- Use a 10mm ratchet attachment to remove the battery from the vehicle. Negative terminal first, then positive. Be careful not to cause an arc between the two terminals as intense pain will result. Remove the plastic plate that the battery sits in.
- Using the 10mm attachment again, remove the 6 bolts that hold the passenger side front splash guard from underneath the front bumper.
- From underneath the vehicle, locate the oil filter. Look above oil filter and you will see the starter. Locate the bottom 14 mm bolt that attaches the lower portion of the starter to the engine. The bolt drives from left to right. The starter is mounted toward the front of the vehicle and underneath the intake manifold. Still cant find it? Follow the cable that leads from the positive battery terminal. It ends at the starter. Not sure you have the right bolt? Stick your
- Go ahead and remove the oil filter now as it will prevent the starter from being pulled out later. Be sure to have a pan ready to catch oil that will run out of oil filter and oil pan.
- The top bolt to the starter is difficult to locate. It is almost impossible to see. If you stick your head upside-down where the battery is normally located, and look to your left, you will see the other 14mm bolt. It goes in from the OPPOSITE direction from the bottom bolt.
- Remove both these bolts. Bottom and then top. They are pretty hard to get to. Have a good ratchet wrench with 14mm attachment on and just work on them until they come out. The top one is very tough because it is a blind removal and requires a long extension for your wrench and a universal joint attachment for convenience. It may seem impossible at first but it can be done. Count on doing a little damage to your hands, its part of the process as both are very tight squeezes.
- Once both bolts are out tap the starter out of the engine and then use a 12mm attachment to remove the terminal from the starter. Use your hand to unplug the wiring harness and pull the starter out through the bottom using the space vacated by the oil filter.
- Reassembly is just the reverse of Steps 1-8. Make sure the new starter is firmly seated in the engine before starting to put both 14mm bolts back in. Helps to have another hand or two for this step. Also, I recommend re-attaching the wiring harness and terminal from the positive cable PRIOR to reinserting the new starter as they will be much more difficult to work with afterwards. Note: I did this entire job without raising the front of the vehicle. I am thinner than most but I found I had enough room to work from the underside despite being rather uncomfortable.
I am no mechanic but I did this in about 3 or 4 hours without ever having changed a starter before. It's not rocket science and it saved me about $500 in parts and labor. I purchased a rebuilt starter from a parts store for $145.
I provide this info as I found no comprehensive guide on how to perform this operation on any web forum I visited. I also was certain the starter was the problem. For weeks it had just "clicked" when the ignition was engaged. This click might occur 2 to 10 times before the engine would start as normal. Then one day, about 3 weeks after this began, the starter burned itself up after it had started the engine. I am not much help as far as diagnosing a starting problem, but I do know what I did to fix my car and it has started properly ever since.
Cheers, TLS