fixed them.

Actually more like a "click click click click click".
(tick's are what you'd hear from the lifters)

No, turn the key and nothing, one faint click and a hum. It has spark and fuel, so that's not the issue. I'm pretty sure it's the starter, could be some bad wiring. I haven't taken a deep look yet, but I will. Once it fires it's strong.

The click is the starter plunger engaging and not making an electrical connection so its not spinning the motor. The hum is probably the solenoid pushing the plunger in while you have the key turned.

The hum could also be the fuel pump priming.

I have the infamous starter problem as well, I just installed a push button, works every time