I can't believe what I did tonight - I got a call, pulled over to the side of the road to talk (it was an important call). After I was finished, I attempted to re-start the car...while it was already running.

The sound was UNBEARABLY NAUSEATING - the longest 2-3 seconds of my life.

15 years of driving, and 3 prior cars (all real POS), and I never did this before. Now it's 2 weeks into my new TL and I do it?


DID I CAUSE ANY DAMAGE??

Please advise!!

 

BEATS ME

 

Dont worry, sounds bad but wont do any damage unless you do it often and longer.

 

I find it odd that the TL even allows you to do that.

A 2004 Kia that costs $9,999 doesn't even allow you to crank while the engine is running, my friends base $16,000 Jetta doesn't either.

 

Everything will be fine. Now u got a reason to get a bluetooth cell phone, you wont need to pull over anymore

 

On the bright side, the TL must have a pretty quiet engine!

 

Actually, that thought went through my head (after the cursing).

Knowing that, however, doesn't fix a burnt starter solinoid!

But hopefully your guys are right, and I didn't cause any damage.

 

If you did do damage, it could be to the starter or flywheel gears. If a tooth is damaged, every once in a while you will hear a slipping noise when you start the car. If a week goes by and you haven't heard anything strange, then you didn't damage a gear. The only other problem is you can burn out your starter motor if you do this often.

 

It should be ok unless you have done this everyday.

My 94 Legend and 99GS300 all can be restarted again while engines are running. So bad.

When I use Valet Parking, I always turn off my engine first and talk to guys being careful of my starter. Unfortunately, that's the only thing I can do since I have to use Valet parking frequently.

 

Seriously TZVECL, don't give it another thought. I replaced many a starter and flywheel during my mechanic days and one multi-second "grinder" wont do any long/short term damage at all. You would literally have to hold the key and grind for quite some time to damage the starter gear and flywheel ring gear. The solenoid isn't even a factor. The "contact" edge of the gears is what you would have damaged, and if you did anything significant they would not want to engage at all. Due to the flywheel rotating faster than the starter at idle, the ring gear actually makes contact with the opposite side of the "teeth" edge, not the normal engagement side... Due to the speed of rotation ie RPM, any minor damage (and you have none..) would be spread over all teeth and not just one or two etc. I could go on but bottom line, you have nothing to worry about. Chock it up as a learning experience that all of us have had, usually more than once...

Happy Grinding - I mean New Year

Smitty

 

Smitty, thanks for your explanation. It's always great to have someone talk about the real mechanical theory behind the scene.


Happy New Year.

 

 

i can't even remember how many times i've done that in my '99 TL. nothing ever happened though so you should be ok

 

"Since you know it all, one question, just cause I'm curious:"

--Well I wouldn't even say I come close to knowing it all,,, just a 40+ guy who has numerous "been there-done that" type of jobs and experience with cars etc. :-)

"If it didn't cause any problems (I believe you), why is the noise it makes SO BAD??"

--It's designed that way so you only do it once!!
Other than that,,, and I will say I doubt if a mechanic pulled your starter off and looked at the teeth that they could tell you performed the "grind" procedure once. But, after all it is two very hard gears, spinning at different rpm's, making contact in a way they are not designed. Have you worked with any wood saws at home? Imagine spinning your circular saw up then sticking/dragging a screwdriver against the side of the metal teeth... You would get a loud "zinging/grinding" ring wouldn't you. Same with the flywheel ring gear and the starter gear. With the engine/flywheel already spinning/idling, and you apply the starter, the two gears never engage rather just spin and "drag" against each other for a split second - making that ungodly zinging/grinding noise.... Probably not the best analogy but bottom line, its a lot of noise and very little effect.

Now, if one was to perform "the grind procedure" numerous times it would eventually deteriorate the shape of the starter and ring gear contact area. This would eventually cause the starter gear to not engage properly with a stationary flywheel/ring gear, thus causing the same type of zinging/grinding noise you encountered yet your starter would no longer rotate the engine....

Take care and enjoy your TL and the New Year.

Smitty