2G Grinding Starter

[ernie]

Okay I am not coming up with any answers why my starter is grinding. I have a 95 tsi awd with a 6bolt. I was having battery issues; ended up being loose positive terminal. I was jump starting the car when the starter all of a sudden started grinding. I changed it out with another starter I had. Same problem. When I checked the flywheel there is noticable wear on the ring gear but doesnt look like it is that bad. Went and bought another starter from autozone yesterday. Same problem. The battery wire to the starter reads 12v. I dont know what it could be. Any suggestions?

 

[Bud92gsx]

What sterter plate did you use? 6 bolt or 7 bolt? WIth the 6 bolt swap in tha 7 bolt car, you need to change starter plates or it will grind...

 

[ernie]

well I bought the car 2 months ago. It started fine. I didn't take the tranny out before this problem. It started fine for about a month before this happened.

 

[Nate Crisman]

Are the centering dowels both still in the block/trans? They should be on the lower 2 bolts. I'm not sure if there is enough play there in the event the dowels are missing to cause a flywheel/starter alignment issue.

 

[ernie]

I did noticed that I have only 1 alignment dowel on there. But the rest of the mounting bolts are all in the correct area and tight.

Alright well I put two brand new dowel pins in. Checked the starter plate and it looks fine. The starter is bolted down firmly. Curios thing is when I try to start it it grinds. If i stop and try to start again it just spins freely. Sometimes it doesn't grind and just free spins. I also noticed that if i rock the car enough(failed push start attempt) that some times it would grind but kick over, but I think that is just luck. So far i have tried everything except for replaicing the relay. Im going to replace the cable that runs from the battery to the starter tomorrow. Maybe there is to much resistance? It seems like the arm isnt extending all the way.

 

[Planckscale]

How did you solve your problem?
I am in the same predicament.

 

[saechao04]

I am too! I think I may be missing a dowel, found something that looked like it, but I also have an awd starter plate and my cars fwd! wtf? Anyway just ordered new starter bolts and a fwd starter plate, gotta find that dowel and make sure its not from the trans/block.

 

[Lusion972]

it could be that your flywheel has been out of place for quite some time and it just now grinded down enough to cause an issue. replacing the cable wont solve a mechanical issue like this. It may be time for another flywheel. Also, don't roll start your car...your causing the engine severe damage every time you do that.

 

[rkn527]

i had the same issue with my 2g with a fidinzza fly so i just put my stock fly back in and the issue is no longer there the fly may have been off for sometime now

 

[saechao04]

Hmm, I'm thinking it was a shipping error on the part of fidanza, I need to check the part number.