[friendlyjoe]

for your starter, which will soon be Visiting Elvis. My dealer just quoted me $605 to replace the starter. Mine is doing the exact same thing. DIY looks like a fun-free zone that includes removal of both the upper and lower intake manifolds, and the acquisition of what I think is an offset Torx E12 wrench to remove the starter bolts. Going in from the bottom doesn't look like a particularly rewarding exercise, either. The Bentley manual suggests that you can simply "remove top and bottom starter bolts" and pull down on the starter, rotating until the solenoid is on top, then remove". Big laughs over here when third-party manuals casually instruct you to remove a couple of bolts while neglecting to mention that you need to maybe conscript the help of every tool & die plant in a tri-state area to move unrelated hardware out of the way first. Anyway, brace yourself for some character building. To say that the starter is inconveniently located is today's understatement.
Good luck!