Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert. I'm here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, Vancouver's best auto service experience, and we're talking trucks. How you doing Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So today's guest is a 2011 GMC Sierra 1500. What was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: So this vehicle came to our shop with a noise while the owner was driving the truck. His complaint was, he was driving and he could hear this like little tinging sound like kind of ting, ting, ting ting, especially when you accelerate. It wasn't really loud, but it was there and annoying.
Mark: So how did you go about diagnosing this?
Bernie: So a road test first to verify the noise and it didn't take very long to hear it. And, next step was to put it up on a hoist and get some listening equipment, stethoscope, and listen around, put our ears up to the vehicle, listen around. Have someone in the car, rev it up, or in the truck, I should say, rev the engine up and the noise would happen and we could listen and pretty much pinpoint it right near the starter motor bell housing area.
Based on experience is when the technician experience comes in probably figured the starter drive was banging against the ring gear of the engine while it was running. Which it's not supposed to do.
Mark: So the truck would start fine, but then because of what we're gonna see later here, the there was something broken in the starter that was making something not work properly, basically?
Bernie: Yeah, it's exactly right. It start fine. No weird noises from the starter whatsoever. The way a starter works is it has a, besides a motor that rotates the starter, it has a tiny little gear on the front and it gets engaged in the ring gear, which is a big, huge gear at the back of the engine. And when you give the signal to start it, it engages that gear, rotates the engine, the engine starts. And then as you let the power off the starter, the gear pulls back and all done. But what was happening is there's a spring inside the starter and it was broken, and so it wouldn't allow the gear to pull back.
Mark: So let's jump to our, we have a little video today.
Bernie: We have a video. Yeah. So this is the starter motor removed from the vehicle. And this is the broken starter. And what you'll see here is as the technician rotated the starter up and down, you'll see this gear. You're pointing at the gear. That's right. You'll see that gear move in a way that's not supposed to move. So that is not supposed to happen when you turn the starter. That does happen when you turn the key on, it pushes that gear out and as soon as you shut the start position off, it pulls the gear back. So problem found.
Mark: And how difficult of a repair is this on a Sierra? Here's our vehicle.
Bernie: Yeah. It's not really super difficult. Not quite as fast of a job as an old GM V8, but still not a very difficult one.
There's the starter viewed from underneath. That's the new one put in the red arrow is pointing towards the starter. It's tucked in up there, but it's really not incredibly difficult to get at.
You can remove it without removing a lot of other components. Unlike an Audi we had last week where you had to actually remove the engine to change the starter.
Mark: Well, that must be fun.
Bernie: Yeah.
Mark: And really inexpensive for the owner too.
Bernie: Oh, very. Yeah. Exceptionally inexpensive. Anyways, this is why it's good to have a tried and true GM truck sometimes.
Mark: Well, as long as you're hauling stuff, I guess.
Bernie: Yeah. It all depends on your usage.
Mark: Not like our folks around where I live, where people use it as their runaround vehicle around town.
Bernie: Yeah. They're little grocery getter.
Mark: So all of a said and done, how common of an issue is this? They pretty reliable?
Bernie: Yeah. They are quite reliable. And you know, we don't see this problem too often, but enough that, you know, right away when I drove the vehicle and I go, I bet you it's a starter. You know, sometimes as a technician, experience technician, you get a hunch on things. We just have to do the testing to verify it. Because sometimes we're wrong. But it's always good to follow those first instincts and hunches.
Mark: How about for the owner? How expensive a part is this?
Bernie: Oh, it's not that expensive. It's a GM. It's a few hundred bucks. You know, sort of off the top of my head.
Mark: Yeah. But there are millions of these vehicles on the road and in existence.
Bernie: Exactly. Yeah.
Mark: So if you're looking for service for your GM or for your starter, you got any starter issues in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them online at pawlikautomotive.com. You can book your appointment right there, if you're in Vancouver, or you can call them at (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to book ahead. They're always busy. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC Canada. Thank you so much for watching and listening. Thanks Bernie.
Bernie; Thank you, Mark, and thanks for watching.
