Battery tender for agm battery via jump posts advised?

[omodos]

Hey wpoll you must think i am a total nutter by now....obsessing over this is an understatement but its been bugging me for too long...you may well be right...new starter in order , best deal i can get is on ebay that is for sure compatible they say and is an unlabelled new starter out of the factory that makes remy stuff....or get exiating one reconditioned for a little less than the cost of the unbranded new one...

[wpoll]

Originally Posted by omodos

Hey wpoll you must think i am a total nutter by now....obsessing over this is an understatement but its been bugging me for too long...you may well be right...new starter in order , best deal i can get is on ebay that is for sure compatible they say and is an unlabelled new starter out of the factory that makes remy stuff....or get exiating one reconditioned for a little less than the cost of the unbranded new one...

Nutter? Nope. E53 owner.. yep!

We recognise your "condition" as we are fellow sufferers....

BTW, in case you go there, here's the manual page on the starter motor removal.

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e...unting/Ozps6qi

[omodos]

Hahaha x5 syndrome....not easily understood by the spouse...thanks for link to removal guide...maybe best left to my mechanic....but for sure will browse through it

[wpoll]

Originally Posted by omodos

Hahaha x5 syndrome....not easily understood by the spouse...thanks for link to removal guide...maybe best left to my mechanic....but for sure will browse through it

Looks like you'll need to remove the upper acoustic cover (easy) and only the transmission cover underneath (also easy). That's it. Well, other than the battery negative cable (again!).

Pretty easy access really - at least in theory.

[omodos]

Wpoll as i thought no ref to having to approach this from the top...so not sure why my mechanic said has to remove this bit up top and that bit etc...either he doesnt know or told me that to justify keeping the car in the garage all day, much prefer he told me is an easy job and quick and i would still pay him knowing my slow start would be solved.

[wpoll]

Originally Posted by omodos

Wpoll as i thought no ref to having to approach this from the top...so not sure why my mechanic said has to remove this bit up top and that bit etc...either he doesnt know or told me that to justify keeping thd car in tge garage all day, much prefer he told me is a some job and quick and i would still pay him knowing my slow start would be solved.

30 minute job. Tops. But I've never actually done it, so I might be talking out my ....

[omodos]

Hmm just like when i took it somewhere to get door handle mechanism changed....i waited 2 hours...but guy hovered all over garage and spent max 15 minutes on it....made me wonder why he made me suffer sitting there waiting...i have no issue paying once i agree to price dont give a rats bum if it takes 1minute to do or not

[wpoll]

Originally Posted by omodos

Hmm just like when i took it somewhere to get door handle mechanism changed....i waited 2 hours...but guy hovered all over garage and spent max 15 minutes on it....made me wonder why he made me suffer sitting there waiting...i have no issue paying once i agree to price dont give a rats bum if it takes 1minute to do or not

I would take me a couple of hours to change a door handle carrier but I'm slow and methodical - at least on my own car!

I HATE opening up doors cards...

[omodos]

Not sure same on the x5 but took 15 minutes for me to take door cards off an e46....practice...totally poor construction of window carrier meant i did em all on wifes e46..08..more than once. As for starter some of those bolts look like torx shaped screws...reckon i can do more damage to x and myself if ..gonna let someone else do it , mechanic did a magic job of stem.valve replacements on our e46 and a heap of other fixes so have faith in him, just with the starter didn't really want to get it touched unless for sure it was the main culprit of laboured start. Will see soon if i kill my new battery due to starter ,gent who i installed it cant refuse a replacement as like i said he was sure my starter is good.

[oldskewel]

On how hard a job the starter is ...

Nice new (to me) resource there, wpoll, thanks.

But having had my own starter in my 3.0i out and in recently, I went and looked up the corresponding description from that source:
https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e...unting/FT7KzqD

And I'll say it is practically useless for this job. Very misleading if used to estimate effort. For mine, it is almost an absolute necessity to remove the intake manifold to gain access to it from above. Access from below is impossible with the transmission and engine block in place.

For me, I had the intake manifold and a ton of other stuff already off. And even then, getting those Torx E12 bolts from the back side is tough. And it was not so hard for me, but I had read of people with corrosion problems having real difficulty getting the starter free of the dowel pin there, even after the bolts are removed.

I'd bet closer to a full day than to 30 minutes. Sorry.

As far as what useful instructions would look like, the obvious stuff is to remove the nuts holding the wires in place, remove the bolts holding the starter in place, and swap. Yes, easy, obvious, and useless all at the same time.

Good instructions would tell you what optimal set of steps you need to take to get access to all this, based on what tools, expertise, other stuff going on, etc. ... which may be different for every car (e.g., 3.0i vs. 3.0d for starters ... ahem) and situation. Your mechanic might know this. If he will be removing the intake manifold to get access, maybe it is a good time for some pre-emptive repairs on some of the stuff in there. CCV?

Good luck.