So I'm driving home on Thursday, around 3:30, not even supposed to be at work but I got screwed into it, whatever...

Anyway, I get just a few miles away from home and someone slams on the brakes in front of me.. So, of course I did the same thing, and just after I did I heard something kind of like a loud snap, but then sounds like I ran over a nice big chunk of something.

Oh damn, first thing that popped into my head is my caliper is f*cked, happened to a friend a while back... So I pull into a road, turn off the car and get out to check it out. Calipers are fine, look out into the road where it happened half expecting to see my starter laying there, probably spinning around in circles mocking me. Nope again.

So I get on the ground, expecting to see something valuable dangling from my car. To my surprise, nothing. So I blame it on a combination of this pothole in the road, half *** slamming on the brakes, and the joys of lowering springs.

Get back into the car, and press the clutch, turn the key... click.
Here I am like wtf? Try again. Click...... Damnit.
So I immediately turn off the key and pop the hood. I noticed that when I quickly turned off the key my gauges all did the gauge check like the Vettes do, and my SES light on. No biggie on that though since if my oil pressure was at 0 I would expect it to be, kinda strange with the gauges though. (Later I noticed they all did it except voltage)

So today I crawled up under the car, on the side of the road in this older guy's yard, and yank off the starter. And what do I see? A nice chunk of metal just chillin with my flywheel like Bert and Ernie or some bs.. Oh, well.. as Joe Dirt would say, "that might be your problemmm.."
So I get it all out, and here she is:


Awesome. So I head down to the local Oreilly's and pick up a new starter. Turns out they don't have one but they can have it in about 3 hours. Ok, whatever thats cool... So I finally get the starter, head back out to the car and crawl up under it again, $200 later.

Get everything hooked back up, starter's installed, I'm feeling a lot better.. Re-connect the battery and just like I figured, it's on the dead side. Convenient that I'm in the truck... Go to jump the car... click. Now I will say, it was a much more aggressive click, like my stater truly cared. The last one, ah.. not so much. Anyway...

Now I'm right back to WTF. Motor locked up? I guess.. Didn't see any missing pieces of starter anywhere in/near/around the flywheel... Even turned the flywheel some when I had the starter off to make sure that would move..


So, it's getting dark, I missed out on an important day of work, and so I give in and call a tow truck. Gonna need it towed to the dealership so I can go through all my great warranty info etc etc, $60 later.

So my warranty should get me back on the tow, hopefully on the starter also, but... I'm still kinda like wtf at this point.
Anyone got any ideas?

 

yeah.. this doesn't really have to do with "internal engine".... but it seemed somewhat fit at the time, even though it really isnt.