Hi:
Does anyone have experience with a starter motor breaking down?
I have a 2006 3.0 V6 automatic with 182,000 miles.
I have had the car for 18 months and it runs fine. I always thought the starter motor made more noise than what I would expect but it has not been a problem. It did fail to engage a couple times, just briefly over the last 18 months.
Today it seemed to engage is sort of a sloppy way, like maybe the bendix was getting tired or I had a bad spot on the ring gear. I tried it 3-4 times and could not get the engine to start.
A couple hours later it made the same half hearted attempts and then the engine started. Twice.
If anyone has had a starter motor fail on their 3.0 Xtype can you tell me of any symptoms of failure before the last day?
I am really hoping it is not a worn spot in the ring gear.
I will be off line for about a month and not able to access or reply here, I apologize in advance for not promptly acknowledging your responses.
P. Smiith
How old is your battery?
I’m not sure about how the Bendix/throw mechanism is on the X-Type, but many of the mechanical ones depend on the initial rate of spinup to engage. If your battery is marginal it may not throw the pinion sufficiently.
I would expect the X type to have a non-bendix starter utilising a throw in solenoid.
You would be better off to replace the starter motor with that much
mileage on it, they don’t cost that much.
Bosh is a good brand
Walter
Hi: I am back from a trip and grateful for your responses. I have decided that the starter is OK after all. I got spooked because the engine didn’t just fire up on the first thrust from the starter, the engine had to turn over and I had never heard that happen before without it firing right up.
Why the engine didn’t just fire up on the first turn is another question, I will get a fresh tank of gas and maybe some injector cleaner and see if that goes back to normal.
I just drove a small Fiat diesel for 2 weeks, a rental. That was different. Ran fine.
P. Smith
I have decided the starter is not ok after all. Once in a while, and just a little too often, it will grind instead of engage the flywheel. So I am getting a new Bosch starter to be installed. I certainly do not want to get a new ring gear and I fear that grinding is the failure to fully engage the ring gear. And I recall from the olden days that engines would more often come to a stop at a certain top dead center so that the starter engages in one spot more often than elsewhere. This would mean more grinding on that critical spot and total failure to engage some inconvenient day.
I had to assure my mechanic that it was really a Taurus or Lincoln or Mercury and not the boogey man of a Jaguar that he fears. I have changed starters before, I could probably do it, but the first page of the Repair Manual specifies an engine support bracing tool and removing the engine support bar, so I will pass on the pleasure of doing it myself.
P.
New Bosch motor installed, works fine except about every 10 or 15 starts it will just spin the starter and not engage for 2-3-4 tries and then it engages and the motor starts just fine. Only guess here is missing teeth on the flywheel, but there is no teeth grinding sounds and no clue how the engine might advance to allow ring gear teeth to engage.
P.
Sounds like the solenoid to me. Should be covered.
I recently went thru a rash of changing reduction starter motors on a few later model cars
to cut a long story short, one way to test if it is the internal solenoid (contacts) that are faulty;
with the SM still fitted, and ignition switched on, short the 2 main terminals and solenoid terminal
(I use a ring spanner)…if the car starts fine every time, and there was a fault before, means the solenoid contacts cannot take the full load current
The failed starter motors will usually pass a no load test.
It was a bit frustrating to fit a spare starter motor, have it just click, remove, dismantle & test ok, install again, and it still just clicks, starts with a ring spanner (bad solenoid)
The issue was it would spin the starter but not engage. When I had it happen to my X300, it would start when it was cold and after it had sat for a couple of hours. When the engine had run and everything was hot, I would just hear the starter spin (wheee) but it wouldn’t turn the engine over. I would turn the key repeatedly until it caught.