Starter or Battery

[thom4782]

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