Starter Replacement 2003

[Tony H]

I'm a newbie, my first questions in the last day or so was what to expect when doing a Starter swap. There were some mysteries on where the upper bolt was and how to unlock the small wire connector. Well, I did it last night and I thought I would share my experience.


Tools:
10mm box wrench for Battery Terminals
½” Drive Ratchet, 3” extension and 14mm socket will get at the 2 main bolts.
3/8” Drive Ratchet and 12mm socket will take the heavy gauge wire off the Starter Solenoid and remove the Bolts from a Throttle Body support Bracket..
13mm Socket for the new Nut they give you for the Heavy gauge wire.
Band-aids for the bloody mess you will get from scraping against all this sharp edged plastic.
Procedure:
Take the Battery Cables off the battery.
Jack the Passenger side up to be able to slide under the Car on that side.
Pull back Rubber boot on the heavy gauge wire to the Starter, 12mm socket on 3/8 drive ratchet will get this off.
The Small wire comes off the Starter by pressing in on the High bump on the connector (closest to the wire). Look at the new Starter, see that slot on the mating connector?, that’s where the Button is that must be pressed in. The bump is not visible from the top..you can see it better from under the car. Or just feel for it. The connector sits in a rubber boot so it takes a lot of wiggling to get this disconnected.
Grab your 12mm Ratchet and take off the small Bracket that supports the Throttle Body to the Exhaust manifold. It will be a great help in seeing the upper Starter Bolt.
Notice the new Starter has a Threaded hole and a clearance hole for mounting. The Threaded hole is up top so the Bolt for the top runs in to the Starter from the Bellhousing. The Bottom Bolt , That you can easily see, runs in the opposite way and threads into the Bellhousing.
Top bolt first; slide your hand under the Throttle body and move that one harness a bit to view the Head of the Bolt. ½” drive ratchet, 3” extension and 14mm socket will just get in there and clear the Throttle body to give you enough room to loosen the bolt. After the initial Breaking loose of the tight Bolt, you should be able to use the extension and socket to spin it out using your hand. It’s long, it will take awhile.
Bottom Bolt: You can see it from up top but there is no ‘Swing’ room for the ratchet handle, do this one from under the car. Same tools, Ratchet, 3” extension 14mm socket from under the car. Again, you don’t have much room for the ratchet to swing but enough to crack it loose then use your fingers.
With all the Hardware off, my Starter was stuck solid in the Bellhousing. I took a small piece of wood, placed it on the Aluminum section of the Starter solenoid and smacked it with a Hammer, that popped it loose.
The Starter will not come up and out through the engine compartment, it’s gotta drop out the bottom. You will need to turn and twist and push the Lower Radiator hose out of the way to sneak it past the Trani coolant lines and oil filter but you will get it out without taking off any Belly Pan Plastic coverings. Although this belly pan is where I lost a lot of blood, very sharp.
Reinstall the opposite way.
While the Starter was out of the way and the Wire was off the Starter, I cleaned the terminal on the Large Wire.
Push the Starter up from the Bottom of the car, doing the same twist and turn dance as it took to get it out. After I got it past the Trani coolant lines I let it just rest in limbo, got out from under the car to work from the top. I positioned it and started the Upper bolt. Then went back under the car and shifted the Starter until the lower bolt threaded in. Tighten these to 28 ft/lbs.I hope this helps someone.