Re: 1989 Audi 90 Q thrust bearing. -Reply -Reply

[harrison <hsapir@multiverse.com>]

In my case, I just had a dead unit. My starter failed twice without warning. In my
sister's 88 80q, i believe she had the same circumstances as yours with the grinding
noise that died when the clutch was depressed. Unfortunatly we never found out why, the
"high tech" german repair shop in Washington DC told her that her crankshaft was bad.
Luckily she knows a little about cars and got the hell out of there. The Mobil station
that finally did the work just replaced the starter and all was good. So, that is my own
long winded version of saying I'm not sure what it was.

harrison

Anthony Attard wrote:

> Harrison, thanks again for the prompt response.
> I did mean to ask you in my last e-mail as to why (or what went wrong) with your
> starter(s) that caused you to replace them.
>
> I my case what I believe is happening is that the starter gear is "hanging" on the
> edge of the flywheel such that when the engine starts, you can still hear high pitch
> rattle as if something is rubbing against something while turning.  It only last for
> about a minute and then fades away, which I attribute to the gear "slowly" moving
> (or vibrating) back slightly or to its normal position.  What confused the issue is
> that when you press the clutch pedal the noise came back or magnified itself which
> off course led me to believe that I had a clutch throw-out bearing problem.   But I
> am not convinced yet that that is the case.  Because if the starter gear is barely
> clear of the flywheel ring gear when you press the clutch in, in the process you are
> also deforming the whole clutch assemble  just enough to bring the ring gear in
> contact with the starter gear again, consequently you get the impression that you
> have a dry throw-out bearing.    Is this making sense to you??  I am sorry, I did not
> mean to be so long winded.    Thanks again Harrison.
>
> Tony.