C4 HDI Starter motor

[Stewart(oily)]

Tasked with replacing the starter motor on a 06 C4 hdi, removed battery tray, undetray, I can see it! cant even touch the only bolt I see, all suggestions welcomed.

[RichardW]

A 1.6 per chance? It is very tricky - I tried 3 times on my 307, but never manged it!!
Comes out from underneath. Remove the front flexi exhaust section over the subrame. Remove (or at least set aside) the vac reservoir on the back of the block. The bottom bolt and the electric connections are not too bad. The top bolt comes from the gearbox side and is under the termostat housing, and can be removed with a wobble bar (you can't see it though!). The third bolt is above the solenoid, and not visible. If you get the right length selection of allen key and extensions, you should be able to get on the bolt, and be just enough room to get a ratchet on the other end by the end of the solenoid, and there's just enough room to slide an arm past the exhaust to get a finger to guide the key into the bolt (this is the one I never got out!). There may also be a 13mm nut on the gearbox side, sort of opposite the tough third bolt - you can't see it, but it's not too hard to undo (by feel!). It may be necessary to undo the bottom engine mount and lever the engine forward to get enough room to slip the starter out past the drive shaft.

[Stewart(oily)]

Thanks Richard, yes its a 1.6, what a masterpiece of design these bloody things are, after getting hypothermia yesterday I think I am going to walk away from this, and I am usually pretty unstoppable.

[Stewart(oily)]

Developments, there appears to be no power reaching the starter solenoid, when the key is turned I can hear a relay in the left side of the dash clicking but my meter reveals no current reaching the starter solenoid, I will check for codes but there are no lights showing, the vehicle runs normally after a tow start.

[RichardW]

Check the fuses on the underbonnet fuse box. There is a 20A one that controls the solenoid circuit. Once the starter gets a bit old, it tends to the blow the fuse - mine did this, so I replaced it with a 25A - which made it work most of the time, but sometimes it refused to crank, hence the need to replace the starter. In the end rust scrapped the car before I managed it!!

[Bob_V]

Richard,
You have just described exactly the symptoms of the faulty starter motor on my C5. It blew the 20 amp fuse so I replaced it with a 25 amp. It now occasionally refuses to crank. It's in the garage tomorrow to have the starter replaced.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=61541

Bob

[Paul-R]

After which you'll be reinstating the 20A fuse?

[Stewart(oily)]

Thanks for the tips, I went through the underbonnet fusebox before I started, no harm in checking again, I am definitely not getting any power to the small wire on the solenoid.

[Stewart(oily)]

Red face department, I was lying underneath, looking at the starter, wondering how the hell to remove it, I decided to see if there was any power reaching the solenoid, nope, nothing, a second careful examination of the under bonnet fuses revealed that #8 had indeed failed, the rest is history, opticians consulted, new prescription in hand

[Bob_V]

Fuse number 8. That's the one!!! Did you replace it with the same value (in my case 20 amp), or go up a value. My feeling is that it will blow again, usually at the most inconvenient time. Fuses usually blow for a reason. Make sure you have a spare with you at all times.

Bob.

[GiveMeABreak]

The fuses can appear visually deceiving and the only way to be sure is to get your multimeter and test them.

[Hell Razor5543]

I have known tarnish on the fuses stop a device from working (this happened with the rear wiper on my previous C5).