2001 Hyundai Tiburon Starter Grinding

JJLAGER

MEMBER
2001 HYUNDAI TIBURON

Engine Mechanical problem
2001 Hyundai Tiburon 4 cyl Front Wheel Drive Automatic 125k miles

My starter solenoid failed and I replaced the starter several months ago. Everything worked fine for a month or so, then it started grinding and eventually would not make a connection and the starter motor would just spin. I thought it was a bad bendix, took it back to the store and got another one, everything was fine for about 3 weeks. Took it to a shop, a guy I know who will exchange car work for computer work, he installed a new one, same story. I figured out that I could loosen it, retighten in top-bolt first, and it would start once or twice, or sometimes the whole day, but by morning it would be back to grinding and spinning. Now it just won't connect at all and it takes about 15 "tries" to get it to start.

I asked about shims and I guess this car doesn't use them, there seems to be a metal gasket looking thing between the starter and the rest of the housing. I'm starting to think that this gasket is misaligned and is pushing the starter away from the flywheel. I've inspected the flywheel and all the teeth are still intact. Does anyone have any other ideas for what I could look at to fix this?

1 Reply

MERLIN2021

MECHANIC
17,250 POSTS

You could be right about the shims! Here's what I found...
1. Disconnect field coil wire from starter terminal "M" of solenoid. Connect remote starter switch between positive battery terminal and terminal "S" of solenoid. See Fig. 11 . Connect jumper wire from negative battery terminal to terminal "M" of solenoid. 2. Activate remote starter switch (maximum 10 seconds), and ensure pinion drive moves out. Using feeler gauge, measure clearance between pinion and stopper. Ensure clearance is within specification. See STARTER SPECIFICATIONS . Adjust clearance, if necessary, by adding or removing shims between solenoid and front bracket. CAUTION: Perform pinion gap test in less than 10 seconds to prevent solenoid coil damage.