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right i was driving on the dual carriageway at 70mph and my mk4 decided to cut out on me. As i was in quite a bit of speed i decided to start (i know wrong thing) whilst the car was moving, it made a big noise. but now the starter seems to sound funny. Would this have caused any damage??!?? either to the engine or the starter or something?

I couldnt pull over as i was on the right lane and on the part where there was no hard shoulder. The car seemed to drive fine and started up. but when i stopped over and started again it made a slight squeeqy noise.

i was heading to clutch down but dont think i managed in time (i was on the phone too, i cant multi-task! ), i had s**t loads of cars behind me all at similar speeds, especially one mo fo that almost went into me!

it wouldnt bump start, it died completely i dont know why, it didnt stall whilst changing gears or anything, as i was on fifth all the way.

I d/c'd the battery and connected it back up after a few hours so that the ECU is kinda like resetted, it seems to be starting up fine now with no difference and the noise is now gone. I took it on a dual carriageway again, and seems to be running smoothly and fine, but then again im not sure whether it would have caused any serious damage that should be checked over immediately?

To be sure I'd take it and get it looked at. You don't want your car just cutting out again ... if you're on the motorway or something it could cut out and you might not be lucky and get it started again!

Just to be safe I'd get it checked out!

Nah,,, Shouldn't damage anything really. You can check it out if its really bothering you.
I cant remember what car it was but some X car brand new kept cutting out on people & no damage was done to the car. I cant remember right now what the issue was as this was on the news months back.
Might be a loose wire on the battery or something, but if its starting fine now then there shouldn't be a problem.
Just one of them weird things that happen for no reason.

Wasnt it a Peugeot 206? on Watchdog i think.

Hmm,, Cant remember. think it was a peug tho,
or was it a ford focus, lol

too far back 4 me 2 remember!

depends how long you ran the starter for..... the way they're designed it was probably the safeguard gears refusing to engage to prevent the motor being damaged (can't run the starter with the engine turning), perhaps you chipped one and so now its whining?

should be ok, hopefully, my mk3 starter was always a bit of a noise beast (maybe a worn starter bearing) but has kept on ticking for 81k miles so far..... just remember to either clutch down or select neutral next time!

or, just keep it in gear, clutch down, ignition quickly off then on (no starter), bring clutch up ...... quick bump start.

I hope you were using hands free when you were on your phone

I shouldn't think it'd do owt mate, but for it cutting out in the first place is worrying. My mate had a 106 that was a bit f****d to say the least and he had to turn the ignition off and back on again frequently to sort whatever it was that went wrong with it....didn't seem to affect it.

X car brand new kept cutting out on people & no damage was done to the car. I cant remember right now what the issue was as this was on the news months back.

Im not too worried about it cutting out, this wont cause any damage for sure, just the fact that i attempted to start it up without it in neutral or with the clutch down, as this can cause damage. I had a mate (who is a mechanic for bmws) to have a look-see, he said he cannot find anything wrong that would have made it cut out like that, it hasnt cut out like that since, and ive done 150miles since this. Its been recently serviced, so the engine should be fine.

depends how long you ran the starter for..... the way they're designed it was probably the safeguard gears refusing to engage to prevent the motor being damaged (can't run the starter with the engine turning), perhaps you chipped one and so now its whining?

i kinda only held it for about a second, maybe two . i did let go though immediately after i heard that massive scrapeing style noise

as of now, the starter sounds normal as it did before this incident. No funny noises e.t.c.

So do you guys reckon it should be okay to leave it as it is??? cos to get it proffesionally checked is gonna be ££. Having the ECU reset (about an few hours with battery d/c'd) seemed to sort it out, although i didnt expect it to be linked to this

I hope you were using hands free when you were on your phone

hmm!!! lets just say im investing in one hopefully today!!


cheers guys for your help!!!

Ah, dont sweat it, just once shouldnt be too bad... better to sort out the root cause of the cutout instead.

Modern injection system kills the fuel feed and sparks after a couple seconds on over-run anyway (economy measure), then brings it all back online when you hit the throttle again (which is why it sometimes jerks a bit), essentially bump starting it anyway. A quick bump shouldn't be any much different to that - the stuff in the manual about unburnt fuel etc is just a safeguard in case you're trying to get it running with a completely knackered ignition system etc, turning it continually on the starter or with repeated bumping, spraying loads of fuel through and not getting any combustion at all. A persistent misfire or other undiagnosed problem is more dangerous that way, than a bump start here and there.

(in fact, what do you think the starter's doing? its just providing bump-esque torque to the crank until the engine is firing often and powerfully enough to run itself - there'll be unburnt fuel passing there as well )