battery is good, plenty of cranking amps but no starter sounds... I mean NOTHING! No clicks... nada! As if the starter were out of the car and lying on the floor.

I knew I heard a strange "rattle" sound last night driving home from the grocery store, maybe 3-4 miles away from home. Thought it was weird as it sounded like a CV. I'm now betting it was my starter solenoid stuck/jammed against the flywheel teeth. Wouldn't surprise me at all to find I sheared the pinion off the starter as once I hit 40-45MPH I heard a loud "clunk" and ABS light came on for a second then went out and no more rattling (still don't understand how/why that triggered an ABS light). Yet I never heard ANYTHING weird when starting the car and putting it in reverse to pull out of my parking place at the supermarket. Only heard it initially when pulling out on to the road outside the parking lot.

But that clicking/clatter noise I experienced last night when driving home and then "nothing" when trying to start the car this morning is adding up to a sheared/frozen/non-returning starter gear in my book. Now I'm just hoping the flywheel ring gear survived unscathed.

Time to buy the car a one-way ticket on a flat-bed ride over to Champagne so I can do this on a lift rather than my garage floor. I'll probably go ahead and do a new alternator and the "whole" ignition switch while in there. The ENTIRE switch from Audi with metal frame and all as it has been a wee bit "sticky" of late and "may" have contributed to the ignition switch (2 months old) not returning to "on" from the "start" position.

Sure blows my Friday and maybe Saturday all to hell!