A friend's problem

[ace_ga]

Well today i made a new friend at the car wash. This dude has a 99+ GA SE. Well we were carrying on conversations about our GAs or whatever and then he tells me he has this problem. So I crank up his car and as soon as his engine turns over and starts something under the hood will give the car a little vibration and you can hear something rattle then it stops. Could this mean the starter is about to go bad? Well he told me it started about 2 or 3 days ago. The dealership he bought it from told him it was the starter. Is this so? If not what else could it be? Also if it is the starter about how much do they run? As a side note he said the car came with a 2.0 engine but he swapped in a 2.4 i think it was. But anyway he wants to get this out of the way before he installs the turbo. Any suggestions? Thanks g

[4kQuad]

When you turn the Key the starter ingagues in the fly wheel. When you release the key the starter releases from the fly wheel. at that point it's job is done. It is not spinning so I dought from what you said it's the starter.

I would look for some thing else loose or hanging that can wiggle while the car is running. Better yet pop the hood before it is started next time. Look for the rattle.

[Freddy6667]

4kQuad is right on the normal operation of the starter, however, it sounds like the dealership is right on this one. When the starter does not disengage, the vibration is more then likly the starter spinning faster then it should because the engine is now driving the starter, and the rattle is when the starter finnaly disengages and spins down. Nither the bushings in the starter, nor the armature is not designed to spin that fast so something has to give if the starter doesn't disengage to many times, hence the rattle. When you replace the starter, check the teeth on the flywheel for damage as well. Good luck