[newtuner]

So ever since I have been having issues starting my car on the first try I have been in search of a DIY to replace the Starter in my 04 330CI. After only finding threads talking about dropping the Transmission or removing the Intake Manifold I was almost ready to take it into the shop. I finally came across some very vague instruction on the process to get to the Starter, I decided to tackle this one. Knowing how helpless I felt without a good DIY I decided to make one for us. Now keep in mind I'm not a Mechanic or E46 expert, but I do love working on my car. If your car has a Manual Transmission or is an XI things might look a little different under the car. This is how I changed my Starter on my 330CI with an Automatic Transmission so use this as a guide but not repair manual.

I just want to take a second to give a shout out to you guys on E46Fanatics and Bimmerfest that got my pointing in the right direction. I hope Paraklas doesn't mind I stole a couple of his pictures as I forgot to take them. Thanks they helped a ton too.

Now lets get started:

Step 1:
Park the car on solid level ground with the E brake full applied. Having some blocks of wood behind the rear wheels to stop the car from rolling when you jack it up. Go ahead and disconnect the battery, don't worry E46 radio do not need any code to reactivate them. I disconnected the negative cable and just tucked it under the carpet.

Step 2:
Remove the Cabin Air Filter Cover buy turning the three plastic clips 90o CCW. They just pop out with a spring, don't worry they wont fall off the cover. Its a good idea to lay things out as you pull them off so you can keep track of what you took off.



Step 3:
Pull out the Cabin Air Filter, it just sits inside there so pull it forward and up.



Step 4:
Remove the Cabin Air Filter Housing. Using a T30 Torx bit remove the 4 gold screws. These screws will stay in the holes so only undo them enough for the Housing to pull out.



Step 5:
Pull the weather stripping from the drivers side corner of the engine bay. This goes around the Brake Reservoir. You can also slide off the two hoses that pass through with the rubber grommets. Just watch the little plastic tabs between here that hold the weather stripping as the break off easy.



Step 6:
Turn this plastic clip 90o CCW, this will free the plastic guard that goes around the Brake Reservoir. The guard has three tabs on the bottom that hold it in places so just pull up. you have to fight with it to get it right out, but it will come. I flexed the bigger hose a lot to get this out to the point where it leaked out air. So don't worry if you hear air, just don't break the hose.



Step 7:
Remove the cover to the Blower Motor (the one that blows AC and heat into the car) This will give you more room to work behind the engine. Two T30 Torx screws.



Step 8:
Standing on the driver side of the car and looking down in the area where you just removed all these parts you will see the Four Heater Core Hoses. I took a long tywrap and tied them out of the way. This should give you enough room to see the two mounting bolts for the starter. You wont be able to see the starter very well from here. The yellow line shows where the Return Fuel line was tywraped to the black holder. This holder is mounted using one of the E12 Torx bolts for the Starter. The green lines show the two E12 Torx bolts for the Starter. The blue line points to the front of the car.

 

[newtuner]

Step 9:
Now you have to get under the car. I used two floor jacks instead of the factory jack. I put the floor jacks under the factory jack points and slid the jack stands under the frame rails.





Step 10:
Next you have to remove the large black plastic Skid Plate under the engine. There are 7 medium Philips screws and 3 plastic clips. My car was missing the 3 clips connecting it to the front bumper.



Step 11:
Now you have to remove the Aluminum skid plate protecting the Transmission. There are (8) 16 mm bolts, a short socket and a small extension should do the job. The two green arrows on the left show there are 2 more bolts out of the picture.



Step 12:
Once you get the car up in the air and the Skid Plates out of the way you will see this. I wasn't sure what it was so I looked up the part number and found it's part of the Vacuum system. Just remove the (1) 13 mm nut. Once you have it loose you can tuck it up and out of the way. You will now finally see the Starter.





Step 13:
To give yourself a little more room to get to the mounting bolts on the Starter, remove the Skid Plate for the fuel filter. There are (5) 8 mm, 2 nuts and 3 bolts. Once the Plate is off you will see the foam piece that hold the fuel lines in place. You can pull this out if you want.

