Hello,

My girlfriend brought a 1999 Saxo South Coast, she drove it for about 6 miles and filled up at a petrol station then couldn't get it started again, i noticed that when you turn the key it doesn't snap back once its started, so she drove it all that way in that position. When you go to start it up it makes a awful scratching noise. Is the starter motor ruined or potentially something else? Also, what would be the reason why the key doesn't snap back? Is that also starter motor related or the key barrel or something else? I got it going by bump starting it and it sounded fine and drove OK. Any ideas would be a massive help, I'm not very confident with cars and she's only just passed her test and well upset about all this obviously.

Tommys1, April 2016

Cdc- Thank you for your reply, so its definitely a new starter motor, as for the ignition barrel, getting a new one from a dealer would probably cost more than the car is worth! Now that she is aware of the issue, I was hoping it would be alright to manually turn it back once the engine starts. What would your thought be on that? Thank you so much for your help!

Tommys1, April 2016

Without hearing what is going on it may be the ignition barrel has a fault,the key should spring back from the crank position,if not then through time the starter motor would be engaged with the flywheel with the engine running,even for a short space of time it would soon damage the starter itself,it may well have a broken return spring,whether the spring is internally sealed in the barrel itself,sorry couldn`t tell you that but the barrel would need to be removed for a look,if it comes within the barrel itself then you may need a new barrel built up to suit your key and it would probably be a main dealer that you would have to go to with your V5 and some ID to get a new barrel supplied. Good luck.

cdc, April 2016