Engine Runs Without A Key

[Guest emjay]

Perhaps someone has had this .... My V6 was making a strange noise this morning, so I turned the engine of but it kept running - even with the key out!. Further inspection revealed smoke coming from under the bonnet - I figured the Starter was running full time so I disconnected the battery and that seemed to reset everything. It's been fine since but I'm worried about a repitition. What next?

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Could well be...my dad had a problem with an old Austin/Morris in the 1970's - same sort of thing with odd noise, but it stopped after a while then there was no noise when the key was turned. The starter had jammed on and burnt itself out (fixed under warranty, from memory).
Sounds like you've caught it in time. Perhaps time to take the starter off and give it a quick overhaul??? (how old is the car?)