Sorry for beating up a dead horse, but I’ve received several PMs about cold weather starter grind noise.

As some of you know I’ve done excessive research of the subject and eventually pointed to two items to be likely a root cause:

a) planetary reduction gear noise (commonly fixed on VW Jetta by adding CV joint lubricant) NOT the same sound as on Fit
b) sticky solenoid plunger (as claimed by owner of 2002 Acura RSX with MT transmission)
So when doing my starter I’ve replaced solenoid with new one pulled at PYP from reman starter and lubricated planetary with synthetic wide temperature range grease (most reman units are coming with new solenoids and lubricated planetary gear sets). There is no grind for the second “cold” (low 43F) season so far.

(third video)

I bringing the subject up again, because I came across the video of the same noise produced by 2007 Yaris with M/T (2002 Echo is making same noises at cold start too (it uses the same starter)
Assuming that noise is only coming from M/T equipped cars (A/T starters have planetary gear set as well but use different solenoid) I did my search and found that:

a) all solenoids in question were identical in design and construction to the solenoids used in Fit, including thick black rubber boot covering plunger (new solenoid from reman unit uses thin silicone brown rubber boot)

b) the replacement solenoid for Yaris with A/T has no boot and is labeled for “improved cold weather performance”

I derived the following conclusion based on above findings (this is no way the final conclusion, though)

a) The solenoid is most likely a main cause of trouble, thus it is sold as a spare part

b) “Improved cold performance” means that the clearance between steel core plunger and brass sleeve is indeed too small [on original design] contributing to slower than normal return of the OEM solenoid in cold weather, especially with dust and grease lodged in the gap

c) As the rubber boot getting older it is getting stiff during low temperatures and its stiffness is also adding to the slower than normal plunger return (perhaps at temperatures below freezing). This would not be a case if this boot will have bellows (similar to the caliper slide boots) design.

While all this investigation is interesting from engineering standpoint, it makes little practical application to the average Fit owners, as starter R and R is beyond the scope for many owners capable of doing only minimal maintenance. In such case installing a quality rebuild unit is a good choice, unless you are enjoying digging into the car like I do.

Thank you for reading! Stay safe everyone!

 

Thanks man, I appreciate your in-depth research!