I did a brief search and didn't come up with anything so here goes:

The starter on my truck (2k miles) sounds like it has "rocks" in it when it works 90% of the time, the other 10% it fails to engage, either spinning on the flexplate or I just hear a "thump" as though the battery were dead. Fortunately, the 10% of the time it acts out, re-trying a few times will result in it "working".

Is this a common problem? What do I tell the service clown at the stealership to avoid just getting some BS runaround??

Thanks!!!

Never heard of it. Take it in to the dealer before you destroy the flexplate

Sounds like the ring gear has a problem to me...make sure that they check it carefully. Due to the compression on this engine, the ring gear almost always stops at one of 4 places in relation to the starter. In other words, the starter always initially engages the ring gear in the same 4 places every time. So if one of those 4 spots has some damaged teeth, you will have a noisy start part of the time, and no problem other times.

There are 2 different problems that I have seen on LLY ring gears, one of the problems was on a 05. The 05 looked like the gear was soft, and the pinion gear on the starter just ate it up. that is what I think they will find on your truck, but they will have to carefully look at all the teeth on the gear, not just the ones they immediately see when they remove the starter.

GTA23109a,

You jinxed me! I read this post yesterday - never had a problem with my trucks starter (5K miles)......until this AM. It did exactly what you described and failed to engage on the first turn of the key (big grinding noise). All worked fine on the second try.

On edit: So what is the fix for this?? and how long of a repair is it (In on the AM and out in the PM)???

I mentioned the ring gear as something to make sure is checked by the Tech...most trucks are fixed my just re-installing the starter and making sure that the bolts are tight. If the cause is loose starter bolts, remove the starter, check the ring gear, and if everything looks good, re-install the starter and torque the bolts. If there is a problem with the ring gear, the flex plate will need to be replaced.

Thanks!