2002 Fiat Punto Mk2 1.9 JTD starter motor

Hello to everyone and Happy New Year! 🙂

I’d like to give my little contribution to this forum by telling you the story of a little repair I recently did on my 2002 Fiat Punto JTD (turbodiesel) starter motor.

As Eric always tells,

first: verify the complaint

In the last months, starting this summer, my car began showing strange symptoms when cranking the engine; when I turned the key some times , quite rarely at first (roughly one every 10 starts), the starter made a strange noise while the engine didn’t crank at all.

It was not a “click” , but more of a very fast spin, just as if the starter was indeed turning but without its pinion engaging in the freewheel.

Since it was doing this only rarely I neglected it.

Now , in november as it was getting colder it started to do more frequently, so I swapped the battery with a new one I had just installed in my other car (Citroen BX 1.6 TZS 1990).
Same capacity so it should have only been better.

And instead the problem just began worsening.

2 weeks ago I went out to buy food for Christmas and in the mart’s parking lot I had to try 4 times to get it to start. I have to admit a drop of sweat trickled down my back ’cause I was really starting to get cold feet (both literally and in the common sense of fear 😆 )

So I decided it was time to change , or at least fix, the darn starter motor.

Ok I googled around and found another guy story with the same car , it didn’t seem too difficult so I did some researching on the motor’s pricing, and found some new ones on ebay for little more than 80 euros (approx 100 bucks), then I looked in automotive online parts shops and it ranged from 120 euros (no brand) to 200 euros (bosch).

Next morning I went to the only local parts shop that was open.
I must admit I was shocked by their “best price”: 225 euros (300 bucks!!) for a *reconditioned* starter????

WTF?? :angry:

Oh well , I told myself: let’s buy it online, but before let’s try to remove it!

That evening after dinner I went down to my garage , turned on the heater (it’s very very cold! reminds me of Eric’s old shop, only it is 1/3 of its size!)

I jacked up the car and put on jackstands and rolled a piece of cardboard on the floor, then tried to slide under the car…
Guess what?
My nose was almost scraping on the oilpan! (not a good place to put your nose, I can assure you!)
Worse, I couldn’t even put my hands on the “supposed maneuvering space” where to put my hands!!

Car was too low! (32 cm from the ground, my cheap jack doesn’t go higher)
Given the position of the starter, which is on the back of the engine, in a recessed position very hard to reach, I had to renounce.

So, after a good 10 min of cursing and swearing under the car I rolled out and , sadly, lowered the car and returned home…

BUT…the next day I was watching some old Eric’s videos, and noticed that, for SUV or trucks (it was a Toyota 4 Runner if I’m not mistaken), he uses to put his jack under the lower control arm attachment to jack it higher than normally possible, so I told myself, WHY NOT?

Also, I went to my local hardware/bricolage store and got some wood plates (2,8cm of depth) and cut them to get some nice square blocks to put under my jackstands, and some other to get a “platform” to rise my poor trolley jack a little.

For the occurrence I even purchased a “mechanic uniform” to move with more ease my arms into the dirty bowels under the car 😆

That afternoon I jacked up my car again and reached the amazing height of 40cm (!!!) which, with some effort, allowed me to reach under the car with some more ease than the previous time.

I managed to get the ugly plastic clip that covers the nuts that held together the three red electric wires to the motor, then started unscrewing the nuts and then removed the wires (mentally taking a note on which goes where).

The 13mm bolt holds in place the two bigger red wires (one goes to the battery the other to the alternator).
The 10mm bolt holds in place the smaller red wire, which activates the solenoid which in turn engages the pinion into the freewheel.

Then I attacked the lower bolt (13mm) which unscrewed well even with my short 3/8 ratchet; then I tried to see where the other bolt was, but it was in hind sight, so I had to use my fingertips to locate it.
With the help of some extensions I managed to loosen it too, then tried to wiggle the motor, but it didn’t move.

GOSH!

There were THREE bolts on the darn thing!

Obviously the third one was so recessed it was almost impossible to feel it from under the car, so I sled out and tried to reach it from above.
Had to remove the plastic engine cover, then tried to slide my forearm and a bolt coming out of the back of the cylinder block started digging in my flesh; with this ugly companion I finally was able to just barely touch the third bolt.

Now I was sweating, even in the 11C of my heated garage; how the hell am I going to reach that bolt with my ratchet???

After some more arm-scratching against the metal I finally managed to insert my longest extension , then I connected it to the ratchet and , lucky form me, it wasn’t screwed so tightly and started loosening right away.
Problem was that my ratchet has its “clicks” not very tight, and with the little space I had, I only could make it do ONE click at a time; seeing how long the other two bolts were, it would have taken a VERY VERY long time to unscrew it fully.

So I had to find a faster way to unscrew that; I removed my ratchet, then my estension and the bit,m and digged into my toolbox, and found a very old spark plug key, made out of a tube of metal and with a 21mm hexagon that goes onto the plug, and on the other side it had a nice 13mm deep hexagon.

