starter making noise but no cranking

Had the car all packed for a road trip, turned the key, and heard a steady moderately pitched sound but no cranking. Half a dozen more tries and same thing. I told my wife it needed her love and after 2 or 3 more tries it started. This was 4 days ago. It hasn't happed since. The car is a 2012 with 31k+ miles. Anyone else run into this? Loose wire to the starter?

I haven't done anything with it since it hasn't given any more trouble, plus I need to bring it in soon anyways for a front end squeak (before the warranty is up).

Yeah, definitely bring that up when you bring it to the dealer. Sounds like the starter is spinning, but perhaps the solenoid that pushes the gear out to make contact with the flywheel/flexplate didn't work. If it happens again, only fix will be replacing the starter.

My wife's vehicle did the same thing yesterday morning. It would crank and crank and didn't seem like it was getting any fire. I could hear it from in the house and it didn't even sound like her car becuase you couldn't tell that an engine was trying to turn over. All I could really hear was the starter. I went outside, popped the hood and looked under the positive terminal bonnet and there was a crapload of corrosion near the base that went all the way around. I took off the positive cable (It was tight) and cleaned it and the post, put some corrosion prohibitor on both, put the cable and bonnet back and its been fine. Now her car is not a Mazda(Honda), but I thought that this info might be helpful since it sounded like it was only spinning the starter and not really turning the engine when I was out there. Also if there is no corrosion on the positive battery terminal, also check the positive side of the starter. Good luck

Thanks. I hadn't even thought of checking the battery terminals.