Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Grinding noise from starter, catches sometimes.

I just thought I would post on this topic as a lot of people seem to have this problem. If your starter is making a grinding noise when you try to start and sometimes is tough to start the car and it only starts on several attempts...you likely have a flywheel/starter problem that involves major repair. What happens is the design of the flywheel is poor with bad meshing teeth that are to soft and tend to get chewed off. Ford has an improved flywheel with chamferred edges that provide better engagement to the starter. You can make an inspection two ways, one by removing the access cover for the torque converter bolts on the bottom of the engine, or by removing the starter and inspecting the flywheel through one of these openings. You have to look very close at the teeth on the flywheel as you have someone hand crank the engine on the crankshaft bolt at the front of the engine...turn it slowly, and inspect the teeth with good lighting. You have two ways to do this job...you can pull the engine out, or pull the tranny out. I think I did it the hard way, but thats just me! I pulled the tranny...to do this the subframe has to come out first.It is fun to get out...mine the cage nuts for the rear sub frame bolts were siezed and just spun. Then you have to go into the interior of the car and remove the front floor carpet and some black hard backing insulation to access the nuts to the sub frame bolts rear mount. There is a grate in the floor you cut, then just screw a cover over it later when your done. All engine and tranny mounts have to be removed, and the engine has to be held with a lift or cherry picker. The tranny is unbolted and lowered together with the engine. I had a modified floor jack with a square plate bolted to the top of it to support the tranny. You then have to lower both the engine and tranny until the AC compressor is below the chassis, before you have enough room to seperate them. Once you get that far you can leave the tranny on the jack, pull it back far enough from the engine and remove the flywheel. It is a ton of work this way...but if I did it again it would be no problem. One little tip to anyone who has to remove the subframe. Leave the steering gear connected...unbolt the bolts to subframe and remove the gears top cover from above in the engine compartment at the back close to the firewall. Those nuts on the bottom are welded and the bolts are threaded from the top. If you use some extensions coupled together you can get them all from the top. The haynes manual explains every step for the tranny removal so just follow it close, step by step. It might be easier to pull the engine...but I never did it that way. Expect to pay about $1500 - $2000 Canadian by the time your done if you take it to a shop.Anyone who says they can get it done cheaper should get it in writing...because I know you will get tacked with extra this and thats. Hope this helps anyone who needs to do this job.

just had my flywheel and starter replaced and it cost me almost a grand after labor!

THought I'd post this here, its the same problem I am currently having see my post, I am frustrated. I am awaiting the dealerships approval to do the work under powertrain warranty. The shop is waiting for the ok. If they refuse I simply will drive the vehicle through the shop window and park it there as it started happening a week after I bought the car, 3 starters later, got the starter run around. They realize this is the problem!

Hey, this is red99sesport here.

I got your Private Mail, and I try to help as much as I can. First I'll tell you what my car did exactly. One day in December of 2001 I went to start the car, a 1998 Mercury Mystique Duratec V6. It would not start, the starter made a whirring sound, or as you described the same noise the car makes when you turn the key and it's already started. Anyway, it started after turning the key several more times, and holding it for longer than usual.
I thought nothing of it, because it only did it twice in December, and then didn't do it anymore until March. Then it started doing it almost every time I got in the car. I took it to my stealership, they told me my starter and solenoid were bad. They replaced them for $400. After four days, they called me to come and get the car. When I got there, it would not start. Same noise and everything. I was truly pissed. So, I drove the car home, and parked it. Then I went to www.nhtsa.org and searched for a Technical Service Bulletin.
I found one, and took it to my stealership. They took it, and told me no such TSB existed. I got it from the Federal Government, so I knew they were lying. I insisted they check the gear that the starter turns to start the engine. They did, and by god, it was warped. It looked like a potato chip. They replaced it in five days, and for two-thousand some dollars, but Ford payed for almost all of it.

Here is a copy of the TSB, I think you can search by TSB number on the site if you want more.

Make : MERCURY Model : MYSTIQUE Year : 1998
Service Bulletin Num : 6906 Date of Bulletin: SEP 01, 1999
Component: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:STARTER ASSEMBLY
Summary Description:
EXHIBITING A STARTER GRINDING NOISE AND / OR LACK OF STARTER DRIVE ENGAGEMENT. *TT


I hope this helps, like I said earlier, if you have anymore questions email me.

-The99contour


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another thing you can do to prolong the life of the existing flywheel is to "rotate" it. When this starting happening with my SVT, my dad recommended that I let the car roll, and then let let up the clutch, much like you were trying to push start the car. The small movement after the gear engages rotates the flywheel.

I had to do it several times, but now that I have three fresh places on the flywheel, I have not had to repeat this for several months.

Worth considering if you have an older car you don't want to put $1000 or so in.

Carboy, I have an automatic. I used this solution however all along, not sure how it worked considering, however over time it meets up too the bad spot with constant starting eventually making it worse and worse!!

I just did a clutch replacement on mine and was horrified!!!! I had the same problem with the starter and low-and-behold, the flywheel and starter had rounded gears!!! So, I replaced them together along with all of the other various parts, and now it runs, and starts fine. Good luck to you all and if you can do it yourself, plan a week off of work!
Sean

When you say a week off work...your right on man...its a PITA job, and rotating the engines start position will not last to long. Yeh, 30 below outside with the kids in the car 100 miles from home, and you'll wish you have done it the right way...I got sucked in on the car I bought, the guy sold it to me knowing it was shot...I took the old flywheel when I was done repairing the car...drove to the [censored] house at midnight and chucked it in his driveway! I would like to have seen the look on his face when he found a chewed flyweel lying in his driveway...He would have known where it came from! Lesson learned...Buyer Beware! I could understand if he sold the car for a few hundred bucks, but I paid $3800.00 for the car...only has 84,000 km and runs like new now...after I broke my back to fix it.

Yup, now I went to do a quick once over on the car today, and found my left front caliper had it's bleeder screw knocked off. I can't believe I didn't notice this before. So word to the wise (and not so wise), check over everything while your there. Now the car's out of commission again. Oh well, I'm just glad I found this now. Good luck!
Sean