2002 4.4 E53 starter motor removal

[lezmtaylor]

My starter motor has given up the ghost, require replacing.
Any ideas as to ' how to', can't find a 'how to' on here or Outpost(the American site).

Regards,
Lez

[amacman]

Just done it on my X5 . Bought a really good quality , looks new actually ,starter from gsf car parts .
Took to a garage to get it on a ramp as laying on the floor is too restrictive .

How to - Disconnect the battery negative lead in the boot floor , remove the metal plate under engine  with six bolts and nuts , also two small bolts attaching it to the plastic tray , do not remove plastic tray .
The six bolts on the metal tray torque stage 1 to 56 nm , stage 2 is tighten 90 degrees . bmw say replace them . I think because the nuts are locking nuts . many folk re use the old ones .
Disconnect the wires to starter , can be done with heat shield in place .
The 2 starter to  bell housing bolts require an E12 torx socket .  tighten to 45 nm .The top bolt is out of sight behind a wiring loom so a flexi extension or adapter is required .
Job takes an hour or so in no hurry . Best get on a ramp . That is it , nothing else needs removed for the job
Have fun .

[X5Sport]

Looks like the one on our E46 (same engine) is also about to pack up.  Slow cranking and dry bearing squeal when it does crank.  That one will need some height too, and half a car of engine shields taken off!

[lezmtaylor]

Well all sorted, it was the battery.
I've never known this to happen before, but the battery literally failed without any warning.
I started the car, connected the caravan , checked the lights and switched off. Went to restart a couple of minutes later and nothing, dash lights all over the place, trans wng, and the click , click from the starter.
Not even my 200 amp starter charger would put anything in.
I have got lpg so had the remove tank to get to battery. It was absolutely dead, not even a spark shorting out the battery terminals.
So a new AGM battery at £144 and she started 1st time.

Was quite a pain as I was 35 miles from home and had to get my tripod engine lift from home to lift the gas tank.

Any way all sorted.

Regards,
Lez





Regards,
Lez

[amacman]

So the starter I bought from GSF began to click occasionally within a few months and only got worse over time until it was taking dozens of attempts before the starter engaged . The car only covered a few hundred miles until the problems began and a couple of thousand miles until I had enough and bought a starter from bmw dealer but again after a few hundred miles the starter clicks occasionally .

I expect this one to fail soon . There are many tales of woe with remanufactured starters for the M62 engine as the original problem seems to prevail .


I can`t find any other problem on the car , ignition is new as are the relays . Good AGM battery .

Anyone know where I can find someone to repair the starter properly .

[lezmtaylor]

I used to have a small alternator/starter repair business .
Best bet is to get a second hand starter (Ebay, etc) then strip and rebuild, lubing the phospher bronze bearings in the ends of the starter (leave to soak for 24 hours), new starter solenoids are available from ebay, and new brushes as well if required.
I have a very high amp(200) soldering iron to solder brushes.
Have a look at Pelican Parts (US company), but do lots of how to's.
Have done many using this method.
Any half competent mechanic can do this, with a good set of tools.
Lez

[amacman]

I still have the GSF starter in it`s box looking in near new condition .
There is some inherant fault from new with a lot of these starters which is usually why they were replaced .
BMW used all new stock quickly due to this so only remanufactured starters are available but the underlying issue is not fixed during remanufacturing .
Many people have had multiple replacements before they get one that works for more than a few weeks .

I don`t know enough about them to investigate . Perhaps it is the windings of the rotor or the stator or some other wiring defect , who knows .

I`ll try to find someone local to fix it or maybe I could post it to you if you want to at least try fixing it in exchange for some beer vouchers . If it breaks again it won`t be your fault but it`s worth trying anyway .

[henrym3]

You have undone the engine to chassis earth strap and made sure it's clean and the contact points are rust free??

[lezmtaylor]

I have a starter rebuilt ready to go on if required.
Do you want me to have a go at yours?

Lez

[amacman]

[quote="henrym3"]
You have undone the engine to chassis earth strap and made sure it's clean and the contact points are rust free??
[/quote]


Good suggestion . Checked and cleaned ( did not really need cleaning ) 3 years ago when fitting gsf starter .

Not cleaned recently when fitting bmw starter as looks ok , bolts tight  etc .

[amacman]

[quote="lezmtaylor"]
I have a starter rebuilt ready to go on if required.
Do you want me to have a go at yours?

Lez
[/quote]


Thanks very much for the offer .

I found a local specialist earlier in the week and took the starter to them . Starter operated fine with no load a few times but made nasty noises when allowed to run high speed . Bloke opened it up for quick inspection and maybe a bit of lube .

Operated quieter . Jammed a few times so don`t know if load was applied to test for jamming , I could only hear what was going on in the test shop as wasn`t allowed access to see .


Bloke explained a few things mentioning 10.9 volts at some point but as someone was turning over a non firing engine nearby I could not hear everything clearly .


They reckon a new solenoid is required and whatever else it is they do to fix them so I just left it with them and will maybe find time later next week to collect it .


Bottom line is that remanufactured starters are nothing more than a joke . To even describe them as reconditioned would be stretching the truth .
The specialist bloke has many tales to tell about the industry , er , standards . And laughs at the lot of them .