So I removed the starter this evening from my '99 to have it tested. I didn't clean around the starter before beginning removal, so there was plenty of gunk and grit buildup falling all over the place. That's no problem, but what I found inside worries me:




Any ideas what that is, where it could have come from, and if I should be worried? It's even a bit colorful, has a couple of blue flecks or spots in there. Overall looks like a mixture of sand, grease, and probably a few other things.

 

I think the valley drain may be a pretty good path to near the starter. Just saying. Do you have, or ever had any leak issues up top?

 

looks similar to gunk from long term coolant leak.

 

I am pretty confident I had oil leaking from the turbo pedestal before I deleted the EBPV, but I haven't noticed anything in the valley since then (late last year). I could see why that would leave gunk on the outside of the starter, but how would that get inside the receiving end of the housing?

Same question, where would that bring gunk into the starter housing? Probably calling that by the wrong name. You can see the mating surfaces are oily but grime-free, but there's no space for the grit to get inside through that joint. As far as I can tell, I haven't leaked coolant since water pump replacement early last year.

 

is the inspection plate tightly In place at the front of the trans.

 

I'll take a closer look at everything in daylight to find out.

 

Manual trans or automatic?

Looks like normal grime to me especially in a diesel.

 

What he says, looks normal to me especially if you've ever had any kind of leak up top. Think about it, anything that runs down the drain hole in the valley is going right down the back of the block with the flywheel/flexplate slinging everything around. If you really want to see some crud take the cover plate off of the flywheel/flexplate lol