I was recently driving home from work and car suddenly shut down took in for repair and advisor told me starter fail because mice were living under hood after finishing repairs mechanic call me down to tell me that the engine seized up, Engine only had 86k and oil change 2days prior the engine had a soft ball size hole in it where it also crash starter into pieces, I later find out that mechanic never did change wires and on Northstar motors starter is connected to engine intake could he have possibly dropped a foreign object inside during repairs? Mechanic told me he heard loud rattling noise before he heard engine blow
<img src
The starter is located under intake manifold on that engine.
But once the starter is used to start the engine, it’s along for the ride.
That’s a failure of the engine block.
Tester
What I presume happened, the mice chewed on some wire insulation, and the effect was the wire was shorting out to ground. And that’s what caused the car to stop running. That could indeed happen if the B+ wire from the battery to the starter motor was shorting out intermittently when you drove over a bump say, as the drop in voltage would confuse the engine computer to no end. hmmm … don’t really understand how that could cause the damage in the photo though. Maybe what happened, the starter motor was engaging b/c the other wire to the starter motor was also shorting out, but not to ground but to the B+ wire. That would be like if you turned the key to “start” when you were driving down the freeway at 70 mph. Nothing good would come of that, and the mechanical forces on the starter motor from that happening might cause the damage you are seeing possibly.
If your question is whether it is likely the mechanic dropped something into the engine that damaged it, that seems very unlikely to me. It appears to be just one of those things, the mice chewed the wires, and you just got unlucky, their chewing pattern was exactly what you didn’t want. Chalk it up to the mice I guess. Suggest to phone up your insurance agent, since the ultimate cause was an agent beyond your control maybe they can offer some ideas.
Try home insurance too since it occurred at home. Between your car insurer and home insurer, there may be some relief.
Is there any motor oil in the engine? The starter motor should not cause a running engine to shut down unless the starter motor was hung up in an engaged position.
The oil change just before and the rattling noise before the engine gave up is why I ask about the motor oil level. Just wondering if the hole is caused by a thrown connecting rod.
I might also ask exactly what repairs were done before the engine surrendered.
1 Like
what does starter nose look like? broke? I was thinking it might be broke starter debris getting tossed around and trapped between crank counterweight surface and underside of valley causing it to punch thru. those srx northstar motors are not very expensive in a boneyard.