Questions and Answers

Mitsubishi Eclipse Hums, Won't Crank Q. I have a 1991 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS. It has a fuel-injected 1.8 liter non-turbo engine with manual transaxle. I believe the mileage is about 150,000 or so and it has P/S, A/C and Cruise control. Anyways, the problem I'm having is the engine will sometimes not crank and sometimes will. I can hear the clutch switch engage when I depress the clutch pedal and I can hear the starter relay click when I turn the key to the start position.

But I can't hear the starter solenoid engage. Instead, I hear a slight humming or buzzing noise. I've replaced the battery, it needed it anyways, and it still does this occasionally. It is most definitely an intermittent problem, as I can push-start it, then it will start up fine after that. Until the next time it decides to surprise me by not cranking.

A friend of mine said that it could be that the starter is loose and could be binding with the ring gear, but it doesn't sound like it's binding, and I tried to wriggle the starter by hand, and it seemed firm. Also, from what I could tell, the cable connection seemed good, not corroded, as well as the ground.

I've taken it into the service shop today to see if they can determine the problem but I fear that they won't be able to because the problem is intermittent! That's about all the information I can give you right now, so thank you for your time.

A. It sounds like the Bendix Drive or the starter solenoid is going bad. When the ignition switch is turned to the START position the starter relay switches power to the starter solenoid causing the Starter Drive/Bendix to engage the flywheel ring gear and rotate the engine.

If the solenoid does not pull the starter gear drive lever and engage the bendix drive, the motor will just spin, making the humming noise you hear.

I'm pretty certain replacing the starter and solenoid will fix the problem.

Added 3/13/2004

Thanks for your answer. Just a little bit of an update of what has happened since I e-mailed you: my fears were confirmed, they were unable to reproduce the problem, but the next day it happened again, so I just had it towed into the service shop so that they wouldn't have to bother with reproducing the problem.

They said it was the starter motor, and I went ahead and had them replace it, as it's not in an easy-to-get-to spot from either the top or bottom of the car. I haven't had any problems since they replaced it, so I'm fairly happy with it now. Anyways, I wanted to thank you again for your time and interest,

Sincerely,
Isaac