I put it in my hand, then sled it into the “cavern” behind the engine, and finally managed to put the 13mm hexagon onto the bolt’s head (and now I understand how blind people “see”!!).

With the 21mm hexagon as an handle, I finally managed to unscrew the darn bolt.

Now the motor was loose and I went under the car to try to maneuver it out of its hole.

Not a nice job given the limited space, and some pieces of dirt fell onto my face , luckily I wear glasses so nothing fell directly into my eyes, but I later purchased a cheap pair (3 euros) of safety glasses to use in the following reassembly.

After some undercar wrestling the motor came out and I was able to examine it with some more light.

Boy it was very dirty inside! Everywhere there was a lot of greaase-mixed dust, not a very good lubricant I can tell you!

So I disassembled it, with the exception of the solenoid housing which was held by three torx bolts that just didn’t want to come lose, even after lots of penetrating oil.

Anyway I cleaned the best I could, I then put the small hose of my WD40 can into the yoke housing that ends into the solenoid housing and filled it , hoping the lubricant could at least do some good job inside.

I then put the motor on my vice and tried to activate it by connecting some wires to the battery; and it works!
BOTH the motor itself, AND the solenoid-yoke mechaninsm.

Now it was time for dinner so I got out and went home.

After dinner I came back and started the re-assembly procedure.

First of all, I cleaned the three bolts and lubricated them, in order to have them go in without effort even by hand.

As soon as I tried to put the motor back into the hole I found the three red cable holder was in the way, so I used the “bungee cords” trick Eric has shown many times.
Only difference is that I hadn’t an elastic bungee cord, so I used some straight steel wire to pull up the electric wires and their holder.

After some attempts it managed to slide in place, and I started the thread on the lower bolt
It went well, so I passed onto the second one, which also went well, then it came the time for the third one.
Using the tube used before it screwed back with little or no resistance.

I then came back under the car to do the lower bolt, and when that was firmly screwed in, I came up and did the second one.

Now came the turn for the third, and all seemed well until , when exerting the last tightening “click” of my ratchet, the bit an extension decided it was time to fall BEHIND :angry: 👿 the starter motor , in a very very very awkward position.

I tried to reach , scratching my arm even more , and could only touch the very last part of the extension with my index finger tip.

AND NOW?

Well, to make a long story short, after one hour and a half (!!) of attempts I used the following method:

– take a piece of steel wire
– make it into a “spring-shape”
– put some turns of the spring around your index finger
– shape the last part of the steel wire as a hook

This gives you a funny looking index-finger-hooked-hand. 😆
And with this “tool” I lastly was able to push the bit and extension aside, where I was able to catch them.

Ok, to finish:

– clean the three wires hooks with a brass “dremel-like” rotating tool to ensure maximum conductivity
– reattach the three wires and screw their nunts in place
– put the plastic clip on
– lower the car
– reassemble the engine’s plastic cover
– reassemble the battery tray (it needed to be removed to gain access)
– put on the battery in it
– connect it and…

TRY TO CRANK THE CAR!

And it cranked, and keeps on craning well even after some days in the cold (below -7C – 20F).

Well I guess the simple cleaning and lubricating solved the problem, or at least allowed me to delay the replacement of the motor itself.

This whole experience taught me three things

1) I need a higher floor jack and jackstands
My jack does only 32cm, I’d feel better with a 50cm one.
Yes, this time i somehow managed, but the hassle to put wood boards under and carefully position them , all by staying in very uncomfortable positions…well it’s an experience I don’t care to repeat.
Also because you need to lift the car up, then put the stand, then slide the wood and the jack under the lower control arm attachment, lift again, then raise the stand and add woodblock under it…

Not very practical if I can tell you.

And my jackstands max out at 36cm and I don’t like to use them to full extension, too unstable.
WHY? Because the wood plates under the floor jack were already showing signs of digging, and also it’s very difficult to lift and keep it on the plate, because it tries to move on the plate itself, with the risk of falling out of it!!

Luckily I’ve found on ebay some jacks that do 53cm and are not to expensive (around 100euros)
Also, my jackstands are only rated for 2 tons, and even if my punto weights only 900kg , they are too low and too flimsy.
I’ve seen some good jackstands, much like Eric’s, at around 50 euros, rated 6 tons each and with 61cm of height so I can use them without fully extending.

2) NEVER SURRENDER! If I start having doubts again I’ll think about this experience, then will thing about Eric not getting a lift to better show us how to get under the car and have the same kind of access we will have, and this will encourage me to go on.

Also, and this is for Eric, my most sincere complimets to you that not only do this over and over, but you do this with a camera into one hand, so you have only one hand free to do the jobs!
You’re great! 😉

3) last but not least , I need a magnetic tool in my garage!
I realized this when “fishing” for my lost bit+extension. If I had had a magnetic tool I could have saved LOTS of time and would hot have a sore and reddened forearm now.

I only wish I could synthesize more and ask for your forgiveness for the length of this story!!

Thanks for reading,

10nico