Starting motor woes

[dmaxstu]

While visiting Lake Havasu City this past month I had a very disturbing experience. In fact it was downright weird. After parking the truck in my friend's driveway I was walking away from it when all of the sudden the starting motor engaged. I ran back to the truck and switched the ignition on but it did'nt start nor would it disengage by turning it off again. My friend and I frantically searced for wrenches to disconnect the battery (boy do I hate those side connections) first we disconnected the wrong battery then the second battery all the while the starting motor was grinding away, albeit very slowly. Of course the battery cable became very hot especially when I almost had the bolt out of the battery and only a few threads remained.

To make a long story a little shorter my truck was towed to Bradley Chevrolet where they never gave me a good explanation why this occurred but they did install a new starting motor and a new battery cable under warrantee even though I had 38000 miles on the truck and apparently the starting motor is not covered by the 100,000 Mile warrantee. That little sucker costs $750.00 so I was quite pleased with the outcome.

The question I have how come I never heard of anyone else on this board ever having such a weird problem? I had heard of old Ford cars doing that sort of thing but not the Duramax.

I do want to mention that Badley Chevrolet treated my very nicely even though my truck is a GMC. They happen to be the GMC emergency repair facility in Lake Havasu City AZ.since there is not a GMC dealer in the area. Stu

[dmaxalliTech]

The only thing I could think off would be if you have remote start, but you didnt mention that.. Hmm.

[jbplock]

I had the same thing happen on an 88 Areostar due to a stuck starter relay.. :eek: I still remember the helpless feeling as I frantically tried to disconnect the battery. Mine stopped before it damaged the starter.

[dmaxstu]

I have no remote starter. The technician determined that the old starting motor might present a fire danger and I believe they used that as the criteria to have it covered by warrantee.The burned battery cable would give one the idea that fire could be imminent. Stu

[Boonbltz]

Maybe a wire from battery or the ignition shorted out somewhere, if I were you I would look all wires from the starter over real well, they just might be pinched or melted somewhere. Murphy's law.