yesterday i was sitting in my car [2000 Eclipse GT 5speed] with the engine running for a few minutes, forgot that it was on, and as i was about to leave i turned the key to start my car up, and realized it was already on by the loud grinding/crunching sound. i drove to a nearby store, turned the car off, and 5 minutes later came back, and ever since then my car wont start or even turn over. could this have completely killed my starter permanently? i read on yahoo something about the solenoid being "seized" or stuck in the "start" position, and a good tap with a hammer can put it back to normal. do you know anything about this? i am planning on removing the starter and taking to advance auto parts to have tested, but even if it comes up as a "bad" starter, can i cure it with a hammer or something simple? and if it comes up as a "good" starter, is it still possible that it could be showing "good" on the test because only the solenoid is messed up? PLEASE help, i have no ride now.
2007-05-07 16:53:22 · 5 answers · asked by BRobb 3 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
It seems odd that that hurt the starter; they're usually designed to withstand that sort of thing. I'd begin by checking to see if your battery is okay; these can fail without warning (it's happened to me) and they fail more often than starters.
It's generally not all that difficult to pull a starter out for testing; just make sure you put all the shims back in the way they came out. Take it into an auto electric shop, or one of the big auto parts chains, and they'll test it for you for free.
If it comes up bad, don't fool around: replace the thing. If you want to try whacking it with a hammer, do that before you take it out of the car. While it is possible for a starter solenoid to jam, and it is also possible for a blow from a hammer to clear the jam, it'll very likely jam once again. This, you don't need.
2007-05-07 17:09:36 · answer #1 · answered by 2n2222 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
in some cases taping it with a hammer will fix the problem but it sounds like when you cranked it the slower speed of the starter gears hitting the speed of the fly wheel caused them to either break or seize. if you can remove the starter before anything else so it doesn't get screwed up more. if all looks normal then you can either put it back and try again ( hit it with a dead blow hammer if you can while someone else tries to start it ) or take it to be tested. contact me at hunter1stshot@yahoo.com and ill help you as much as i can. good luck.
2007-05-08 00:11:53 · answer #2 · answered by hunter1stshot 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I doubt if it hurt your starter. It may have hurt the bendix gear, and worse yet, it may have ground up the teeth on the flywheel.
So when you pull the starter, check out the condition of the teeth on the flywheel. I once had the same condition, and the teeth on the flywheel were damaged somewhat. I could count on replacing the starter about every 18 months.
Good luck to you and I hope you didn't do too much damage.
2007-05-08 00:15:10 · answer #3 · answered by Fordman 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i own a repair shop, and i never replace one without replacing the other on these,id pull the starter off if it and look at it and the flywheel teeth real good ,and make sure there's no damage to either of them,if you one or more bad teeth on a flywheel it will eat the new gear up on the new starter,and you,ll probably be doing this job all over again someday soon,good luck hope this helps.
2007-05-08 00:20:00 · answer #4 · answered by dodge man 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would be careful smacking my starter with a hammer. Be sure it does not have ceramic magnets in it before you do that. You might just end up having to replace it because you tried to "fix it" with a hammer.
2007-05-08 00:44:00 · answer #5 · answered by Matt T 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