Starter or Battery
 

Hi everyone:

Before I toss money at the wrong problem, I'd appreciate your advice.

A new problem that cropped up 3 times in the last week. My starter didn't seem to disengage fast enough at start up. All 3 times, I've noticed a screech that lasted 1 second of less after the engine starts. While it may be a coincidence, this happened on rainy days.

I've seen this before when a prior starter went bad. So I figured I needed to replace the starter, but my indie suggested another possible cause. His thought was that a weak battery isn't giving the solenoid enough oomph to disengage the starter quickly enough.

My battery is 3+ years old. I've noticed over the past couple of months that is seems to be losing some cranking power. So there could be something to the indie's suggestion.

What do you think?

Thanks

These Bosch starters can last forever, but do get dirty or corroded inside. I have had a couple that made a noise on start-up. I disassembled and cleaned them and afterward they were working like new again - with no new parts.

I didn't watch burner's video long enough to critique his work, but the sound I'm thinking of is in the first 10 seconds of the video:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eJ9qnnf2kWU?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

There are some good DIYs on Youtube and various car forums if you feel like getting dirty and taking care of it yourself.

Based on what I saw in the video that 78F350 posted, I'd say your problem is most likely the starter (just needed to make sure that a spring in the solenoid was pulling the gear back).

I would disconnect the battery before pulling the starter, then just follow what's done in the video.

I did mine. Works like a charm. Not a difficult job.

Lots on YTube -like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJM2veUNBc0
Enjoy the accent

Thanks...

We'll see where this goes next. Yesterday, I had the battery tested and it was indeed weak. The shop replaced it for free. So with a new battery in the car, we'll see if the starter acts up again. It probably will as the solenoid action becomes stiffer and stiffer.

The other good news is that one can buy a new Bosch starter online for about 25% of the Porsche price.

Mine makes that noise occasionally. It has for many years, perhaps 7 or 8 at least. It seems to happen more often in cold weather. I never have been able to attribute that to anything, but weak battery does seem to fit in my case as The car is not driven often, and I don't keep it on a tender all the time. I have been expecting it to fail for a long time.....


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That noise is caused by the bendix/solenoid sticking. No need to replace the starter. Just clean up the bendix.

If you hear that noise before the starter engages (before the engine cranks), it could be a weak battery, starter solenoid or fouled bendix. This scenario is highly unlikely.

If you hear it after the engine starts, the bendix is sticking and it has nothing to do with the battery.