Re: Starter Problem (archive)

How much will it cost? Will it gonna be a big job?
How much to replace the starter?
Also, my mechanic told me in order to get to the flywheel, he gotta take the tranny out which cost 400 bucks labor to remove and place it back?
What would happen if I just leave it since it only do it once in awhile

Ron

I agree with Max, the sooner you dig into it the better. For whatever reason, the starter pinion gear is not fully engaging with the ring gear. It could be the ring gear has kicked up a burr on the teeth. Some engines have a propensity to stop at the same position & each failed engagement will make the situation worse. I had a VW beetle which quit engaging altogether as it would always come to rest in one of two positions. I ended up removing the flywheel (which is easy on those cars) & turning a chamfer on the ring gear on the lathe & dressing each tooth with a rat tail file. You can assess your condition by removing the black plastic inspection grill under the bellhousing & take a look at the ring gear teeth. Pry the flywheel with a screwdriver to rotate it 360 to get a good look at all the teeth, looking to see if they have wear on them. A new or cleaned starter as Max suggested, plus a little in-place filing might solve it.

gale
92 735i
144k

Sounds like the starter motor gear is not getting to engage with the flywheel ring-gear... ends up giving a high pitched screech/shriek, right?

Could be a dirty starter motor shaft, so the starter motor cannot throw its gear into the ring gear hard enough to positively engage, or it could be a bad throw-in solenoid too. Either way you really need to get the starter off into the light of day to inspect the teeth and clean it for dirt... It might be repairable / fixed with a good clean, or you might be up for a new one.

DON'T let the noise keep on going though - each one will be damaging the flywheel gear too, even if only a little bit, and if that gets too damaged it's split the motor & gearbox time, OK?

Hope this helps a bit

Max

When I start the car, the car will have a high peach hitting metal sound. Of course the car will not start, then I turn the key to 0 and then start again. It will start with no problem? Below one of the guy suggest me to change a new starter? Is it the case? Or something else is wrong?
Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks,

Ron

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Re: Starter Problem gale 18:30 5/14/2001 (0)

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