I used to prioritize working on our cars and motorcycles. I enjoyed it. I saw it as an opportunity to save money.
So there I found myself. Winter 2025 was nearing its end and I was staring at a Honda Element that had been sitting in the corner of our driveway for nearly six months. Six freakin months! My family helped me push it to the corner of the driveway after the starter failed. I was intimidated by the job of replacing the starter in that car. It was cold, and I didn't need to fix it. Our xB was parked right behind it. That car's starter worked just fine!
But the time had arrived. I was out of excuses; the guilt was too much for me. That starter was getting replaced, or my reputation with myself was ruined! So I got my research on, which unfortunately included watching a lot videos on YouTube 🚫.
My findings told me I had two options; I could either attack from the top under the hood, or from the bottom lying on my back. Attacking from the top sounded good until I realized how many parts I'd have to remove. Approaching from underneath the car was conceptually simpler (fewer things to remove), but it's a tad unorthodox (tight squeeze, some blind fasteners, etc.). Once I found Eric the Car Guy's video demonstrating his preferred removal from underneath the car, I decided that was the way!
So from the bottom I went. The general approach is to remove the few parts that prevent you from accessing the starter - a bumper shroud, a lower intake manifold support, stuff like that. It didn't take long to get to the starter mounting bolts. The lower one was easily seen, and easily reached. The upper bolt could not be seen, and could hardly be reached. This was when it became clear to me - the entire job was removing these two flippin bolts. These two bolts took me many hours across 3 separate attempts.
The lower bolt was indeed easily viewable, and easy to get a wrench on. But it was crazy tight. And there was very little room to swing a ratchet or breaker bar. It honestly seemed impossible, until I found just the right combo of socket, attached to the breaker bar's drive at the proper rotation, that gave me just enough swing to end up turning the bolt. But the throw I could get on the handle was very limited. So until the bolt was loose enough, I repeated the high-torque, minimal rotation ad nauseam until I could finally get a ratchet on it to finish the job.
With that initially insurmountable task behind me, I was faced with the upper mounting bolt. I couldn't even see that bolt. So I played the guessing game, trying deep well sockets, regular sockets with extensions, and all combinations thereof. Eventually I found the arrangement that gave me enough length to reach the mounting bolt (that I couldn't see), but left me enough room to subsequently attach a small breaker bar. This was all made more difficult by the fact that it was a long reach with my arm to get to this upper bolt. And my hand hardly fit in the place it needed to be in order to access this upper bolt. Even then, once again, I was greeted with a setup that had nearly no room to turn the breaker bar handle.
...but it was just enough room to break the mounting bolt loose, and to remove it. Finally! This starter should just fall the f*ck out now, right? Wrong. For whatever reason, the starter, with its mounting bolts removed, was stuck to the transmission bell housing. I was exhausted from the spelunking contortions required to remove the top mounting bolt, so I whacked the starter with whatever tools I had nearby, but it was a tight area, without much room to swing anything. I threw in the towel for that session.
So later that day - or was it the next day? The next week? Who the hell knows how long I waited to return? But return I did, with a two pound little sledge hammer, a chunk of 2x4, and some drifts and punches. I really don't remember what the last thing was between the sledge hammer and the starter that hit the jackpot. But I was able to whale on the starter with short swings in a cramped space until the damn thing eventually broke loose from the bell housing.
Thank. Freakin. Goodness.
It was a bit of a puzzle to find a path that allowed the starter to exit the engine compartment through the bottom. But out came the starter that lived there since we bought the car 18 years before.
With the starter removed, I ordered a replacement from Rock Auto. Rock Auto. It's truly a treat to shop there. They have everything in stock, and they get it to you fast. They clearly don't give a hoot about what most of the internet looks like today. And you know what? Good for them! I am truly thankful for a very usable shopping experience that feels like the year 2000 met jQuery and concluded there is nothing more a web tech stack could ever need. Disclaimer: I have not researched their tech stack.
Anyhoo, Eric The Car Guy said he preferred “Denso Reman”, so that's exactly what I ordered. It wasn't the cheapest, but I decided I was best not to question the expert. The new starter went in a whole flippin hell of a lot faster than the old one came out! And when everything was back together I hopped into the driver's seat to crank it over. The moment of truth...
...was both underwhelming and reassuring. It started up almost instantly. The starter was so damn quiet, and so few cranks were required to get the engine idling. I then realized that the subtle, quiet, fast start was a very familiar sound. It had just been years since I heard it.
So there it is. A story with a happy ending. A challenge presented (car won't start). A fix was attempted. The fix succeeded! A parking lot mechanic DIY job, so money saved! Why did I put this off so long? Why don't I prioritize working on the machines like I used to?
I dunno.