That's interesting. On n52/55 I had to remove intake to change starter but on m54 didn't.

I just looked up tis and sure enough it says you remove out the bottom they're nuts!

It also says "we removed the stiffening plate to show you how but don't do that".

With the intake off, replacing the starter is super easy! I'm glad I replaced mine during a coolant pipe refresh. A new Bosch starter spins the engine over super fast. On installation, one wire had to be clocked differently. Otherwise, the big wire would touch the smaller wire pole.

Yeah I found out about clocking that wire the hard way. :banghead: