OKay let me see if I can phrase this properly.
Mechanic took new starter out, replaced it with another and car made that same darned noise when turning the key.
He said flywheel, etc. all looked fine on the outside. He did ask if I had the transmission worked on and I said yes but it was back in March and we have had no problems whatsoever.
He told me to call the trans. place, have them take it out and check the flywheel internally.
If there was a problem, wouldn’t this have shown up way before now? We knew the original starter was going bad because it was not turning over the last several weeks like it should but was not making those noises.
The noise started right when the original starter went out.
I am so confused, I am not sure what to do.
Today, it took at least 6 times to start the car as it did not want to start. Finally, it started. I turned it off and tried again, same thing.
A few hours later, I went and started the car on the first try but still with that awful noise.
Your thoughts, please.
His car is a Chevy Vega. I owned one so I know. That car would start, on its own, when I was in the house and the car was parked in the drive-way. Weird but true.
When you say it did not want to start, did the car make any noise during those failed attempts? Or was there really bad grinding sounds and the engine didn't turn over?
And if I'm understanding you say that when it did start you had the grinding noise as it was starting.
The noise started right when the original starter went out.
Can I read this to mean that the noise started when the replacement starters where engaged? I strongly suspect that the starter needs to be shimmed to align with the flywheel. If you had a replacement transmission installed, the shop that installed the tranny probably shimmed the started to match it at the time. The installed transmission may be out of spec just a bit.
A couple references about shimming a GM starter (these are discussions about chevys, same applies to Buick)...
how to shim a starter and more instruction.
The folks who installed your starter should know about shimming starters. But since you've tried them twice, I'd suggest you ask the transmission shop to listen to the car start and diagnose the problem for you.
Since you had the transmission replaced, that makes the odds of starter/flywheel being out of alignment much higher necessitating the use of shims.