Video: Is it my starter motor? Help!

[Yungstar007]

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)

Outside of the car (245 KB)


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

[gthompson97]

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.

[Yungstar007]

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?

[gthompson97]

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

[Blackcrow64]

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

[gthompson97]

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.

[Talon69]

what website did you use to host a video?

[Yungstar007]

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.

[gthompson97]

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.

[Kamilpl3]

Originally Posted by gthompson97

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

[TreeFrog]

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!

[Yungstar007]

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.

[Talon69]

Hang on i will go get my book for ya

[Turbodog97]

how do you disable the clutch starter relay?

[Talon69]

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

http://photobucket.com/albums/b128/1...Picture003.jpg