Pinion gear on starter motor wont disengage, has happened 3 times now. start the car and you hear that terrible noise (kinda like a banshee screaming at your face) does this mean a new starter motor guys? EDIT Might add that its not a grating noise, its literally like the gear is still poked out and running overtime (due to the RPM of idle being double that of starting) and making a high pitched whirring noise kinda like a scream.
We had something the same , so try this first unbolt your starter motor and see if when you push the cog out on its spline to were it would engaged the flywheel that it dose so freely and spring`s back freely when you let the cog go , if not get the CRC spray out and free it up , our`s was gummed up and the cog would go out and engage but didn`t want to spring back .. if all is free you`ll have to look further but that is were i would look first its a cheap fix if its sticky....Lloyd
We just had this with our commonwhore and yes it was a case of pulling the starter motor, and cleaning with something like crc. I used wd40 - absolutely drenched it, used air to blow out all the crap drenched it some more repeated the air..... rinsed repeated until I was happy it was clean, I then put a very fine layer of grease on the throwout shaft and reinstalled, wasnt a perfect fix as it still does it once a month or so but was enough to deal with the issue untill I get around to buying a new one.... or selling the car.
If the above comments don't fix it you can take the back cover off (after its disconnected and off the car) to see if the contacts have welded or are pitted etc. An auto sparky can usually rebuild it if the insides look like crap. Or you can just buy a new one and forget about it. I would try the cheap fix first of course though. If your still stuck shoot me a PM or email as i sell starters & alternators at work Regards, Grant.
In addition to above, very often the solenoid itself becomes gunked up internally. Sometimes the return spring breaks and the pinion wont retract. E
