After yesterdays non-start event and my suspicion that the Starter motor might be faulty I decided to pull the starter out and do a ‘bench’ test on it.

I pulled together some suggested steps for the procedure and commenced removing the starter.  After extracting it I conducted the bench test:

Looks good.  So much for that hypothesis.  I’m now wondering about the starter engagement with the engine, but I’ll do some more troubleshooting and see where that leads.  For the time being I get to have fun putting the starter back in place.

What follows are the steps I took to remove the starter motor.  These were provided by Audizine forum member DxC.  The only deviation I performed was to do step 10, removing the IC hardpipe, after step 5.  Getting the IC hardpipe out of the way earlier just made more room to get in where I needed.

1. Remove headlights and bumper,
2. Disconnect battery
3. Remove all rad support bolts and just slide it forward (don’t disconnect coolant)
4. 17mm on tensioner to get the accessory belt off
   
5. 8mm allen and 13mm bolts to get the alternator off …
6. Once its loose undo the plug and 13mm on the back of the alternator 
7. Pry/tap the alternator out of the way and take it out …
8. Undo the connector and 13mm on the starter (use a deep socket 13mm) 
9. Undo the AC line holder (13mm nut),
10. Intercooler hardpipe (2 – 5mm allen) and IC hose, and
11. Also the turbo outlet coupler (I take it off all as 1 big piece)
12. Now undo the 16mm bolts holding the starter in … u have to go in from the back of the subframe … the bottom bolt has a 16mm nut on the front side that you can hold with a long extension on a ratchet … 
13. Once the bolts are off, you can just barely finagle the starter out …

Reinstallation is reverse of removal 🙂