4th Starter Motor in 3 years

[Aus_Karlos]

Hey guys my Nav seems to be chewing through starter motors and i have no clue why.
The latest one to go was only 10 months old, The only water its come in contact with was from puddles in the road. I do a lot of Dune driving and the odd rock climbs over on the PowerLine track in Perth. I get home let the engine cool at bit then get out the CT18 and WD40 and clean the engine and underside, keeps it looking new. After i wash the Nav i don't turn the engine on for a good 24hrs to ensure that all the electrical equipment is dry as a bone.

The Starter Motor itself sound normal but then 1 week it will sound like its struggling to start. (Slow turnover) The battery reads 12.8v with nothing on, 11.8v with all accessories on (Spotties, phone charger, radio, 2Way ect) and the Nav will still turnover. Just slower.
Then Yesterday when i went to start it, it quarter turned then my Battery Volts dropped to 0 and everything died. I had to jumper the battery to give it a charge to get some accessories powered before i roll started it.
So it sounded like a short in the motor.

Anyone else had any issues like this?
Could there be a mechanical problem with my Transmission causing excess load on the starter motor?
Or an Electrical fault?

Thanks Guys

 

[Old.Tony]

Before I jump at suggesting another starter motor - because (and you'd know!) they're a pain in the rear to get to - there are a couple of easier things to look at first.

1) Check the earth/ground/negative wire from the battery to the engine chassis. If the connection is fragile, all of your symptoms may appear.

2) Replace the battery with a known good one (borrowed if possible). If you have an Optima D31A lying around (or know someone with one) then hook it up - 900CCA is NOT going to be argued with by the starter! Remember that an ordinary battery cannot survive long trying to turn the diesel over - our diesels need somewhere around the 500-550A to turn over (compare with a V8 petrol that needs about 350A tops). The battery MUST be in reasonable condition to deliver that sort of power day after day!

Let us know how you go!

 

[Aus_Karlos]

At the moment the Car is in with the Auto-Electrics, as this is the 3rd starter they have fitted they're kind enough to do this service for free. They're going to put a call out to the stater motors manufacture to see if this was a faulty batch but either way they are replacing it for free so might aswell get a new one fitted. They are also going to check the electrical side, cables, relays and battery. The Battery is newish, only like 3months old.
Hopefully they'll phone tomorrow and tell me some good news.

The last one that was fitted they took it off and the Armature was split in half, they have no idea how it happened.

 

[Old.Tony]

How on Earth do you break the armature in half? It's designed to produce a magnetic field that is applied against another magentic field to produce rotation of the shaft. I suppose there could have been a short in part of it that cause the magnetic field to reverse polarity mid-stride? I wonder if there's enough stress applied if the engine tries to kick backwards? These motors do really produce a LOT of power.

 

[bods]

Seems a bit strange... I've never done 1 in mine and I'm still on the original batteries, split from the factory parallel setup to a single cranker. Mine is a 2010 too and been like that for close to the 3 years that it is old and never had any issues... Are thy using aftermarket starters? Maybe they're not up to the task... I wouldn't have thought they'd sell inferior ones though...

 

[Aus_Karlos]

Well i asked the questions to the auto-electricians and they've never seen anything like it as well. They suggest i take it into a mechanic to look at the transmission to make sure there's no heavy resistance on it.
Unfortunately they couldn't take this starter motor apart to see the insides without voiding the warranty, so they are just shipping it back to the manufactures so they can run some tests and get back to them.

Electrically the car is fine battery is in top condition and there's no earth shorts to the battery. So we'll see how this one goes.

 

[CraigW]

My D22 is just over 2 years old and I'm having the same problem. I'm on my third starter motor. Nissan replaced them under warranty but couldn't tell what was causing the problem. I have done a few deep river crossings, one of which cracked my radiator, so that may be a cause.