My 2010 corolla (automatic, 1.8 70k miles) will randomly make a grinding noise on start. The noise lasts for maybe a second and goes away until I cold start it another day. I park on a hill if that matters (oil not flowing around?) I also recently replaced the drive belt, it has the manual tensioner so I don't know if I messed that up. My research online has led me to believe it's the starter going bad. But the car only has 70k and it's toyota so that seems really early.
can you post a Youtube video of it?
If I can reproduce it soon I will
when a problem advances to the point of making a *grinding* sound, then it's usually serious
https://youtu.be/TypsUwBmfQI
This seems to be similar and the guy mentions it's just noise and doesn't matter, is that correct?
But then other people say it's the vvt, how can I know for certain?
grinding sound means there is a large amount of energy being produced, and usually that means bad wear.
Grinding sounds like a starter problem. I think you're on the right track. It may be loose or not properly aligned, or just going out.
Is it a serious issue or will cause wear some other, more expensive part. I'd like this car to last as long as possible so I'm wondering if I should deal with it now, or when it warms up so I can work on it
It can conceivably grind up you flex plate, necessitating the removal of the transmission to replace it, not to mention the starter itself too.
I have a Matrix and it made similar sound, only on cold starts, and very random with no predictability. Anyways, it's been that way for 3 years now with no changes either way. So, if it ain't broke don't fix it!
@marksamis7 if the problem is the starter like doc says, it may a lot cheaper/easier to shim the starter now (or whatever it needs), then having to drop the tranny to replace the flex plate when it eventually fails.