 

[newtuner]

Thanks man, it takes a while to write this out. I hope somebody gets some use out of this.

 

[newtuner]

Step 14:
Now using the E12 Torx socket, a universal joint, 3" ext., 8" wobble ext., 6" ext and a 10" ext. all fitted on a 3/8 drive socket wrench. I know it looks crazy, but you need the length and flex to get around the transmission to get onto the bolt head. The second picture shows how I routed the extensions along the transmission, use your other hand to guide the socket onto the bolt head.





Step 15:
Step 14 will help you get the lower mounting bolt off the starter, remember there will be a bracket that is fitted on that bolt as well. Take this time to note or take a picture of the wire connections on the starter.



Step 16:
Now you will need to go back to the topside. I had a rag on the fender as to not scratch the paint. I also found I needed to stand on something as the car is now a foot off the ground. You need to remove the top bolt off the starter. Now here is one of the biggest tips I was never told, you can see the head of the top bolt is pretty close to the fire wall. There is no way to get the E12 socket on the bolt head. I found a 3/8 box wrench fits perfect on the Torx bolt.



Step 17:
Once you get the second bolt off you have to get back under the car. Using a long punch to a pipe you might have, tap the starter to break it free from the bell housing. You can get your hand up inside and wiggle it up and down.



Step 18:
It will take some fighting to get the Starter out as there isn't much slack on the wires. Try pulling on the large red wires a bit and they will give a little. Once you get it out point the wire end down towards the ground. Here you will see all the connections on the Starter.



Step 19:
Once you get all the wires off you can now remove the Starter from the car. Here is the picture of the old Starter (Left) and new part (Right). I was worried that the new part wouldn't work as it was bigger then the one I took out. I talked to the dealership and they said they are all the same. I think the difference was due to being different brands.

 

[newtuner]

Step 20:
Now you can take your new Starter and hook it back up to the wires. It's a tight fit but I found if you have the gear end pointing up it will fit back in. Try not to force the starter in with the bolts. Seat the starter in place then slide the bolts on. I didn't have a Torque spec for these bolts, but I made sure they were tight. Make sure the electrical connections are tight you don't want them working loose. Here is a picture of what mine looked like, the problem was most likely due to all the Carbon build up. Plans are to rebuild my old one and have it as a back up.





Here are the tools I used, as you can see this repair can be done with mostly common tools and some time. It took me a day and a half to do this, but that was with not knowing what to take off or how to get to the part. I would say with this guide this DIY should only take 4 to 6 hours.



Step 21:
Once your done putting everything back together you can reconnect the battery cable. If you happened to open the doors while the battery was disconnected you will see the window will no longer pop down when you open the door or roll up when closed. You will have to reset this feature once the battery is reconnected. For each window roll the window all the way down, then all the way up. Hold the window button up for 20 seconds after the window has finished rolling up. This should reset the cracked window feature, just repeat for each window. The only thing left is to reset the clock, but that is in your owners manual. Have fun!!!

Let me know if I have missed anything or left anything out.

 

[newtuner]

Thanks man, I think I saved about a grand doing it myself instead of taking it to the dealership. Hope this helps others save some cash.

 

[newtuner]

did the dealer sell you a rebuilt starter or something? P.S. After installing the starter, did you noticed any grinding noise with the fly wheel?

I was worried about that as the two starters are different sizes. We measured the travel distance for each and they were both 13.0 mm. Since the starter seated nicely onto the bell housing I was confident that it would work. I crossed my fingers on the first start up, but never heard anything. I have been running this starter for a few weeks now and not a single glitch.

I found the used Starter online at a local salvage yard. I'm still trying to find a place to buy the rebuilt parts to fix my oem unit. I like the one that came out of my car better so I will have it on hand if this one starters to go.

I have learned a ton from E46 so I just wanted to give back. :thumbsup:

 

[newtuner]

Great DIY. This looks like a PIA.

So I guess you have a 6sp, correct?

Nope just a little old auto, why?

 

[newtuner]

Good luck man. I'm not sure if this would work, but I wonder if you had a long enough 3/8" box wrench if you could take both bolts out from the top. You would still have to go under and move the Vacuum unit out of the way to disconnect the wires. If the manual transmission doesn't let you get at the bolt, it could be something to try. Please let me know how you make out, if you have any questions fire me a pm.

