RX-8 start problem: strange noise
 

I haven't started the car since Nov, last year. I tried yesterday after recharging the battery and it only made a strange noise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erh3-...ature=youtu.be

Does anyone know what it might be?
Thanks,
Dan

The engine isn't even turning over. I'd recommend getting your starter tested.

...or another battery

The strange thing is that the starter has been changed about 10.000km ago, so it is the new one. And for the battery, at some time it was connected to another car (a diesel with a 75A battery) and still the same noise.

Thank you for you reply,
Dan

Well, if you confirm that the starter is good and the battery is good (which I was expecting from the brightness and instant-on of the dash lights, typically they are dimmer to one degree or another and slower reacting as a battery fades), then get a breaker bar, a 19mm socket, and put on the nut on the front main pulley. See if you can rotate the engine by hand (using the breaker bar on the nut), in both directions. If you can't move it at all, then the engine is either seized or carbon locked. If it can move it, but only a bit in each direction, then you might have had a clutch failure and debris / shrapnel is 'locking' the flywheel from moving very far in either direction.

That being said, I would still say it's the starter, because a starter that has full power but just can't rotate the engine has a high pitched squeal to it. The noise in your video sounds like a blown electric motor (which the starter is). If it was a relay preventing power, you wouldn't even have that noise. It would be just silent.

Thank you very much for your answer. I will try to see what it is and post the answer after.

A new battery was all it needed because the other is so dead it cannot be recharged. Thanks,
Dan

yay!