Camry did something wierd today

[HoboJoe]

My gen3 3vz-fe camry did something wierd when I went to start it today.
OK, so I put the key in the ignition, turn the key, and when the car should be turning over, it is replaced by this awful, horrible, loud grinding sound. I am now scared to go and turn the car on. I drove the lincoln all day today and am now out $40 on gas in that thing. What the hell happened? I'm worried about my car.

[nukem678]

The starter probably missed a tooth on the flywheel or just didnt engage right. Id try it one more time and ifit does it again, id look into a new starter or possibly but less likely a new flywheel.

[Mike Gerber]

nukem678 is correct. This was a more common problem on generation 2 Camrys. Either the starter drive is not coming out far enough to engage the flywheel and/or the flywheel has some teeth sheered off of it. Hope for your pocketbook it's just the starter drive. Replacing that is fairly cheap. It just requires replacing the starter. Replacing the flywheel (if teeth are chipped off of it) requires removal of the transmission. That becomes a pretty expensive job. Take the starter out and have a look at the starter drive gear. Does it look like it's chipped up a bit? If it does, try replacing the starter and hope that is the only problem.

Good luck.

Mike

[ekim55121]

my corolla did that alot it turned out to be the starter also

[ASG14]

Yeah, 90% chance it is the starter. If you buy rebuilt, make sure it has a good warrentee, cause I know many people that have gotten bad rebuilt starters. Good luck.

[Eye8Pussies]

as everybody says, it's your starter and chances are you didn't chip a tooth off your flexwheel

and it's most likely the solenoid in your starter that's going and it's either not extracting the starter gear far enough, or it may be not retracting it after, which means that it stays engaged on your flywheel

next time, if you just want to at least get it to a shop if you can't change it yourself, try tapping on the starter with a hammer to disengage/engage it properly

[HoboJoe]

Ughh, I tried starting it again and it made the same horrible noise. My neighbor John across the street even heard it and asked what was wrong. Of course I said I didn't know. I tried it a second time and it started up like a champ.
I'll take a look at the starter later.
Thanks guys
Will

[HoboJoe]

Started again with no problems. That makes me feel much better. I'll make an appointment for the car for next saturday.

[Gary_602Z]

Just keep in mind that the more you start it with it grinding the more damage you can do to it! Grinding isn't good.

Gary