Video: Is it my starter motor? Help!

Been having this problem for some months now. The sound seems to come and go, but the past week it has occured everytime I've started the car.

When I first made a post some of you suggested it could have been the starter motor. Since it's back and worse than ever I decided to take two small videos of the sound. The outside car video presents the sound much lounder and clearer.

Inside the car (329 KB) (http://ca.geocities.com/[email protected]/talon/startup-incar.wmv)

Outside of the car (245 KB) (http://ca.geocities.com/[email protected]/talon/startup-outside-car.wmv)


Please tell me what this could be so I can fix it. Nothing worse than starting your car infront of a crowd, only to hear this right after, heh.

Any advice would be great. Thanks in advance.

Mike

it sounds like the starter isn't returning back out of the flywheel and the gears are still meshed, that's why you hear that "spinning/gear meshing" noise. i'd take the starter in and have it checked out. if that is the problem, it can be re-built so that you don't have to purchase a whole new starter. that is if you have a day or 2 when you don't need to use your car.

I appreciate the response.

I actually bought a starter off a low mileage dsm in advance as a safety measure. It's just been sitting around.

What's the difficulty to install?

depends on how mechanically advanced you are and what tools you have access to, but it's not that terribly difficult.

My Talon does that everytime I start it too... Do you think its something serious that should be taken care of immediately?

if it gets bad enough it could knock some teeth off the flywheel and then you have to pull the whole motor and/or tranny, to me that's a larger task.

what website did you use to host a video?

I used the rogers/geocities webspace that's provided with my internet account. It's only like 50 megs though, heh.

Gonna change the starter tomorrow, hopefully everything goes well.

good luck and let us know if it solves the problem. don't forget to disconnect the battery or you'll have quite the fireworks display.

good luck and let us know if it solves the problem. don't forget to disconnect the battery or you'll have quite the fireworks display.

Lol :icon16:

i have this EXACXT same sound!!!!! Yeah and it comes and goes just like you said. some times its loud other times you just hear it once, and its pretty quiet.

mine started to do this RIGHT after i had a clutch put in. But you guys say its starter related? could be be clutch related? how expensive are we talking? and how serious is this?

let me know if this fixes it!! please!

Well it looks like my first attempt was a no-go.

Disconnected the battery, removed the air intake hose, only to realize how far out of reach the starter motor actually is.

gthompson97, do you mind giving me some advice on this procedure? heh.

I thought this was an over-the-bay type of job, atleast that's what the Hayne's manual made it sound like.

I just need a guide on how to achieve this because it didn't sound too difficult. Thanks in advance.

On a more positive note, I did disconnect my clutch starter relay. Car turns on so much cleaner (minus that damn sound.)

Also installed the Symborski shifter kit. What a difference as it shifts much more stiffer now. Glad I finally took the time to do it. My kit didn't include the shifter fork though.

Hang on i will go get my book for ya

how do you disable the clutch starter relay?

For some reason i cannot upload pic to forum still so i had to use photobucket.

http://photobucket.com/albums/b128/1_sick_tsi/?action=view&current=Picture003.jpg

clutch starter switch?

For some reason i cannot upload pic to forum still so i had to use photobucket.

http://photobucket.com/albums/b128/1_sick_tsi/?action=view&current=Picture003.jpg

I actually have the Haynes book too, I just wasn't sure if it was as simple as it was written, lol. Thanks for the pic though, I appreciate it.

endlessheart666, the cluth starter switch is to the left of the clutch pedal. You'll have to lie upside down inside the car in order to look up and see it. It's a black wire and green wire going into a white plug. You basically want to remove the plug from the socket. Voila.

Heres what Yungstar007 is talkin about with the clutch thing...

http://dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101587

This is by far the best thing I've ever seen posted on dsmtuners. Enjoy!

Heres what Yungstar007 is talkin about with the clutch thing...

http://dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101587

This is by far the best thing I've ever seen posted on dsmtuners. Enjoy!

Yup, there it is. Nice job on the link.

I decided to check out more articles on that section.... when I suddenly came across:

"Grinding starts? Simple Fix-it!

Got that annoying grind on cold starts, or every time you start your car? As alot do, I use to. The car starts, so the starter can't be bad, right? Yep. I took mine to bed tested and sure enough, it tested bad. Brought it home and decided to clean it. My car starts better than ever now. Here are the steps involved in cleaning it."

http://dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190946

Nice... maybe that's all it is, but you never know.

Sounds simple enough. But, I'm thinking by greasing it up all your doing is giving it enough lube that it doesn't make noise anymore... Could it still be engaged without making noise then?

so did anyone see if replacing the starter fixed it?

I haven't tried anything, yet... I'm thinking I should wait till payday makes a contribution to my pocket first... :rolleyes:

I took it by D-Tech Performance on Monday to see what they thought. They themselves said they aren't sure if it's the starter exactly, but that it didn't sound as bad as the guy that brought his Talon in a couple days prior, lol. They made it clear that this other guy's Talon sounded much worse than my own, heh.

Anywho, they said I would have to leave it for a day because they would have to remove the intake manifold in order to get to the starter.

I can't really afford to do that. I thought that all this removing wasn't necessary? Anyway, at the end of it all they suggested I just ride it out until it goes as it doesn't seem to have problems starting anyway. I agreed.... for now. Devin, one of the guys, even suggested that I might have been making the sound by holding the key too long after ignited, which was proven wrong once he released the key quickly and it still made the sound, heh.

I don't know. The only other thing I can think of is there being corrosion on the solenoid contacts? I remember once I took it into Mitsu to be diagnosed when the sound first came and that's all he could think of it. After he cleaned it the sound disappeared for awhile but slowly made it's return a few days later.

I just don't know.

if he cleaned it, and the sound went away for a while, time to replace it