Mine makes a grinding sound, almost like a noisy wastegate, maybe 2-3 times a month on a cold start. It hasn't had any other issues though, so I let it be. The poor thing is getting old. 10 years, 120K miles...

 

If anybody wants to work on their starter, I can sponsor someone to do it at Quantico hobby shop. Quantico hobby shop is the best hobby shop facility I've ever seen, heater on the winter and AC on hot summer day, not to mention the cleanest.

Google their schedules and PM me to work the time.

 

I've had the same issue as well (i think). Sad when you think about how infrequently my car has been started the first 8 years of her life. Ron - very generous of you to offer. I need to do my Diff fluid at some point too.. maybe when it's a little warmer?

 

Just let me know.

 

I wish I read this thread before I changed my starter. It was grinding, so I found a low mileage used one for super cheap and threw it on. I should've greased it before I installed it!

 

The bendix on the starter is sticking. Its a common problem on the S.

 

Everyone! I had this problem on my car during this winter and I found online that someone said just don't hold the start botton down as long since the this behind it doesn't retract fast enough, just don't hold it down as long. Well I've been doing that for the past 1.5 months and I NEVER get that noise on cold start ups anymore. For example, on an early morning cold start I release my finger off the botton approx. .5-1 second faster than usual and it doesn't make that grinding anymore!

I bought my car in August of '11 and live in Oregon so it starts to get cold in September. My car started making that noise on start ups around the end of sept. and I researched online for months about how to fix it, but I didn't want to spend money on it. After almost 3 months of that retarded noise on cold starts I finally crossed over someones post from another s2k forum that I found through google and he just said "Well since the grind last about 1 second, I just started letting go of the botton about 1 second earlier and it doesn't make that noise anymore." What do you know? I tried it, and it work. yeeeeee!

 

I'm pretty sure that if I let off the starter any sooner my car won't actually start, but I guess it can't hurt to try and see what happens.

 

I'll have to try taking my finger off the start button sooner. When I bought the car the plugs were bad, and it would start up very slowly--until I figured out that was the issue and replaced them. This got me into the habit of holding the button until it turns over.

I'm with TopGear though, the car might not start with this method.