I have an '07 4.6 Screw with 116,000 miles on it and have been religious with the maintenance and it's been a good truck. For about the last 20,000 miles or so it will make this awful grinding noise when I start the truck. It will do it once every few weeks and the truck will always start. Today it did it twice to me and as soon as I hear it, I always turn the key back immediately before trying to start it again. I'm afraid it will strand me eventually. What could this be? Starter going out? Something with the flywheel?

 

mine has done this as well. believe there is a small chip off one of the teeth on the flywheel. not for sure though.

 

Research "starter grind" as I had the same issue. The noise sounds like you turn the key when the engine is already started

Your starter is grinding on the teeth on the flex plate (flywheel for automatic transmissions) Replace your starter now! Might be too late and if your flex plate is damaged it will continue to eat thru starters until it is replaced. I waited too long and got to the point it grinded several times every start. Total cost was $1400 to replace starter and flex plate thru dealer.

The starter stops on the flywheel in 3 different points when the engine is turned off. You have 1 of the 3 sections that has damaged teeth and everytime it stops on that section it grinds until it can get a good contact. My flex plate had one section that was completely GONE of teeth and the other 2 were damaged significantly. I let mine go for about 30K miles before it went **** up.

Good luck

 

^^, repair now or it will cost more later...

 

Very good explanation. I'll take it into my mechanic this week.

 

I’m having the same behavior. Every few times I go to start my truck, it turns over for a bit before making a grinding sound. I’ll immediately turn the keys back, wait a few seconds and try again. It always works on the second try.

I replaced my starter only 1 month ago. Is it possible I got a bad starter, and should just replace it again since it’s under warranty? Or am I going to have to replace the flywheel somehow?

 

I think I've only dealt with a few starter failures grinding like this. I've just replaced them. However, in the last 10 or 15 years I've kept the old starters and done autopsies on them. Unfortunately, I haven't torn one apart that had this particular failure. All of the ones that I've torn down have been electrical issues, bad solenoid, worn brushes, burnt windings, etc.



Kodi nox