Can a jump start kill your starter?

My car had a problem wherein all the lights/accessories worked, but it wouldn't crank. So I gave it a jump and it started right up. Turned it off, and the same problem remained. Mechanic says its the starter, so I'm looking at a parts store website right now online and some of them have a warning that states that you need a fully-charged battery or it will kill the starter. So now I'm thinking, maybe I killed the starter when I jumped it, and the initial problem was caused by something else, possibly the alternator? I don't really know, I sort of have a tendency to live up to my sn........:loser:


CLIFF NOTES: Can jump starting your car kill the starter of said car?

Cliff notes: No,.............. unless you hooked up two batteries in a series circuit, resulting in 24 volts. (Note that normal jumper cable hook up is a parallel circuit.)

IMO it may not be the starter. Do a load test and voltage test on the battery, to see if its weak.

It is possible for a worn starter to have an internal short (dragging armature) that draws too much power form one battery to crank the car, but will start the car with 2 batteries hooked up.
This situation will produce the results you describe and will require a replacement starter.

The battery is 3 months old, so I certainly hope it's in good working order. Plus, as I said, all the accessories/lights work on the car.

battery terminals tight and clean? No cracks?

If you have a poor connection at the battery, the connection will be capable of lighting up the dash lights, but the much higher demand of the starter will cause the voltage to drop to 0V

When you jump it, you are bypassing a bad connection at the battery

As with so many things, its a lot easier to give a clear answer, when its infront of me to look for things that might be easy to miss otherwise

But as magicrat said, its impossible to hurt a starter from jumping the battery unless you are doing something amazingly wrong

I would clean the connections first, not only at the battery but at the starter as well. the next step is a load test on the (new) battery,. you can get a new batt. and have it fail at any time.
Next would be a amp draw test on the starter. If your drawing more than 300 amps cold or hot, the starter is shot.
Oh yea,
a properly jumped battery will not hurt the starter