Newby has a starter issue, needs help!

[skrach77]

Hello to all!

I have been watching this forum for almost a year now, ever since I bought my wife her '01 X5 3.0. She absolutely loves this car and would kill for a newer one- maybe someday...

I need help! Her starter has been acting up randomly lately, and today it stranded us for almost an hour. Here's the symptoms:

When you turn the key to start the car, from inside it sounds like it starts to turn over, and then just stops. I opened the door to listen a little closer and realized that the engine starts to turn over (like maybe 2 or 3 rotations) and then lets go and the starter sounds like it is just spinning and not catching anything. Turning the key off, and waiting a moment, then turing it back on and trying again sometimes yeilds better results (like the engine starting!) but today it just kept doing the same thing over and over.

Do these have a throwout bearing on the starter shaft that could have gone bad? Or am I looking at replacing the entire starter all together? I am farely mechanically handy and can do most things when I comes to my cars and trucks so I am not affraid of tearing into her, but would like to know what I am looking for before begining open heart surgery.

Also, does anything exist like a pdf manual or assembly diagram that would let me see where everything is? I crawled underneath earlier and noticed that it is almost 100% skidplate under there...

Please help, I'm panicing here.

Thanks,
skrach77