[T77911S]

my brother brought me his 88 with intermittent no start.
he replaced the ign switch and starter.
took me about 10 minutes to find the bad connection in the aftermarket alarm system.

about the only time I would "shotgun" a problem is no spark. if the CD whines and the coil tests good, I would replace the coil. if that was not it then I would carry the extra coil in the car as a spare, which has saved me. I also carry a spare CD unit.

I see ICV's replaced for hunting idle when they are not bad.

I see volt regs replaced for no charging when not bad. its free to have the charging system tested. I use to rebuild starters and alts and do auto electric work. even I would go have the system tested for free. why waste my time when they have the proper tester. same with a battery. let them test it.

just this past weekend while at the track my brothers car BMW would not start all weekend, I put a meter on the battery and him crank it. volts dropped to 8v. looks like a bad battery.
went to the parts store and I had them test the battery just to make sure. battery tested good!!
they could actually test the starter (don't know how it worked) and it tested bad.
my brother almost dropped $200 or so on a new battery.

cleaning battery and ground connections before replacing starters, or alts.

test and retest before spending $$$$

and yes, start with the easy stuff.