VEHICLE ENGINE STARTING APPARATUS

A vehicle engine starting apparatus capable of automatically restarting an engine by quickly responding to a subsequent engine restart request can be realized even if engagement of a pinion gear with a ring gear is failed in the process of a stop of the engine. The pinion gear is displaced such that the pinion gear is engaged with the ring gear at a timing (illustrated with the circled number 5) when a rotation speed of the pinion gear and a rotation speed of the engine are nearly synchronized with each other with a signal from a control device when a predetermined condition is met in the course of a stop of the engine rotation. In a case where an engagement sensor has transmitted a signal "H" indicating engagement failure, when restart of the engine becomes necessary (illustrated with the circled number 9), the pinion gear is displaced toward a ring gear side by the control device, and after the pinion gear is sufficiently displaced toward the ring gear side (after a predetermined time t, illustrated with the circled number 12), the pinion gear engaged with the ring gear is rotated and driven to restart the engine by cranking.