I was having issues with my starter clunking and slow to start the car so instead of replacing it I found a DIY to replacing the grease.

This is my version of that guide with more pictures that could have made it easier.

This starts after the Starter is removed from the vehicle if you need help with that there are guides online for that also.
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TORQUE SPECS

On Car
14mm Bolt: 22.4 - 30.4 ft/lb
17mm Bolt: 57.1 - 72.3 ft/lb


On Starter
10mm Bolts: 4.7 - 5.7 ft/lb
56.4 - 69.4 in/lb

8mm Bolts: 3.6 - 4.7 ft/lb
43.4 - 56.4 in/lb

Ground Cable Nut: 5.4 - 7.2 ft/lb
65.1 - 86.8 in/lb


1.Things you will need:
-Phillips Screw Driver
-10mm wrench
-8mm wrench
-Rubbing alcohol (Or anything that cleans grease)
-Paper Towels (Or anything to soak up a mess)
-Synthetic Grease (People have used other lubricants)
-Old tooth brush
-Bucket or container to soak and clean parts in.



2. This is the starter removed from the vehicle ready for disassembly.





3. Grab your 10mm wrench and remove the two bolts pictured below



4. Separate the two pieces shown.





5. Grab your 8mm wrench and remove these two bolts.







6. Pull those two apart. The part on the right is where I found lots of dirt and most of the clog.



7. Remove the cover plate and flip it over.

 

8. Remove the two screws with the phillips head screw driver and pull them apart. (May require a bit of force) Clean the parts as necessary. I didn't put any grease in here because of the electronics.









9. Separate the piece on the right from the housing and separate all of the pieces for cleaning.







10. Clean the gears and prepare them for reinstallation.(Note the flat sides on the outter gear those give clearence for the bolts to pass.





11. Clean the housing out.



12. Regrease the gear assembly. Be sure to turn it a few times to help the grease spread.





GREASE SPOTS

 

13. After the parts are cleaned and greased you're ready to reassemble the starter. Take the black piece and replace the gold cap making sure to line up the wire.



14. Stick the long bolts back threw to use as a guide for the cover plate.



15. Replace the cover plate.



16. Connect the two halfs.



17. Install the "wish bone" back onto the unit as shown.







18. Replace the housing. Don't forget to put the rubber spacer back in as well. You can see it in the last picture.







19. Make sure when you replace the magnetic switch assembly you put it back the way it came off.







20. Clean the grounds and you are DONE!





TIP: A good thing to do before you reinstall the starter on your car is to test that you put it back correct and it works by hooking it up to the battery to make sure it will turn on its own.

 

And if anyone doesn't feel like doing all that work, i got a BNIB starter that needs a new home. lol.

Excellent write-up though!

 

Excellent write up. This should help people for a long time until the 4th gens rust away slowly until they disintegrate completely.

Personally, this is too much work for me, and i have an lifetime warranty from autozone so its a 15 minute process to swap them out.

 

I might go pull my start right now and do this.
Its been a little slow to start for the last couple of months.

Is any grease good?

 

You don't want to use something that's going to dry up in a few months or you'll be doing it again.

The stuff I had was from Advanced Auto for $8.

Valvoline SynPower Full Synthetic Multipurpose Grease (Part#VV986)

 

Good write up. Like the picks, clear and plentiful.

 

Point out what you are talking about your comment seems kinda rude and not really helpful.

 

I think he is taking about photo #26.
Love the pic heavy write up though.

 

Thanks for the love FjF

Hopefully it helps someone out I love having to many pictures to look at rather than not enough.

 

I appreciate your apology I may have been a bit hasty in writing this up. I have added some notes and photos where I thought they might be lacking.

If anyone else has any suggestions or think I may have missed anything let me know.

 

This is very informative and experimented with this last summer and I didn't disassemble solenoid side but everything else I did. The grease though, I ended up using wheel bearing grease but couldn't find silicone grease...

 

So my car starts really hard & takes a while to start...Do you think cleaning the starter might help? Don't wanna pull it apart if it isn't gonna help

 

That 17 mm bolt is the only thing stopping me from doing this.

Damn you rust.

 

Great write up. I'll probably do this when I pull my engine this summer. Mine is starting to get hard to start. I just hope this is what's wrong. Haha.


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How fast does it actually crank over?

 

If you could post up a video of how your car sounds starting up I bet we could give you a better answer.

If your starter hasn't been changed in a long time most likely it is starting to gum up.

 

send your starter to Phoenix88 bet he will do a group deal

 

If I haven't started her for a while *like i'm gonna go out this morning to start her up* I bet she'll take about 4-3 seconds to crank then once she starts up the RPMS will JUMP to about 2-2500 then drop down to about 400 then back up to around 1k *on a cold start* I think my IACV has something to do with it but feel it can also be my starter

Sure thing once I get back home, HOPEFULLY the same thing happens this morning & that's the same thing I was saying

 

How long it takes to start and your rpm after starting tells us nothing of your starters condition. How fast does the starter spin the engine?

 

Stuck!
Thank you.

 

Thank you sir, I guess i'll make another thread, seeing how I don't wanna hijack this one

 

Phoenix, would you be able to reupload those pictures?