Noticed the voltage dropping on my OBD screen tonight and pulled into a parking lot. Smelled smoke. Popped the hood and saw a small flame at the starter. Car stalled as I was running back to shut it down. Pulled the battery cable and looked down to see no more flame, thankfully. I assume starter stuck in the on position causing the voltage drop and burnt up. Other than a new starter and some wire repair, what might I be looking at? Why did it stall? Relay? Blew the alternator? Having it towed in the am. Any insight is appreciated.

 

Scary!

 

It probably stalled as the power was being shorted out back up to the fuse block under the hood. When you remove the old starter check the teeth on the flywheel. I had a starter on a Jeep do that, brought me to a sudden stop.

 

It was the second Autozone Duralast starter in 4 years to go bad. First failed by not starting at least. Hoping it's just some wire repair and the starter. Might have to replace the whole positive cable. We shall see....

 

Crawled under again while waiting for the tow truck. Looks like the ground strap may have broken and shorted the starter. It's charred to hell and broken. Cause or effect?

 

Only ground strap I've ever seen = 94-95 D1. None of my D2's have a ground strap down by the starter. Just the main positive cable and the smaller trigger wire. Main ground strap/wire runs over and connects to the Alternator bracket in one of 2 places.

 

My mistake. It was the braided wire that connects to the solenoid.

 

You're looking at the positive wire that runs from solenoid to starter, it is bare copper. Yeah it would go Chernobyl if the solenoid stuck on. Its just Chinese junk solenoids welding themselves on. They use a really weak cheap electromagnet and then in turn use a really weak spring. The lame *** spring cant keep the contacts from welding themselves together.

 

Mine did that a couple of days ago. Solenoid stuck! Sucks big time, it’s easy to replace but can do a lot of harm if the battery doesn’t get disconnected fast enough!

 

Mine got shorted inside the stater.