I recently did a 5spd swap and this has been happening ever since that. When I go to start the car, sometimes it starts up normally and sometimes it just keeps cranking and eventually turns over. When the car is sitting for a while, it starts fine. When I start it a couple minutes after I turned it off, it starts giving me problems. I was thinking that it could be the gear ring. I have a stock flywheel and 5th gen clutch. I don't think it could be the starter, its less than a year old.

 

Hard hot starts = grounding issue.

 

you'd be surprised how quickly a start can go bad. Starter takes about 10 min to take off, have it tested to eliminate it from the list of potential suspects.

test/check/clean cam/crank sensors.

any problems with the car after is running and while driving? idles normally?

 

True, could be starter. Especially with all the poor remanufaured ones out there.

 

I hope it's not the starter, I've been through too many of them.

Once the car is on, it drives and idles normally. No issues there.

 

yea mine also. Sometimes my car back fires or its a hard start the car shakes kinda doesnt really but it give you the feel off it. Thought it was the starter, or a grounding issue or maybe the spark plugs.. Still gotta check it out though

 

Ok guys it stopped starting like this only when hot/warm. Last night I went to start it after the car had enough time to cool and it was the worst as it has ever been. A crapload of different noises. I noticed that my starter is missing the 14mm bolt. I have no idea how this could be, I guess the person who did my motor swap lost it and I just found out.

 

You need to make sure everthing is installed properly also. Just start with the easiest parts like the starter, once you get that issue out of the way then you can stop thinking about if it's the starter or not....

On the side note:
I always hear about the remanufacured starters. What alternatives do we have? I always bought remaned starters from bosch and i can get a discount on autolite starters but is there a better solution? Is it going to be costly? Most remaned starters I see come with life time replacement warranty but then that just means you do a lot of starter jobs. I've done 3 on mine so far.

Chris

 

Its fixed guys! It turns out that the 14mm bolt to the starter was missing. I went and got one that fits and put it in along with an additional ground to the stock ground. I also took the starter off to make sure the starter ring had no play and it didn't. Thanks for all your help.

 

The problem was never fixed, it just fired right up that time and never did again. I just got back from Autozone today and the starter is fine. Now I know it's the flywheel. That means the tranny has to be dropped