 

[newtuner]

@newtuner: Thanks for the DIY. I am undertaking another project that involves removing the intake manifold and I decided to go ahead and replace the starter while I am in there--98k on original starter. I could only find a reman Bosch one. I think I'll hang onto my original one too for back up and maybe rebuild. I can send it back for $83 core + shipping though. My original one and replacement are from the same OE maker, Bosch.

When you removed yours, you said you removed it without removing the manifold all from underneath your car? How did you deal with the alignment pin? Even with all the access I had (I still had to remove the fuel filter cover and use an E12, a universal, and a 10" extension for the side torx bolt. From the top since I had access, I used a E12 box wrench. However, that alignment pin was a pita. I used a screwdriver to try and pry it and finally got it to off after a few tries. It was in tight and I noticed it was rusted. I think when I reinstall everything, I'll sand it a bit and put some anti-seize on it. :thumbsup:

If I had all this trouble, I have been wondering how you dealt with the alignment pin and all from below. :bow:

I find this interesting as your not the first one to have trouble with the pin. I don't know what I did different but mine seemed to "pop" on there. I didn't even clean mine. It did take a couple of tries to get it to seat, but once the starter was about 1/16-1/8 from fully seating I just pulled it in with the bolts. I wonder if some people are bending the pin when taking out the old one??? Taking the fuel filter cover and the vacuum part (small black barrel shaped part) I had a lot of room to work in. I don't know if this is very different from a manual tranny. I did have to use the 4 extensions to get around the tranny and remove the lower bolt.

As for the rebuilt parts I haven't had a chance to follow up on this, but I am going to check with a local business that rebuilds BMW electronics. I think the rotor part is still good as a quick clean with sand paper cleaned it up nice. I didn't feel any wear groves from the brushes. So I'm hoping to pick up the brushes that come already in the holder (large ring shaped part). I'm pretty sure none of the dealerships will stock this as they just send the ones they get out to get done. I will keep you guys posted on what I find out and maybe an online supplier can be found.

 

[newtuner]

Hey man,

BMW wanted $1200 parts+labor to replace the starter, but thanks to your DIY i got it replaced and back on the road for just $150 parts!! yehaww!

I know man, that is the reason I felt I had to make this bad boy. I can see how they charge that much time, but I just hated the thought of dishing out all that cash. I'm glad I could help out.:thumbsup:

 

[newtuner]

newtuner, the 2nd to last picture you posted doesn't work and I am kind of curious about seeing it.

You said you planned on rebuilding your original starter. Is it just the carbon brushes that need replacing or is the commutator done as well? Does BMW even sell these parts? Just curous....

I had my starter replaced while I was under warranty. My symptom was a loud squeal for about a second right at startup. It would only do it when the motor was cold and it was more prone to occurring if the ambient temp. was colder.

I think the one your asking about is a picture of the commutator in my old starter. Lets see if this one works for you, let me know.

 

[newtuner]

With the 4 heater hoses pulled out of the way and all the other parts removed I was able to see the top bolt. That is where the 3/8" box wrench comes in handy, it will fit over the E12 bolt head. Takes a bit to turn it out but you can do it. Other then that it's pretty straight forward.

 

[newtuner]

Thanks guys. I hadn't heard of too many BMW having starter problems, but after this you see there are a few out there. The not starting on the first, second or third crank is what did it for me. lol

 

[newtuner]

Sorry to hear your having troubles, did you check to see if there is a different starter for a car with an auto or manual tranny? I would think the starters would be pretty much the same, that second bolt should be there in and around the same place.

 

[newtuner]

Thanks cvx5832, ya I havent had a chance to hang out here as work keeps me busy. I was shocked that my thread has had almost 64,000 views. That makes the time it took to make the write up worth it. Thanks for adding the updated tips on new tools that can be used to help a guy along. I have gotten a funny look from even mechanics when I told them I changed out this starter. lol I guess they know what a pain this is. Happy wrenching guys. Cheers