So I thought I would put my 2 cents in on this also. I did my starter on my 96 318Ti yesterday. I did almost the whole thing from under the car. My first step was of course putting the car on jack stands. Then disconnect the neg. battery post. Then I pulled the dipstick and tube. This can be a little challenging but it does come out and is worth the extra room. Then I went under from the passenger side. I found this the easiest to get up to the wires and undo the 13 mm heavy gauge wires and the 10 mm nut holding the other visible wire. Then I moved and came in head fist from the front of the car and used about 18 inches of extensions, a universal (swivel) extension, and the e12 socket. Going up along the transmission with the extensions in my right hand, and reaching up around the side of the engine with my left I guided the socket on to the lower bolt. I ended up needing 1/2 inch drive because the bolt was so tight. Then I put a jack under the transmission cross member, unbolted the 4 bolts holding it up, and lowered it down about 3 inches or so. This gives enough room to get in there with the ratchet and extensions. With the bolts out I pried the starter loose from above with a long thin flat tip screwdriver. Then back below to rotate the starter far enough to take off the last nut and wire. This is an 8 mm nut. Installation is pretty much the reverse. Small wire first, then rotate starter into place, tighten bolts, install other two wires, jack tranny back up and install four bolts holding mount, install dip stick and tube. A trick I used on this was once dip stick is started, insert a screw driver in the tube up to the handle and then tap LIGHTLY on it to drive tube in. Reconnect battery, and start. This took me about 2 and a half hours but a good 30-45 minutes figuring out how to get to things. I think if I had to do another I could do it in 60-90 minutes. |