Had a strange one tonight as i was leaving work,went to start the car and all i got was the starter spinning and not engaging.Got it going eventually after rocking it back and forth for a wee while.Made it home and stopped the engine but i thought i'd give it a go again,it started but shuddered about a fair bit until i pressed the clutch and it then cleared.

Could it be just a dodgy starter or is it the dreaded dual mass flywheel? It's a 2004 zetec s TDCI

Any help much appreciated.

 

Sounds to me like the flywheel has started breaking up and lodged into the starter, thats whats stopping the starter engaging.

 

Could be the dreaded DMF

 

It's going into Ford for some open heart surgery on Wednesday.It's not been too bad but i'd rather get it done now before it falls apart.

 

DMF IS starting to break up as Gadget said,this in turn is cloging up the starter, normaly a quick fix is clean the starter out but will only last for a short time before the problem starts again.

The only cure for this is a new Duel Mass Flywheel, which from Ford is not gonna be that cheap, whilst youre there i would do the clutch and rear crank seal as they start to weep over time.

The whole job can cost from your local garage up to £800 depending if the exhaust comes away ok.

Best of luck.

 

dont take it ford it will cost you more than the cars worth!
a starter, flywheel and clutch can be had for around £400 from euro car parts if your in the trade and i would expect to pay around 5 hours labour to have it fitted as they are not a difficult job to do, just time consuming as you have to lower the front subframe

 

It went to Ford last week but they said it's not too bad yet so i'm going to run it for a while longer before doing it.

It's starting to be a pain in the fud now with other shitty little problems so it might get traded in before then anyway.

 

Deffo the flywheel breaking up, all the metal filings are contaminating the starter and clogging it up.

If you replace just the starter motor there will probably be a note in the box saying warranty will be invalid if the new starter fails due to flywheel contamination so just be aware of this if you dont replace the flywheel !!

 

I'll be getting the whole lot done,when the time comes.Found someone that can do it a fair bit cheaper than the local Ford main stealer up here so it's not sounding so bad now.