Hello all
Apologies if this has been described elsewhere on the forum...
Just completed the replacement of the starter motor and wanted to share with others how I found the job.I purchased a second hand starter for £13.99 off fleabay and with postage it all came to £22....not bad at all I thought as long as it worked.I did a quick bench test of the starter before tackling the job...all good so a bargain after all.
As you probably know the starter motor is located in a difficult to get to place at the back of the engine. You absolutely need to get your car up on ramps or axle stands to tackle this job....there just isn't enough clearance below the car without doing raising it up.
Before raising the car however you can easily get to the top bolt of the starter motor...its a 13mm bolt head and I had to use a short extension bar on my socket wrench to get to the bolt...comes out easily enough though.You get to this bolt from inside the engine bay ...look down towards the flywheel housing and you will see the 13mm bolt head.
Disconnect the battery at this point otherwise sparks may fly
Raise the car and crawl underneath...look up at the rear of the engine (have bonnet open for more light)
You will be able to clearly see the lower fixing bolt...loosen off but don't remove just yet. On the rear of the solenoid are the electrical connections...a large red cable and a smaller black cable (this is the ignition cable coming from the wiring harness). On the back is a plastic casing arrangement which has a cover that you need to open...fiddly to do....Once the cover is open you can see the larger 13mm bolt holding two red cable spades....use a 13mm wratchet spanner if you have one to get this off...I didn't have one and it was a pain to get off with my socket wrench...not a lot of room up there...but I managed it by turning the handle of the wrench away from me..i.e. handle facing upwards into engine bay....this gave me just enough room to start undoing the bolt...with a wratchet spanner it would have been easy.
Pull off both red cable spades...one from battery ..one from alternator.
Once the larger bolt is off you can pull the plastic casing thing off the back of the solenoid...this makes it much easier to get the smaller 10mm nut, holding the black ignition cable, off .
With the electrical connections taken care of its now time to fully undo the lower bolt of the starter motor....once out the motor itself will come out easily with a little wiggle. Be careful it doesn't fall down on top of your face.Might be an idea to lash it to something in the engine bay before undoing the bolt...so it can't fall...have to say I didn't do this. The motor can easily be removed from below the car.
Refitting is the reversal of all this...I bolted the motor in first before reconnecting the electrical connections...I also left the black plastic casing thing off...it just makes redoing all connections much easier in IMHO.
Reconnect your battery and away you go...hopefully.
The job is fiddly but totally doable even for an amateur like me.Total cost then was the £22 for the motor.
Apologies if this has been described elsewhere on the forum...
Just completed the replacement of the starter motor and wanted to share with others how I found the job.I purchased a second hand starter for £13.99 off fleabay and with postage it all came to £22....not bad at all I thought as long as it worked.I did a quick bench test of the starter before tackling the job...all good so a bargain after all.
As you probably know the starter motor is located in a difficult to get to place at the back of the engine. You absolutely need to get your car up on ramps or axle stands to tackle this job....there just isn't enough clearance below the car without doing raising it up.
Before raising the car however you can easily get to the top bolt of the starter motor...its a 13mm bolt head and I had to use a short extension bar on my socket wrench to get to the bolt...comes out easily enough though.You get to this bolt from inside the engine bay ...look down towards the flywheel housing and you will see the 13mm bolt head.
Disconnect the battery at this point otherwise sparks may fly
Raise the car and crawl underneath...look up at the rear of the engine (have bonnet open for more light)
You will be able to clearly see the lower fixing bolt...loosen off but don't remove just yet. On the rear of the solenoid are the electrical connections...a large red cable and a smaller black cable (this is the ignition cable coming from the wiring harness). On the back is a plastic casing arrangement which has a cover that you need to open...fiddly to do....Once the cover is open you can see the larger 13mm bolt holding two red cable spades....use a 13mm wratchet spanner if you have one to get this off...I didn't have one and it was a pain to get off with my socket wrench...not a lot of room up there...but I managed it by turning the handle of the wrench away from me..i.e. handle facing upwards into engine bay....this gave me just enough room to start undoing the bolt...with a wratchet spanner it would have been easy.
Pull off both red cable spades...one from battery ..one from alternator.
Once the larger bolt is off you can pull the plastic casing thing off the back of the solenoid...this makes it much easier to get the smaller 10mm nut, holding the black ignition cable, off .
With the electrical connections taken care of its now time to fully undo the lower bolt of the starter motor....once out the motor itself will come out easily with a little wiggle. Be careful it doesn't fall down on top of your face.Might be an idea to lash it to something in the engine bay before undoing the bolt...so it can't fall...have to say I didn't do this. The motor can easily be removed from below the car.
Refitting is the reversal of all this...I bolted the motor in first before reconnecting the electrical connections...I also left the black plastic casing thing off...it just makes redoing all connections much easier in IMHO.
Reconnect your battery and away you go...hopefully.
The job is fiddly but totally doable even for an amateur like me.Total cost then was the £22 for the motor.
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