OMCMT

http://youtu.be/vO3VuX0utgc

Hey all,

Anyone know what the sound could be attributed to?

MR.T

i'm pretty sure that's your starter. apparently happens to a lot of s2's including mine. from all the research i've done, it's harmless.

Kazuken

That happens to mine only when the car has been sitting for a few days and it is cold outside.

MR.T

Yeah it only does it on mine during cooler mornings and the car has been sitting.

Moddiction

Sticking starter.

OMCMT

If this is the case...how can it be fixed?

vtec9

The starter has a small gear the extends on a shaft to engage the flywheel teeth, then spins to get the engine moving. The screech sound occurs when this shaft doesn't retract fast enough, and the starter gear is forced to spin extra fast due to being driven by the flywheel (which is now being powered at a much higher speed from the engine).

You can try to dis-assemble, clean, and grease the shaft up with some high temp urea in an attempt to get it to retract faster.. but reports on this have been hit or miss, and also reports that the gears look fine after years of the noise.. which leads me to believe it's not a big deal and isn't harming much.

Dibsen

This just started happening on my car. Good to know it is harmless, however, I don’t like the noise. I just had the starter off for a clutch job, wish I’d know about this when it was off.

maybe when I replace my serpentine belt, I’ll go one step further. It should warm up here in a month or two so hopefully it’s just a winter thing

windhund116

This cold stater noise is common problem with many Hondas. The CR-V does it. I just tell my wife to turn the heater & radio to full blast --- when doing an early morning startup.

Car has over 150K miles on it. Been doing this since it was new.

engifineer

Cleaning it worked the first time on mine. A few years later it now does it again and I cleaned it up again, but no fix this time. I think its return spring weakens over time and then you cannot fix it again. But like others said it does not really cause much of an issue.

If you release the start button just a hair sooner, it will not do it Hard to explain but try it and you will see what I mean. If you release it right before the engine starts to spin over, but not too soon (or it will not start) many times it will avoid the grind completely.