I've got the dreaded starter squeal that I've read about here on the forum. I understand that I can probably just grease some of the gears inside it, and the annoying noise will go away, right?

Okay, now I'm just trying to find it -- put the car on ramps this morning -- looks like the starter motor is just above the transaxle, right? With a solenoid looking thing right next to it with wires connected, yes? How difficult is this puppy to get out? Looked like the bolts attaching the whole thing weren't so easy to access.

Thanks for any suggestions.

-Chuck

I removed mine when I changed my clutch 2 years ago. Start by disconnecting your battery. Unplug the wire harness from underneath. Support the starter with a bunch of rags. Go back up on top and remove the bolts. I want to say there are 2 but I am not 100% sure. The starter will flop into the rags. Get back underneath and lower it out. I have no idea about the greasing but, if it works, I'll do it too.

Let us know,
G

The 2 bolts are under the throttle body and there is one nut to take off on the bottom and one connector. If you carefully take the starter apart and clean it the noise will be gone. I found the starter had tons of clutch dust inside. I had 8 years and 150k on it and it was the original hitachi starter and it has been fine for a year and a half.

Okay, I've got the two bolts out from under the throttle body -- having trouble locating the nut underneath. Now I do see two other bolts kind of a right angles to the starter, but I sure don't see a nut.

It's holding the postive(red) cable to the starter. It's a 12mm.

Got it, got the two bolts underneath the TB, and even got two more bolts that are attached the the same bracket that connects the underneath of the TB to the starter assembly. This puppy won't budge! I'm surprised, others had said to watch out because it will fall out. I've tugged really hard, and don't feel any give at all. :(

So... hmmm, another thought I had is to take out the small (maybe 8mm) bolts at the butt-end of the starter motor, and disassemble right there, ooze it up with some grease and replace it... doable? :confused:

Thanks for all the great help.

-Chuck

Success!

I think it would have been easier had I just removed the two end bolts in the starter, rather than try and remove the entire unit. Having no success removing the starter assembly, I removed the two butt-end 8mm bolts, the back cap came off. I was able to pull the armature assembly straight out this way.

After pulling it out, I greased up the "gear" end with bearing grease, and greased up the other end as well, but not as much.

The trickiest part was getting the armature assembly back into the brush springs. You have to figure out a way to hold the springs back. The can be sprung back slightly, but you have to do all four! Anyway, I figured out a way to temporarily pin them back into the little piece that houses the actual brushes. Good luck on this part, but once pulled back the armature slips in like it should.

Replaced the armature and cap under the vehicle.

Upon first start or two it wasn't happy. I'm guessing some grease had to burn off or something somewhere on the armature where it shouldn't be! A couple more starts and things seem back to normal.

No more squeal!