what happens when car is on and then I accidently use the ignition key to turn it on again? engine damage?

Answer 1

You may put a fright into the starter gear or your flywheel. A little premature wear on the teeth, perhaps. But nothing major unless you keep grinding away it. Do it often and then you WILL break something in/on the starter, or damage your flywheel.

Answer 2

When you do that you are engaging the starter onto a flywheel that is already moving. What you are hearing is the gears from the starter and flywheel grinding together because they cannot line up. Kinda like when you put a playing card against the spokes of a bike. For a second here or there not a problem but if you were to do it continuous long enough it would strip the gear on the starter if it works like it is designed. The starter gear is a softer metal.

Answer 3

What happens is the starter tries to engage the flywheel (on manual transmission cars) or the flexplate (on automatic transmission cars). This engagement is done through gears that mesh into eachother. When u turn the key again if its running already, the gears try to mesh but they can't since the engine is already spinning very fast. That is why you hear that grinding noise. There is no engine damage, but if you do it alot you can wear the teeth on the starter or the flywheel/flexplate.

Answer 4

About the worst thing I think could happen is the starter might break, but as long as you catch it quick enough most of the time nothing bad happens.

Answer 5

no engine damaged maybe a loud noise and the engine stalls. but nothing to worry about

Answer 6

Your starter might go bad after a while or you can burn some cables. My brothers car got on fire because of stuck starter.

Answer 7

It can damage the ring gear on the flywheel.

Answer 8

it can wear on the starter/ignition, alternator things like that..

Answer 9

The teeth will grind a little, just don't do it everyday.