A 603 starter is different from a 617 starter.

It's been years since I swapped ours out, but I recall that the drive had some sort of plastic planetary reduction and that plastic part failed.

Ended up getting another starter, couldn't get the parts to fix ours at the time.

The last two times it worked before failure, it sounded "off".


Jim

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14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles