Bongo Fury

Not a bad idea, certainly if you're off abroad, but a better idea to invest the time if you can in a quick look see to see how bad yours may be, after all with an auto, your options are a bit limited in starting if the starter goes, although I reckon if push came to shove (did you see what I did there ), you could bodge the contacts enough to get it working in an emergency.
You could probably get away with just the contacts, my plunger would probably still have worked ok for a while yet if I hadn't replaced it, just didn't see the point in doing half the job while I was at it

Kirsty, this is all brand new to me...Never have i even considered taking a starter apart to see if it could be repaired, i've always replaced them for new as soon as it starts to play up...

That's with your run of the mill, two-a-penny conventional cars though... It suspect it WILL be a different matter with the bongo somehow...

(yes i saw what you did there.. And i'm not just "bumping" this thread either..... See what i did?)

Anyone'd think you were trying to CRANK up your post count

Oh you took it to the zone there kirsty... (damn, why didn't i think of crank?)