2020 Silverado RST 4WD

Truck failed to start after sitting for the July 4th weekend a few days. Had it towed to the dealership. Finally got to it today after sitting for a week.

Diagnosis is “customer abuse - water in the starter caused the failure”. They will not cover under warranty.

Truck is used in Georgia and on the farm. About 2 weeks prior to this we had some heavy rains and went through a muddy spot in a dirt road that I needed 4WD to pull through. It hasn’t been in a lake and it hasn’t been out in the swamp.

Are starters so delicate these days that you can’t use a truck in 4WD for fear of damaging the starter? I’ve done far worse in other trucks. This is a brand new truck and was not “abused”.

 

Over time, the starter motor will eventually run its course and wear out. The two components inside the starter that commonly fail are the solenoid (which sends an electrical signal to the starter motor to activate) or the starter motor itself. When this occurs, the starter will be rendered useless and needs to be replaced by a certified mechanic. Although many of the internal components inside the starter can be fixed, it's recommended by most automotive manufacturers to replace the starter, so as to avoid future breakdowns.

 

Heck I had a 258 C-I Jeep CJ-5 starter that was totally underwater lots of times. I'd let it dry out and it would keep on working. Even the Prestolite distributor could take on water without a miss but not underwater. The trick was to keep a wake going to make it across water-crossings. As long as it only got wet, it would run like a top. I could hose down the entire distributor unit; cap, rotor snap it back on the housing and you couldn't tell or hear any miss or rough running at all. It was a great Jeep! Had a Carter 2-BBL carb.

 

the damage/corrosion seen in your pics has been going on alot longer than 2 weeks IMO. Suggests longer term/repeated water damage to me. Boat starters do the same thing when a bilge gets too wet. It's a component that's not happy in the water. Too bad it's not engineered to be higher up off the ground.

 

A little FYI,
Starters today ARE more delicate than the older starters.
The magnets inside will not endure the abuse the older starters did.
The old starters would handle a rap or two to get stuck brushes to move so the starter would operate, not so with today's starters.
The magnets are much smaller to allow the starter to be smaller and one rap can crack the magnets and it is done.

 

Agreed. Looks like lots of corrosion on that starter. Cant' say as I blame the Chevrolet dealership for not wanting to repair it. It might be possible to install a shield of some kind to keep the worst of it out, but that would reduce any cooling effect.

Had one moron with a 4x4 use RTV sealer on his starter. All that did was keep dirt and water in; needless to say, it failed completely.

 

Same exact thought...had to reread OP thinking vehicle might have been used and suffered flood damage..