Press the start button (careful not to hold it too long) and the car starts, immediately followed by a short grind sound (as if you pressed the start button while car was idling). After driving it, with engine being hot, re-starting is never an issue. Any ideas?

 

It's normal

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How/why is that "normal"?

 

normal as in a common issue that many owners have had and posted about. just replace the starter.

 

its not harming anything, you can replace it when you do the clutch.

I guess I can consider my self lucky, 03 AP1 w/ 170,000 miles still on original starter and zero grinds to date.

 

you do not need to replace the starter because of this, the reason is that the gear has started to rust and fails to retract fast enough when the motor starts thus it makes that grinding noise, the only real remedy is to grease that gear.

 

i have greased and the noise came back. i just live with it

 

Seems like 50%-75% of AP1 owners have the starter grind on cold starts. No damage caused by it to speak of. Do what the rest of us do... try to ignore and kick any passengers that complains about it out of the car.

 

mine's currently grinding and when i replace it, it will be with an OE reman unit. they are Denso reman units, so should be fairly reliable.

 

I just moved to Oregon, first night it got cold the car wouldn't start. I tapped the starter with a metal pipe it started right up. Next morning same thing, it got super cold usually below 30*, this time when I started the car it started but made a horrible grinding noise. I am going to take it out some time and see if I can rebuild it, or maybe get an Autozone Ultima, its a denso reman, I have had a pretty good experience with their alternators. I will see how it works out