Has anyone changed the GL320 starter motor. Mine feels like it is getting tired and want to know whether it is doable without a lift.

The only references I can see is that it is harder than the petrol versions.

Thanks.

 

So I think my starter is now dead.

It had been whirring abit and sometimes stopping.

Now it has stopped.

Unfortunately it's not stopped at my house.

I want to make sure the starter is dead, so I've connected pin 87 or relay G to pine 87 of relay I. I had 12V on relay G, so I'm assuming this should through the solenoid? I couldn't hear it click with the voltage. It sort of feels strange that the solenoid wouldn't be firing and the starter being dead at the same time.

A bit of back history is the car has always taken awhile to start when cold (10C I'm in Australia). Sometimes it would crank for 5s or so. I've check fuel lines, replaced fuel filter, done a leak off test on injectors, replaced timing chain (it had started to rattle). Battery is good and voltage only would drop to 9V during the extended cranking. Crank speed was 150 rpm ish and struggled to hit 200. So I'm assuming everything points to starter.

Any thoughts?

 

The symptoms you described are the typical signs of the starter dying. It's an easy job to do and no you don't need a lift. MB didn't bury the starter in the motor it's under the car in the traditional spot.

 

Yep, it's not a fun job. Way harder than it should be.

I'll take some photos on the reinstallation, but the motor mount does have to come out to get the starter out. It is also really important to undo the main positive cable. I couldn't get it out without taking that off first, as I hoped I'd have some slack and undo it in an easier spot.

My starter was toast. Mess of carbon inside and broken brush holders. 225k kms, and original starter afaik.

 

I'm sorry you had so many issues. The Starter on the 550 was a pretty easy job.

 

Technically it's pretty easy. Undo this, undo that.

Lying on your back under the car makes it more challenging.

Not planning to take the engine mount out wasted time, as I had the jack under the cross member and couldn't get another in to jack the engine (I always feel better having jack and axle stands in).

I also wasted time taking the wheel liner off. WIS says to. There is nothing to be gained from doing so.

 

I took a whole bunch of photos, and they are all pretty much useless.

The way I did it:
1. Disconnect the negative lead to the battery. I didn't and I got sparks. Do this first as you will need to.
2. Remove the right air filter box (you need to remove the cross brace, firewall section and y air intake).
3. Take out the bolt on top of the engine mount. There is a heat shield on top of the mount which uses the same bolt. This is supposed to be torqued to 80 Nm, but mine wasn't. I was able to get a 3/8 ratchet in the space and get it loose. Remove bolt and heat sheild.
4. Remove muffler or DPF. I don't have a DPF so I also don't have a heat shield on the starter motor. You will need to remove the two screws on the rear exhaust section near the muffler your are removing. This will give enough space to drag the muffler out.
5. Remove the rear heat shield. This has 3 bolts that need a 10mm hex. I took it out as it gave slightly more space to get the engine mount out.
6. Remove two bolts from the bottom of the engine mount.
7. Jack up engine by the oil pan. You will need a piece of wood to go the full width of the oil pan. I put the jack on the far right of the pan as you only want to jack the right hand side of the engine. You will need to lift about 30mm or so. Jack it up a bit at a time. You don't want to go too far as you may damage something.
8. Looking from the top down locate the engine mount. For some reason I had better luck rotating the engine mount 180d. This put the raised tab on the engine side and enabled me to wiggle it out. If you can't get it out, you may need to jack the engine some more.
9. Once the mount is out, undo the solenoid power cable and the main power cable on the solenoid. There is limited access to swing a spanner here. It too ages of small turns to get these out. If you haven't disconnected the batter here, expect to arc weld the spanner to something.
10. Undo the two bolts holding the starer motor on. Make sure you get the right ones as these bolts also hold the transmission to the engine. Undoing the wrong ones won't be a disaster, but take the time to finger trace it.
11. Now wiggle the starter out. You need to try and wiggle the connection end into the space where the mount was. It is still tight without the mount and needs a bit of patience.

Installation is just in reverse.

I found getting the muffler in the hardest part of the installation. Doing it lying on my back was difficult as you need to pry and pull it together.

It took me about 3 hours to put the starter back in after I'd taken it out (includes jacking car up and packing up).

Car now starts almost instantly now for the first time I've owned it. Wish I did this a long time ago.

 

wow sounds like a lot of work. There are several YouTube videos on replacing starter for GL450 without removing muffler or engine mount. Maybe GL320 is different

 

450 is a 90-degree V8

320 is a 72-degree V6 diesel

 

Hello, thanks for the info above. I have my hands on the starter but I feel that I have not removed the right bolt. Ater there 2 torx bolts and are they the one's at the bottom, close to each other like in this youtube video at 1:50? I have those removed but can get the starter moving.

I removed them, the bottom one clearly is for the starter but the next one up is longer and I have my doubts. The one above that would require removing exhaust, which i haven't done yet.....propably should have.


Thanks!

 

See the thread that was on top when you posed this...

https://mbworld.org/forums/gl-class-...starter-2.html

 

Yeah it's probably the right bolt. The starter motor bolts will be longer from memory.

How are you going to take the starter motor out with the cat/dpf still installed? It may be possible to take it out, but from my experience, read my post and follow it. Take out the cat/dpf and the motor mount. It'll save you grief as it still took a lot of jiggling to get the starter motor out. Both of them are easy enough to get out if you plan to do it, harder when you're frustrated and swearing.

 

I just watched the video. Yeah that was not my experience. Maybe my starter is bigger? Dunno.