Last night I accidently hit the start button when the car was already started. It made a grinding noise for about a 10th of a second until I realized what I was doing. How much did this hurt the car?

Ooooooooops! Stupid me!

 

Having this occur too often can wreck the starter motor and/or damage the stater and/or flywheel gear teeth. If it just happened once don't worry about it.

 

Huh, all this time I thought the starter button was defeated when the car was running...I guess I've never tried it

 

if the clutch is in the start button still works.

 

There is a first time for everything

 

Taxi drivers do it all the time ;p

 

I've done it once, because I wasn't paying attention and the damn car was so quiet.

But doing it very rarely wouldn't hurt anything. Doing often will damage the starter. Pushing the button in this car is just like turning the key in other cars. I've seen people turn their keys all the time, while the cars were on.

 

did it in my old CRX also for just a split second, same noise, nothing ever happened, did a clutch check later later on and the flywheel had all the teeth and no signs of major damage but the starter died a few months later. dont know if thats what did it.

 

dont worry about it. as long as your not constantly on the start button nothing will happen. if you are, it will burn out the started motor. doing it for a split second is nothing to worry about.

 

Is this really true? I have MY01 and i recall hitting the start button, and my foot wasn't on the clutch. And it still worked.

I want to see if that is true... but i don't want to try and prove it. hehe