Hey all,
My '83 240D has recently been taking slightly longer to start, and the starter is making a whining noise. It does this both warm and cold starts. Is this a sign the starter is going bad, or potentially something worse?

It's a millennial.

OP claims it’s getting slower, less reliable and senescing.

Sounds more like a boomer to me.

Anyway, I'm not sure if the W123 got the reduction geared starter, on my previous W124 with the reduction geared starter those were symptoms of the reduction gear system coming apart.

I have never read on any forum that a My '83 240D comes with a reduction gear starter.

There is more then one possible. All of the lube is dried up (any spinning parts with no lube might wine), the overrunning clutch is slipping (this is what the starter gear attaches to), the bushings are so worn that the armature or some other part is rubbing while the starter is spinning.

The starter has several bushings in it. When I took my Starter apart the brushes were worn down to 1/4 inch thick.

I think in the end the Starter needs to be removed and taken apart and inspected. Might be easier on oa 240D but the Allen Head Starter Bolts are difficult to remove on an 84 300D I had no patients with them and worried about stripping the heads. I removed the insulation inside and drilled holes through the Fire Wall to get at the Bolts easily.

That was 2 or so years ago. The hole drilling paid off because yesterday I removed the transmission and you need to remove the Starter Bolts to do that. Having the pre-existing holes made it easy.

On my Starter the only 2 difficult areas were the small but long Phillips Head screw that hold the Starter Solenoid in. The heads stripped and were easy drilled out and the screws were found locally.
There is a near circular retaining ring that keeps the Bendix/Overrunning Clutch from coming off (you may not need to remove that it depends on what you want to inspect). I had trouble spreading it and getting it off. After that the rest comes apart.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I don't know if buggered ring gear teeth can cause wining but you need to remove the starter to see those.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Boomers more likely keep at it till the job is done. M's have higher tech skills but but your daily life if full of lots of low tech stuff and many M's are non-starters on that. I think they are the ones that start a thread with a question and think that the question is going to be answered in detail without them having to do some searching for themselves or having to learn some skills.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Should be good sources around you for a good used starter. Cheap rebuilts are not the answer on these cars. Most cars do not get parted out for a marginal starter.

Start buying and runing for parts for yours will probably cost more.Could be the bearings are just bone dry. Do not throw the solinoid in the garbage. Good ones are expensive.

Concerning the Starter Solenoid. I rebuilt my Starter because it had symptoms of a bad starter solenoid. When I took the Starter apart I found the brushes were worn out. I had already ordered the parts and a new solenoid when one of our Members commented that if the brushes are worn the solenoid does not work as it is supposed to.

So after replacing the Starter Brushes I ended up reusing the old solenoid and have had no issues with it and it I believe is like 2 years ago.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

For a 240D, the Bosch SR97x gear reduction starter fits and works great. Cranks faster than the stock starter, pulls less amps and is bolt-on.


Its not quite strong enough for a 300D to get it moving though the initial friction, but it will fit and work...
If anyone knows of a bigger reduction starter I would be happy to try it!

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IIRC, I replaced my 240D starter with a remanned 300D starter. It cranked rather well after that. I vaguely remember the small bracket on the forward end (when installed) wouldn't go back on but that never caused an issue.

Good luck!!!

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"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

boomer spotted lol

I willingly gave myself up.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

"Its not quite strong enough for a 300D to get it moving though the initial friction, but it will fit and work...
If anyone knows of a bigger reduction starter I would be happy to try it!"

Has anyone had success?

A good thread .

the pictured starter looks like a newer design but not any gear reduction, the Bendix is offset from the armature on gear reduction starters .

In any case it's free to take the old one off, it's old and almost certainly needs cleaning and lubrication plus new brushes, not terribly hard to install .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better