greetings all...

my starter went out so im planning on replacing it myself. ive changed starters on mid 80's Buick Regals, Pontiac Firebirds, and a few other cars similar as far as starter positioning. i see the starter from up top.it does seem higher then the cars i mentioned.is the Accent starter easily accesable from the bottom of the car if i put it on some ramps?

if so, off bat, do you know the size of bolts holding it in place? am i going to have to take anything off to get to the starter?


thank you in advance.

ps. great forum, i saved hundreds perhaps thousands on forums like these on other makes and models.

 

if i may, the reason i think its the starter is i have had this car for about a year and a half and periodically the car wont start. all i get is a winding noise when turning the key. the other day it winded, pause, wind, pause, wind and so on.

 

Before you go replacing the starter, are you sure about the rest of the system? Is the battery been replaced or is it the original battery? Are the connections all good? It's been really cold, and if you still have the original battery, then it's time to get a new one.

 

im going to assume its the original battery, but the battery hasnt givin me any problems,except for the occasional winding of the starter but i wouldnt attribute that to the battery.would you?

im curious what the weather has to do with anything.I live in northern california where its either real hot or real cold and thats never been a problem for any of my batteries.

is there any trouble shooting tips to narrow down the possibilites?

 

and just some back ground...

when my starter acts up, its never in cold weather, coincidently it pretty much always happens when its hotter out side. on top of that, it happens when i drive through tou tthe day, start,stop,start,stop etc, so the battery would still be good with that said.

 

When you say the "starter is winding", do you mean it sounds like the electric motor is running but the starter is not engaging the flywheel? and do you always hear the electric motor when the car has starting problems?

 

If the starter is "winding" but it doesn't engage the flywheel, then it could be a bad starter. The mechanical pieces won't press into the flywheel when the starter engages. This could also be a product of low voltage or amps from the battery. Just try to charge the battery, see if that helps.

 

it sounds like its not engaging.i always hear the electric motor too.
I actually disconected the battery terminal and one was a little corroded,not much though. but i connected the battery back and now the car starts just fine. in most of my older cars ive had, the starter "starts" to go out.it gets worse over time untill its shot. for my Accent, its not really getting worse, its just acts up once in a while then works perfectly fine.

 

Ah...I wonder if this wasn't the case. Cleaning up the cable connections and checking the battery never hurts, but I don't think this is the problem. I think you have some teeth chipped on the flywheel ring that creates a dead zone for the starter drive when the starter is activated. If there is nothing for the drive gear to grab, the starter is just going to spin freely. On rare occasion when you shut off the engine, the damaged portion of the ring ends up in front of the starter. Next time this happens, put the car in neutral (with the emergency brake on), open the hood and try turning the crankshaft by hand. Once you've done that, climb back in the car and try starting it. If this is the cause of the problem, replacing the starter with a new or rebuilt unit will not solve the problem.

 

will do, thanks.