oldmots

My starter finally packed it in after years of poor performance and slow starts. Last week, it just didn't do a thing when the starter was pressed. I bought the car when it was just out of warranty and it hesitated on starts. Since the car had only 30,000 miles, I assumed it was the battery so I replaced it with a new AGM H7 battery. No change, it was the starter all along.

Replacing the starter was not difficult, but doing it in the driveway with the transmission locked up (without the engine running, the tranny would not not shift out of park) required some thinking. I jacked the car up one side at a time with my low profile shop jack and put my two oil change ramps under the front tires, this gave a safe, stable working area. I thought about having the car towed to the Dealer, but worried that the tow could damage the car since the rear wheels were locked. Never trusted tow trucks. I worried they would damage the car when they found they couldn't unload it and move it into the shop.

First remove the ground cable from the battery, then remove the 2 plastic belly pans to get access to the starter, which is behind the converter on the passenger side on the non-4matic cars, ( 4-matic cars have the starter on the other side of the engine and require removal of the converter.) When buying the starter, be sure you get the right one, they are not interchangeable.

I removed the plastic protective cap on the battery lead and the two wires to the solenoid, then removed the lower starter bolt which also released a metal wiring loom which gave access to the upper bolt and then removed it. The starter could then be removed out the bottom. Installation is simply the reverse. Note that the starter bolts require a special socket for star bolt heads.

andrew e coupe

thanks for sharing - good info to know!