Hey all-

So yesterday my starter went bad. I talked to my car guy and he said a trick is to hit the starter with a hammer or metal object to loosen it so i can get it started. Be said this won't fix the problem but it will get it started so I can drive it to get fixed. I went to do so and found that I have no idea where the starter is in our car. Can someone let me know and if anyone has a picture also to help me find it I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

 

It's underneath the exhaust manifold behind a heat shield. Look down and to the left of the clutch slave cylinder. Pretty easy to get to once the heat shield is removed.

 

So once I remove the exhaust manifold heat shield, it will be easily visible from above the car?

 

Easily visible.

 

OP, did this work for you? Status?

 

yes it worked. it was hard to find at first. I was unaware that there would be a heat shield over the headers and also another head shield in front of the starter. After this was figured out it was easy to take care of. Got me to the shop to get it fixed. Thanks for the help!

 

Thought I was clear but I guess not. By "It's underneath the exhaust manifold behind a heat shield" I meant that it was behind its own heat shield, not the exhaust heat shield

 

20 minute, 4 wrench job. hope they didn't charge you too much.

 

So... The starter is easily visible from the top, once both heat shields are removed? Mine has started (heh) having problems.
Some jackass that doesn't know anything about my car tried to tell me the starter was between the engine and the firewall and I would have to fix it from the underside.

Does anyone have pictures/technical diagrams?

 

 

Thanks man, I did eventually find it. I unbolted both heat shields, but I couldn't get the one in front of the starter to come out from behind the header; it is just kinda sitting there, resting on the header.

I decided to take it to a shop since my mechanic said he could test it for me and find out what's wrong with it. He also mentioned it would be like $100 labor max to replace it if need be.

 

it took me a while to replace my starter because the heat shield in front of the starter woudln't come out without me taking out the header.... which woudln't come out w/o taking out the fans... i learned all this the hard way when trying not to take apart everything lol

 

Ugh. Maybe it is a good thing that I took it to the shop instead of being a DIY guy. But I had clinicals today, so no time for that stuffs.

 

two things:

A starter is a high torque electric motor...the coils are either shorted or open, you can verify both with resistance checks on a DMM.

The stock headers come out very easily actually, there are 3 bolts holding the exhaust manifold heat shield. There are 3 nuts holding the downpipe to the header, take those off, as well as the one nut and bolt on the bracket that holds the downpipe to the block, pull down on the downpipe, it comes off and will just hang there, then take all your exhaust manifold nuts and washers off, and the manifold comes out quite easily. Then you have unobstructed access to the starter heat shield as well as the starter itself.

 

^only true if you have OEM header/dp. RRM combo makes me have to move everything