General 2015 punto 1.2 Not starting crunching sound

[John1995]

Hi everyone newbie here, I’m looking for some advice about a problem my punto developed today. Over the past week when starting my car there has been a horrible crunching sound then the car starts, this happened maybe 3 times. Today my car won’t start at all. I’m assuming it’s the starter motor that is making the crunching/grinding sound. When I had a look in the engine bay whilst someone else was trying to start the car I noticed sparks flying from somewhere underneath the inlet manifold. Has anyone experienced this before? Any advice would be appreciated. One thing to add my car had a new clutch 2 month ago.

 

[bugsymike]

Hi everyone newbie here, I’m looking for some advice about a problem my punto developed today. Over the past week when starting my car there has been a horrible crunching sound then the car starts, this happened maybe 3 times. Today my car won’t start at all. I’m assuming it’s the starter motor that is making the crunching/grinding sound. When I had a look in the engine bay whilst someone else was trying to start the car I noticed sparks flying from somewhere underneath the inlet manifold. Has anyone experienced this before? Any advice would be appreciated. One thing to add my car had a new clutch 2 month ago.

Is it possible the starter wasn't bolted up tightly and now it has worked loose so is out of alignment with the flywheel ring gear causing the teeth to grind and get damaged, these could spark but also sparks could come from a battery lead not correctly positioned and tightened so shorting against the engine causing sparks, but would not really account for grinding noise, so I would go for first suggestion.
Note if that is the case then not only will the starter be damaged , the teeth on the flywheel will be also, so replacing the starter may not be the end of the problem.