What does it mean when my car wont turn over and makes a loud deep grinding noise?

Asked by Alexis Feb 01, 2011 at 10:51 AM about the 1990 Honda Accord LX

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I drove my car fine to the store. When i went to crank it back up the battery lights, dash lights and radio came on but when it was turned all the way to crank up it made a horrible loud deep grinding noise and will not turn over to start.

2 Answers

695

The problem is you have enough power in your battery to get those accessories to come on, but not enough for the starter to crank the engine over. It will be one of these problems: - The battery cables are corroded, either at the terminals or underneath the cables' insulation - electricity travels along the surface of the metal in the wires and corrosion collects on the surface of the wires under the insulation in cars and develops enough resistance to impede the flow just enough to keep it under what the starter needs, but not too low for the accessories to not run. - If the cables are OK, it may be that the alternator isn't charging well enough and the car is pulling from the battery to keep itself going. First, clean your battery terminals and see if that fixes it. If not, have the battery and alternator tested - if they are both good, it'll be the cables. Hope this helps!

2 people found this helpful.

Sounds like a bad starter bendix the parts that makes the engine turn over its spinning bit hitting the edge of the flywheel teeth

1 people found this helpful.

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