Hi all Does anyone have any advice or a guide for removing the starter motor? had the car up on a ramp tonight and it’s buried in the engine. Looks like a right nightmare to get to! Even looks like the catalytic convertor might have to be removed? Thanks
Yes, its a nightmare and very time consuming for such a job. You have to drop the subframe so you have to undo the wishbones and antiroll bar from the knucles, unbolt the underneath engine mount, unbolt the steering comlumn from the inside of the car and suport the front subframe where the radiators are located witht a ratchet sling, cinch or some kind of rope to the top of the engine bay. I recomend to take off the front bumper so its easier to put the slig and is less likely to scratch something. You have to dismount also the right wheel shaft so you will need to drain a bit the gearbox oil. Then, you will probably have to remove the catalitic converter wich is a huge pain in the ass but I'm not completely sure about this last step hehe. Try to get it out first without removing cat. You will need to remove some heat shields in order to remove the starter but they wont come off with cat in position I think. It's a pain in the ass job...
And steering shafts also need undoing from knuckles obviously, I forgot to mention. By the way, if you are going to drop the subframe, I would take the chance to upgrade some bushing to StrongFlex or Porwerflex ones and have a look on the inner steering arms as well as the teflon bushing inside the steering rack. Worth the time and money to refresh them!! The bolt that fastens te steering column and steering rack join, is one use only. You can reuse it but is up to you. The manual says you need to put a new one.
Thanks for the reply! To be honest I had a look yesterday and I suspected it was going to be a nightmare. have the car on the ramp tonight and starting it in the morning! Will post whenever I get it done. Won’t be able to put in any bushings as don’t have any bought but may do it a later stage. It’s just a pain at the minute as can’t move the car without a bump start. Getting very annoying asking family to push it lol
Update. Turns out the starter was just replaced and did all that work for nothing. The car still won’t start. At this moment completely stuck no idea why it won’t start. Put the new starter in anyways and still nothing. Possibly a fuse or bad earth or even something wrong with ignition.
Get another wire from the starter to the battery and see if it works then, if not go from the engine body to the negative and try again. Im sure the starter fuse is on the battery post block thing
sorry just reread it, so mk3 then. Follow the thick red wire from the back of the engine (starter) to the black box behind the battery, join that to the positive terminal for the battery to see if it work from there
SOLVED! Okay so got the car started today and would just like to thank everyone for their input. Turns out had to fix a complete mess. The actions taken were as follows: 1. Had to replace a refurbed starter that was put as it didn't work. 2. Replace a busted fuse in the cabin (10amp) bottom right. 3. Replace a fuse in the engine compartment 25amp (F19) 4. Tighten the negative terminal as it was missing a 10mm nut 5. The main fuse box behind the battery had been taken out cut in half then a poor attempt at soldering was made on the fuse connections (honestly could have done it better blind) 6. There were 4 connectors on the bottom of fuse box, 1 was broken, 1 wasn't connected and 2 were okay. The main fuse box is completely trashed so had to loop terminals 1 and 3 together to get it started (this bypassed the shitty solder mess) In total it wasn't just one problem that caused the starter issue but a number of things combined. If anyone has the same issues have a look at this thread and hopefully it will help others!
My R26 wouldn’t start today at 12:15, started work at 1am. AA came out and done a battery test. Results came back sayin it was knackered. Replaced with a Bosch one, it had never started so well. Drove it up the road and came back, scangauge was bringing up 13-13.5 volts all the time so I switched it off. AA bloke said leave it runnin so we can keep an eye on the voltage to make sure its not the alternator. Tried to start it and nothing at all. Tested the battery, voltage was fine. He said it may be starter motor coincidently. Bump started it and drove it home with no warning lights etc. Parked in the drive and switched it off and tried it, nothing, clicked once but apart from that it didn’t even try. Anyone any idea?? Cheers
Sounds like the new battery possibly caused a spike in voltage and resulted in a blown fuse. There is a few threads on starters for r26 but first thing is check your fuses. Fuse F19 is for the starter motor in the engine bay. Then check the main fuse connected to battery. replacing the starter is a terrible job, unsure of the r26 but for my mk3 I had to remove entire sub frame and remove the cat while disconnecting the steering column. So check the electrics first as doing all that work to replace the starter only to find its something small electrically would be a nightmare
Thanks alot mate, I’ll check them tomorrow after work, how would you check the fuse on the battery mate? I saw a thread from 2019 about someone doin their starter motor on a mk2 and it sounds straight forward compared to the mk3. Thanks again Matthew
Have you had any luck finding the problem? I’m unsure where the main fuse is on the R26 but I believe it directly behind the battery. I found my problem very easily as the main fuse is a sealed unit and when I took mine off it was literally cut and taped back together so I could see the issue. I’ve attached two photos one was my busted main fuse that had been soldered and the second Is it’s location, it’s attached to the red positive wire off the battery. Again mines a mk3 so I’m unsure of the location on the r26. hope this helps
Thanks alot Matthew. Its totally different on the R26 and the diagrams etc I can find look like they’re for a different fuse box to the one I have. The only 2 25 amp fuses look like they are for different things were both fine. Checked all the other anyway an couldn’t see a bad one so I’ve ordered a positive terminal from RPD. Just hope they don’t use Royal Mail haha If theres no joy with tha I’ll hav to get an auto electrician out. Cheers for your help mate glad yours is up and running
