[cparke]

PhaseP - sounds like deja vu to what happened to my last starter 5 years ago! I'm also only 2 years on this battery, and starter has been doing this for a long time, and I do have a new starter still waiting for the day it happens again.

You've just given the best explanation I've heard yet on what could be actually going on to cause this. Wondering now if this is a common way for starters to die on these cars? However, I am not as familiar as you with the internal construction of the starter motor to understand where the brushes and commutator are when opening it; though I recall that there was black dust (carbon?) all over the internals and it smelled burned out. I'm assuming you've done a stater rebuild yourself at some point in the past?

This is why I felt last time that it was my fault for not getting a new battery sooner that the starter failed. And here we are again! I have not noticed the problem happen when the battery is fully charged, and I tend to believe (this time around) that starter will last longer if I can prevent these incidents from happening.

Based on your discovery, what would you have done differently now? Change the starter sooner? It's a project. Or nothing practical that we can really do about it, other than keep the battery fully charged or keep changing battery as I am proposing?

[GSB]

PhaseP, excellent experience to add to this thread, and it doesn't surprise me one bit. It is unbelievable how much mechanical and electrical energy a starter has to deal with. The brushes, commutators and solenoid contacts are the weak links in the system. They wear out, they overheat, and they buckle.
cparke, you certainly are dealing with a weakened battery, but your starter could definitely be on the way out.

[PhaseP]

Originally Posted by cparke

Based on your discovery, what would you have done differently now? Change the starter sooner? It's a project. Or nothing practical that we can really do about it, other than keep the battery fully charged or keep changing battery as I am proposing?

Don't remember exact year but my car was 10 years old or more when starter died, which was original. The starter had leaved its life.
I had not no low battery warnings, so can't say what you should do in your case.