Starter Motor Trivia
 

Out of curiosity, how long will a starter motor run, while the engine is running, before being damaged or failing?

I have a pushbutton starter on my 89 260E and it may have been stuck, and the starter engaged, for about 2 or 3 minutes of city driving. I say "may have" because I did not actually hear the starter motor spinning (but the radio was loud, so I would not have heard it anyway).

I did notice a hot-wire smell, from the starter pushbutton switch, which then went away rather quickly. I assume there was a brief short, or the starter was engaged -- but if the starter was engaged, would the wires get hot?

(The starter works normally now.)

Eric Silver

Somthing similer happend to a Honda I had. What happens is the starter turns into a generator blowing your battery berning battery wires and sence starters are not desined for running at that RPM's the starter.

this actually happened to me in my 83 300D.

The starter got stuck on after a start but it was freezing cold out and I had the heat blower motor on full speed. I never heard it. after about 25 minutes of driving the lights started to dim, and the radio shut off. i pulled over and heard it running. I was able to turn it off by tapping on the solonoid with a stick, but that starter never turned again. upon disassembly, the brushes were shot and had welded themselves to the armature. it was a sad sight. Lesson: make sure everything is OK before firing up the AC or radio on a loud diesel!!! :D

PS: I completed the final 3000 miles of this trip without shutting the 300D off. As soon as I got home I ordered the starter and had it installed within 3 hours. still running fine, so I suspect it was a defective solonoid, upon removal I found it was a cheap reman.

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for the scoop. So far, the starter is fine.

When I pulled the switch I noticed some wire strands that may have been touching and fixed that, so I guess I was lucky this time.

Eric Silver