I totally get what you mean, I thought about buying quality over quantity, but when I bought the last starter, I though in the near future I was going to sell my current pickup, it's a 2wd and I want a 4wd is all. It cranked fine today and just stopped, its happened 4 times now so I know what the problem is, the POS solenoid. I bought the one that just gave out for $100 bucks online, Autozone is $150 w/lifetime warranty, I live close to one, so everytime it goes out I can just get it replaced, probably doesn't work that way though. When I lived in New Mexico, where the winters get to a frigged 30 degrees in the winter and had a place to plug it in the starter was never an issue. But in Butte, MT where the high in the winter is 20 on the warm days, I've noticed chronic slow cranking and lots of blown solenoids after cold cranking. I'm sure in California its doesn't get too cold, not cold enough to stress the starter at least. Where did you buy the Bosch starter, Bosch makes quality products, my dad talks greatly of them and my glow plugs work great from them as well.

On a different note, the problem with the Excursion is that its a Ford, Fixed Or Repaired Daily.

 

Starter was from WorldPac. They only sell commercial. But I think Rockauto.com sells Bosch. No, not too cold well I live. Lows in the upper 20's low 30's.

 

The first solenoid I blew it was under 10, second one was -5, third one I was able to fix (it melted the connection from the solenoid to the motor) at -10, just this last one was 15 with a low of 1-2 last night. So rockauto, I've heard of them. Thanks for the info, I'm going to see if I can just find a solenoid sitting around, the motor should still be fine.