Starter- Starting Question...

[guyeye]

Hello everybody! I've been lurking here since I bought my MY04 XC (78k miles) in January. I can't tell you how much I love this forum! Such great advice with very little BS. It helps that I'm wayyy into this car!

Since I bought the car, there has only been one thing that has bugged me from the beginning: Sometimes the car cranks a bit too long (longer than I'm used to) before it starts. As a result, it sometimes takes 2 tries to get it started. It always starts eventually, and doesn't miss a beat once it does. One thing that may or may not be symptomatic of this problem is that the starter sounds "squeaky". Could this be the case of a starter going bad and just not spinning as fast as it should? It hasn't gotten any worse, so I've not been THAT motivated to swap it out, but it does bug me enough every time it happens to finally make my first post here and find out if anyone else has had these symptoms and managed to fix it.

Thanks everyone!

[Astro14]

It's not the starter moter per se, they generally work, or don't...now, if it cranks slowly, then it might be the starter motor, but it's more likely in the engine control electronics, crank angle sensor going out, ignition lock, something like that. Since it starts, it's going to be hard to trace down...

[guyeye]

It's not the starter moter per se, they generally work, or don't...now, if it cranks slowly, then it might be the starter motor, but it's more likely in the engine control electronics, crank angle sensor going out, ignition lock, something like that. Since it starts, it's going to be hard to trace down...

Hmmm, well maybe something will show up when I hook up my newfangled Chinese Dice unit!

[guyeye]

What about the "Squeakiness"? It only happens when the starter is engaged, and I'm trying to think of something to compare it to...
...maybe- regular starter sound combined with brake squealers.