Have a 2003 s2000 and when I start the car for the first time when it's cold it starts with a nasty rattling sound !!! I don't know what it is, it could be the starter coil not retracting in time but I'm not sure any professional opinions?

 

Post a video of it. It could be anything with that type of description.

 

 

No one?!?

 

Sounds like rod knock to me since it does it at startup and goes away once the motor see's oil pressure, Could also be the tct but they usually continue to make noise after starting

 

A rod knock would mean it would knock regardless and is much worse then this.

 

Kinda hard to tell from the video, but does it only do it when it's cold outside? Might be the starter like you said. If you search it on s2ki you'll find other videos of people with the problem as it seems to be pretty common.

 

Hard to tell from the video, but it kinda sounded like a starter getting hung up. Did you ever hit the start button while the car was running by accident?

 

Yeah my gf did when she tried to drive it -_-

 

You might want to start with replacing the starter and take it from there. If damage was done to the flywheel, you will need to replace that as well unless you can live with the noise. The teeth on the ring gear might be chewed up.

 

Sounds like the starter sticking. Mine (also a 2003) started doing that but it only did it when it was cold and dry out, didn't do it if it was hot/warm or humid out. I replaced mine with a used AP2 starter almost two years ago and have had no issues since.

 

Thank you ! Il get a new starter and update thread !

 

It was a bad starter

 

Lol at rod knock

 

Good to know. Just picked up a MY05 and it has the exact same issue. Are starters hard to replace on these?

 

its not hard, theres just a bolt that's a real pain in the *** to get to

 

Obviously no one here has had a motor with bad rod bearings, I've had probably 5 engines that made a knocking noise on start up for the first couple seconds then goes away and is silent no matter the rpm afterwords. Then after pulling the motor apart bearings were toast along with the crank. I'm not an idiot

Glad to hear OP got it figured out