Change that starter while you’re in there.


E53 RiPPeR
XOuTPoST jUNkiE
ReVELaTiON 22:21

Who makes a good starter replacement? I have a few more small items to order before finishing up this coolant and maintenance cycle.

I put a rebuilt one from Oreillys in my 4.4 last winter when my OE starter failed. Happy so far, and they had it to the store same day. It’s a Bosch I think.

Cool, I have a Bosch on order. It will set me back a few days to put it back together. In the mean time, I need to work out some connectors. Missing connections. Orange tape fell off or I forgot to put some on. Since the intake is temporarly mounted, I can remove it for starter installation.

Not sure where the starter is on the 3.0, but if Mr Bentley says pull the stiffener plate, I’ll follow the directions. I thought I could save some time by not doing so when I changed my starter in my driveway last year…mistake. It’s doable, but I wasted double the time it would have taken me had I just pulled the stiffener. I’ve reused those big TTY bolts probably 4 times and wanted to save myself the money and not buy new ones.

my stiffener plate might as well be welded-on
 

I tried pulling off my stiffener plate when I changed my oil awhile back (first time), but try as I might, I couldn't even loosen the bolts (1/2" electric corded impact and a 4 foot breaker bar). I might have to grind off the bolt heads if I'm ever to remove the plate for oil pan access.

What are some good, cheap, replacement bolts that I could add to my replacement parts stockpile?

I know there is a lot of back and forth on this on the various forums: reuse versus replace, TTY versus standard bolts, etc. guys do use regular M10 bolts of various strength, and I’m sure they work just fine.

I will say that I had some work done years ago at a local Porsche specialist and they neglected to torque down two of the bolts. The car made a racket that took some investigation to figure out. Serious and scary knocking under braking especially.

would these work on the stiffening plate?
 

Belmetric.com shopping cart for stiffening plate bolts,nuts, washers & spares
Attachment 83688

The price is right, for sure. I can’t say I understand torque to yield to begin with, and certainly not enough to understand why bmw would use it on the stiffener plate.

Lots of other super critical attach points on the car that don’t use these bolts, the front subframe attachment points come to mind.

I bought 12.9 rated bolts and nordlock washers so I could just torque to spec and get similar clamping force as using the torque to yield bolts.

Have you tried to turn the nut on top vs. the bolt from the bottom? I resize that may be impossible not a lot of working space.