Intermittent starter problem

rallyvee

I have a 1996 Buick LeSabre Custom. About 5 or 6 times, I started the car and it made a nasty scraping noise...similar to when you try to start the car when it's already running, by mistake.

I took it to a mechanic who checked it, and said he couldn't find anything wrong. He said he cleaned the starter parts and ran a test. On the bill, he wrote:

Test starter circuit voltage drop
0.342V Tests good (+) side
0.317V Tests good (-) side

It starts okay now, but I worry that the starter is going to fail when I least expect it. Because I can't imagine why a starter would cause that loud, scraping noise unless it was failing.

I'm not a mechanic, I'm just wanting to know what might be going on. I'm not entirely confident that this mechanic knows what he's doing....

Thank you.

Mr_Shiftright

Sounds like the starter pinion gear is hanging up on the flywheel. I can't say that a new starter would fix this without first examining the flywheel ring gear teeth and the starter pinion teeth. If either is chewed up that could cause this as well.

Is this starter relatively new? Was it installed in the last few weeks? If so, perhaps it needs shimming to the bellhousing.

rallyvee

The starter was installed in 2011. I asked the mechanic to look at the flywheel, etc., but he only did the tests that I mentioned earlier. I don't know if he even visually inspected anything else.

rallyvee

SOLVED: The starter needed to be replaced.

kyfdx

rallyvee said:

SOLVED: The starter needed to be replaced.

10 months later?

rally_vee

kyfdx said:

rallyvee said:

SOLVED: The starter needed to be replaced.

10 months later?

I was kind of busy taking care of my dying mother. I thought I was being courteous by making a belated "solved" post for others who might be searching this forum, but I guess some people don't appreciate courtesy.

kyfdx

rally_vee said:

kyfdx said:

rallyvee said:

SOLVED: The starter needed to be replaced.

10 months later?

I was kind of busy taking care of my dying mother. I thought I was being courteous by making a belated "solved" post for others who might be searching this forum, but I guess some people don't appreciate courtesy.

Nope... just wondered if it took you 10 months to solve it, or just 10 months to update the solution.

rally_vee

Sorry for the misunderstanding. It's been crazy for the past few months, and still is.