I turned the key on, motor just clicked. Took key out of ingition and starter moter kept trying to crank and smoked appeared. Had to disconnect battery to stop starter. Reconnected negative wire and moter kept trying to start w/o key in car. The starter is one year old. Any thoughts on this problem?

 

David

So its a new starter or rebuilt starter as you say its 1 year old? The easiest way to determine if the problem is in the starter or electrical system of the car is to try another starter. Anthough a starter from a junk yard with 200k on it might not be reliable for the long run, but it would be cheap to at least find the problem.

 

I rebuilt my starter having no prior experience and its not diffiicult to get $10 worth of parts from an auto electric mechanic and install them into the starter yourself as opposed to paying $140 to have the mechanic do it. It may be under warranty if its 1 yr or less. If the problem is in the electrical system and NOT the starter I would consider suicide myself.

 

Good luck

Pull the solenoid wire off the starter (should be a 12AWG or so wire, with a spade terminal) and see if it still tries. If it does, it sounds like the solenoid is jammed on. If it stops, and you measure constant 12 volts wrtg at the control wire you just unplugged, something in the ignition switch is probably &*^%$%#$ed.

 

Z

I agree with Zyewdall. This is the best way to troubleshoot it. My bet is the solenoid contacts are shorted in the starter.

Thank you all for your help. Yes,the solenoid contacts were shorted in the starter. Although purchased over a year ago, Napa replaced the unit w/o any problem. Thanks again.

 

Czdavid

Your welcome. Glad you got it fixed ok.