Grinding Starter From the first day we owned our 04 Taurus new, on occasion upon starting the starter sounds like it is grinding... over the last few years it has started to ocurr more often. It doesn't seem to be affected by if the engine is cold or not. Any ideas?

Hello. It seems the starter itself is wore out. The solenoid powers the motor but is not 'kicking out' the pinion gear to engage the flywheel; not like it should anyway. The 'whirring' sound is the starter; the 'grinding' sound are the starter and flywheel teeth not 'meshing' right. Remove and replace the starter. Good luck and keep me informed; if you want to.

sounds like the starter and or ring gear have been stripped , need to have starter remove to inspect both

Probably not your battery connections. Always worth a try though. But no need to remove them, just try and twist the connection on the battery terminal. If the wires aren't permanently affixed to the connector, (ie wires bolt to the connector, and connector bolts to the batter)try to move the wires leading into them. If any of the wires move or the connector twists then you need to tighten them. However it is most likely the solenoid in the starter that makes the gear pop out to connect with the fly wheel. If it isn't coming out all the way that's when you hear the gears not properly meshing and grinding against the fly wheel. Take out the starter and bring it with you to the parts store. Not only will Autozone, O'rielys and other big name stores be able to test it, but will ensure you get the correct part if you need a new one. There are also shops that can repair your old starter for a fraction of the cost of a new one, and can usually have it done in an hour or two.

it sounds like the bendix on starter is going bad. and it will not kick all the way into fly wheel when starting.remove starter and see if it works properly. Test the starter. Mount the starter in a large vise. Using jumper cables, attach the ground cable from a battery to the starter body and a positive cable to the starter positive post, where the main battery cable attaches. Attach a jumper wire from the solenoid-activator connection. Carefully jumper this wire directly to the starter positive post. The starter should spin firmly, and the starter drive-gear forcefully extend. good-day!

You need to have your flywheel: replaced.Your starter motor engages against the fly wheel at the back of the motor. Every time your motor stops it tends to be in the same few positions (just the way things work) so there is more stress on some parts of your fly wheel than others. Because of this the teeth wear out on the fly wheel which means the starter can correctly engage on the fly wheel which is the grinding noise.

Yes, you are probably right about the spacer or shim. A salvage yard should have lots of them for little or nothing. When you remove the starter for the spacer, check the drive gear end of the starter for severe wear. If it is chewed off very bad, have a new drive gear put on, or replace the starter.

Glad you found the problem.

Hello Anonymous...

To inspect the teeth on the ring gear requires the inspection to check the full 360 degrees of the ring gear. Looking past the inspection cover to examine a small portion of the ring gear may reveal no issues, but only for that section. Eventually the ring gear will end up positioned above the starter drive gear which will skip across the bad teeth creating your grinding noise when you try and start the Astro,.

It sounds like the gap between the starter gear and flexplate is growing. The ring gear may be worn out in spots causing the starter not to engage the (shortened) teeth of the flexplate. Or the starter is shimmed too far from the flywheel ( less likely ).

The flexplate problem will require the removal of the transmission to repair.

http://www.carpartsdiscount.com/auto/parts/2004/ford/taurus/flywheel_flexplate/flexplate.html?3593=247290

The part itself is not that expensive, however, the labor to replace will bite you

the sound you hear is the starter grinding against broken teeth on the flywheel, for that to be repaired the flywheel on the vehicle will need to be replaced.

MIKESTA