Starter Heat Soak issue

[talon2gbuyer]

Wasn't sure whether to put this in the bolt-on tech section or this one but i'm sure a mod will send me a nasty email and block my post..

Anyway, Ive been having an issue with the temps around my area only being in the mid 80's and after about 40 mins of running the car, i'd stop somewhere and then the car wouldn't crank over when i got done running my errand. So i did some research and found out that it was starter heat soak, which mainly happens on older muscle cars from what ive read, and I have never reall seen this issue happen on a DSM. The muscle car guys were talking about a mini-starter which is as the name suggests, smaller, and can hence bleed off the heat from the solenoid faster. Others have mentioned a shield that can be fabricated from stainless steel.

My question is, does anyone on here ever had to tackle this issue? if so, what are some of the solutions that are available for the dsm folks?

 

[92AWDHX40]

I would ask a mod where to post this first, second i never heard of starter heat soak, please clarify what is, doesnt sound like starter heater soak, could be from a lot of things,did you think to replace
have the starter tested?

 

[talon2gbuyer]

OK.. well as far as heat soak goes, basically when the temperature of the ambient air is to the point where the heat generated by the engine "soaks" into the accessories. Now most parts have heat sinks which help aid in battling heat soak. When heat soak happens on a starter, it makes it so that the engagement solenoid does not engage, causing it to not crank the engine over, from what I understand it has something to do with the solenoid spring.

As for having the starter replaced, my starter has no problems unless i've been running the car for more than 30 mins in humid weather, so why would I replace the starter that is currently working, instead of fixing the issue at hand? And the reason why I think it is heat soak, is if you use this little tool called Google, and type in "Heat Soaked Starter Symptoms" my car does nearly every one of them if driven in humid weather for more than 30 mins and is then shut down.

 

[GRAVEDIGGER]

It sounds like your starter and/or starter solenoid could be bad. It is NOT normal for ANY starter to get hot and stop working. If it does there is a problem. I would look into replacing the solenoid and/or the whole starter. This could also be an electrical problem. I would check all connections at the starter and the battery and maybe clean all the connections. If a wire in a circuit doesn't have a real good connection it sometimes can go open with heat. Good luck!

 

[talon2gbuyer]

Yea, i brought it to a mechanic today, who said the starter itself is fine, but the solenoid is what keeps crapping out. So that's what I think im going to end up doing.