Auto-Forums.net

[Guest]

1. 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.

2. Using the 10mm attachment again, remove the 6 bolts that hold the
passenger side front splash guard from underneath the front bumper.

3. 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
14mm attachment on it with your fingers and see if it fits on properly.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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

[Bo Yancey]

On Tue, 27 Sep 2005 05:18:30 +0000, Louis M. Brown wrote:

[Louis M. Brown]

On 26 Sep 2005 17:38:20 -0700, mbote1@yahoo.com wrote:

[Gord Beaman]

Louis M. Brown <phyphor@rocketmail.com> wrote:

[RCA]

Thanks a bunch. I needed to remove my starter and install a repair kit in
the solenoid to remedy the click-but-nothing-happens problem in my 99
Corolla. I had a Haynes book on Corollas, but found it woefully lacking
on details concerning the R&R on the starter. It does not mention
removing the oil filter for access. (Although you would definitely figure
it out when trying to remove the starter.) But a much larger issue is the
location of the upper mounting bolt. The drawing in the book is
misleading at best and the text does not mention anything about any extra
effort involved to either access or remove the bolt. I would not have
thought to remove the battery to enable me to better reach where the bolt
might be, and thus would not have ever found it. So, with stopping in the
middle to initiate an internet search resulting in finding this post, I
removed the starter, rebuilt the solenoid, and replaced it, in about 4
hours at a cost of $19.72 for the rebuild kit, including shipping, from
Advance Auto Parts.
Thanks again for taking the time to post!!

-Richard

[RCA]

Thanks a bunch. I needed to remove my starter and install a repair kit in
the solenoid to remedy the click-but-nothing-happens problem in my 99
Corolla. I had a Haynes book on Corollas, but found it woefully lacking
on details concerning the R&R on the starter. It does not mention
removing the oil filter for access. (Although you would definitely figure
it out when trying to remove the starter.) But a much larger issue is the
location of the upper mounting bolt. The drawing in the book is
misleading at best and the text does not mention anything about any extra
effort involved to either access or remove the bolt. I would not have
thought to remove the battery to enable me to better reach where the bolt
might be, and thus would not have ever found it. So, with stopping in the
middle to initiate an internet search resulting in finding this post, I
removed the starter, rebuilt the solenoid, and replaced it, in about 4
hours at a cost of $19.72 for the rebuild kit, including shipping, from
Advance Auto Parts.
Thanks again for taking the time to post!!

-Richard