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this morning the starter motor on my 54 plate 2.1 petrol did not want to turn the engine over , in stead it made a horrible grinding noise ,

last week she failed to start and i thought it was a flat battery , though known to be good i swapped it out and put in a new one i had , and she fired up , but since then she has just ' clicked ' sometimes, but then in the second attempt has fired up

but this morning, no go , i diagnosed it as the solenoid on the starter not throwing forward the starting gear , a little research and found this is becoming more and more of an issue on our cars

remedy is replacement , or as i did a strip and clean of the starter motor

removal is easy on my engine , remove battery and tray , using a 13mm socket remove the two vertical mounting bolts on the starter, and the two connections on the rear once the motor has been twisted round

removal requires a little jiggling around, but it come out easily

on removal i could see the gear was caked in black debris , this was not letting the solenoid do its job , and i could barley move it by hand ,

i used some contact cleaner to remove the dust and gunk , and this started to free up everything , eventually i could freely move the gear wheel and the solenoid throw by hand, and left it to drain , cleaned everything up and reinstalled into the car,

the first turn of the key gave me a ' click ' the second turn and the car fired inot life, possibly just a meshing issue and still a bit raw after the cleanup ,

a new starter from Jag is £130 plus the VAT , so not too bad , especially as its a pop to fit

so for the sake of reliability , i have bought a new unit and will fit it next weekend ,

anyone else had to do this ?

btw, the ' Mondeo ' starter looks very similar, but the mounting bolts are longer as the shoulders are deeper on the ford part , just so you know

BB

Hi BB,
Interesting to read the above. I have read that vehicles fitted with Dual Mass Clutch / Flywheel Assemblies create amounts of black dust that finds its way through to starter motor which in turn effects the starter motor performance. In your case is this a sign of things to come !

I have an S Type which also has a dual mass flywheel so I keep an eye on anything to do with this subject.

yes , its a dual-mass as you describe

apparently the majority of the dust is from the clutch plate friction material , but as you say , its something to look out for ,

i think my car ( which i have had for under a year ) was used for motorway journeys had done 110k , and it now does 3 mile runs as its my wife's car , though the clutch does feel ok for the time being, and no signs of any slippage etc

but for under £2k what should i expect , lol


so far,a reverse switch , a water pump ,an auxiliary belt and pulleys and a battery.........

so cant complain

BB

BB,
As you say, can't complain