Starter Solenoid?

[wemtd]

Everything I've touched this weekend has broken: this afternoon the seven's starter motor died (again). A similar failure occurred about 3-4years ago (motor spins but pinion doesn't engage flywheel).  It's the stock/standard duralast ford focus starter for my 2L duratec. I do have a Odyssey battery. 

I'v been lead to believe this is a solenoid problem, does this sound correct?

Is this just bad luck or is there something I should check/fix that could be causing this to prematurely fail?

 

thanks.

[Anker]

If the starter motor spins the solenoid is working. It sounds to me like the issue is with the pinion gear engagement. Was the starter weak before it failed? I don't know how the pinion gear gets pushed towards the flywheel, but if it is purely mechanical it could simply be that it needs a good cleaning/degreasing.