Starter Motor Trivia

[EricSilver]

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.

[car54]

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!!!

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.

[EricSilver]

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