Starter Motor Woes - SORTED (I think!)

Post Sat Jan 29, 2005 5:02 pm

What a day i've had!

Posted on here previously that my starter motor had appeared to die. Turning the key just resulted in a loud clonk, but nothing turned over - starter motor or engine.

Picked up a starter motor from the scrappy last night to replace the one of the car.

This morning, took me f'in ages to get the old one off - only two bolts, but both difficult to get to. (However, i didn't have to drain the coolant as suggested in the Bentley manual.)

Once off, found that the one i'd picked up from the scrappy was different to the one on the car - it was bigger and had different terminals. So, drove off back to the scrappy to exchance it for another one apparently identical to the one i'd taken off my car.

Fitted this one to the car (again taking f'in ages due to these stupid bolts!), turned the key and - just a loud clonk again! After banging my head off the brick wall for a while, i took another look and reaslised i'd left one wire off - doh!! Connected this up and - starter motor turns over fine, but doesn't engage with the flywheel and hence doesn't start the car!

So what's up? Battery voltage appears to be ok. I did notice that the fan at the front of the car did move a little bit once, so i'm guessing the cog of the motor isn't quite being thrown out enough to engage with the teeth on the flywheel.

I really, really, really dont want to take that starter motor off again, so please please please rattle your brains and come up with a magical solution. (I've already tried hitting it with a hammer - believe me, i hit it alright!!)

Many thanks.

Post Sat Jan 29, 2005 5:28 pm

If it's just a case of the cog not being thrown up the spindle then regreasing is the solution,I've had this happen on a few cars.
However it does mean taking it off again!

Post Sat Jan 29, 2005 9:04 pm

Thanks for that Jesus, but where exactly needs greasing? It looks like a sealed unit apart from the open cog at the end. Someone else told me not to use grease as they can get clogged up (not a particularly reliable source of information though, i have to say!).

Post Sat Jan 29, 2005 9:32 pm

wot u mean this saga is still going on

Post Sat Jan 29, 2005 9:42 pm

Sadly yes Andy - wish i'd taken you up on your kind offer now - might still do this, but i wont be able to work on the car again until next weekend, unless i do it in the dark one evening. Well cheesed off!

Post Sat Jan 29, 2005 9:47 pm

ok phone me and i will tell you how to test it out,

Post Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:18 pm

Thanks for your help Andy - really appreciate you taking the time. I'll hopefully get round to taking the offending article off the car one evening this week, weather permitting and try out your suggestions.

Post Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:33 pm

can i help at all pete?

Post Sun Jan 30, 2005 10:40 pm

On the engien we removed from Jim's 325i breaker car today, there was a massive starter motor unlike any I've seen before so it looks like there are different types, make sure you get the right one.

Post Sun Jan 30, 2005 11:00 pm

Simon - cheers for the offer, but it's really a one-man job to remove and replace these. The main problem will be doing it in the dark and cold.

Adam - as usual, i had my trusty digicam with me to take a few photos whenever i'm doing a job. Below is a pic of the starter i took off my car (on the right) and the one i originally picked up from the scrappy (on the left), which apparently was from a 91 325i auto - much larger as you can see!

Post Sun Jan 30, 2005 11:05 pm

Yeah that one on the left looks just like the one we took off Jim's car.

They should theoretically both fit, they just mount differently, I'd have a shot at fitting the larger one before dismissing it. The actual motor is larger but the mounting areas are the same.

Post Mon Jan 31, 2005 7:47 am

I've taken the bigger one back now - although i verified that the mounting holes and everything were identical, the terminals were different and so i didn't want to risk fitting it only to find that it was wired differently.

Post Fri Feb 04, 2005 8:59 pm

Well, my car's back on the road at long last, though i'm not really sure why!

Picking up from where i last posted - got second starter motor from the scrappy - that turned over, but didn't engage and hence turn over the engine.

Took the thing off again, greased it up a bit with some spray white grease, hooked it up to some jump leads direct from the battery (as suggested by a very helpful AndyP!) and hey presto - worked fine. (It also caught fire because of the fumes from the grease being ignited by the sparks from the jump leads, but i wont dwell on that!) But, the little cog flung all the way out and whizzed round just as it should. So, decided it put it back on the car after cleaning up all the connections etc.

Guess what? Same thing as before - turned over but wouldn't engage with the flywheel. So, i tried my old starter on the ground with the jump leads and that did exactly the same as the other one (no fires this time though). So, i took off the one from the scrappy for a second time and put my original one back on again.

Guess what? The sodding thing worked fine! I'm buggered if i know why it wouldn't work before, but it was most definitely dead - solenoid clunking, but not turning over at all. The only thing i did that might of cured it is turning over the flywheel a little bit with a screwdriver (as suggested by my friendly local garage). So perhaps it was just stuck in an awkward position? No idea. Perhaps running the starter motor on the ground freed it up? I just hope it doesn't play up again.

Still, at least i can change a starter motor in half an hour now. Took me over two hours to just get it off first time round, but after removing and replacing at least 3 times, i'm somewhat the expert at this now! Even my local garage estimated 1.5 hours to do the job, based on BMW guidelines.