2005 Toyota Corolla Starter Rebuild

We were at the grocery store, the car would not start. I turned the key to start and nothing. I made sure I had a strong battery. I had my wife crank it while I tapped the starter with the lug wrench.
The car started right up. That told me the starter relay and the armature (the windings) are most likely good. Its either the brushes or solenoid.

They are proud of these aren't they?

We drove straight home.

I researched online and found that starters were crazy expensive these days no matter what parts store I checked. A rebuilt one would be around a Hundred bucks. Geez Its not like its for a high compression race car.

It has been a long time, but I've rebuild electric motors before. There is not much to them really.

I saw some site where a guy just cleaned his starter and it worked. I figured it would be worth a try since the car is not starting as it is. Besides I needed to pull the starter to get the numbers off of it. I cleaned it up, and it still did not work. The brushes were just worn down too much.

Online, Napa showed they sold the brushes for the starter I have. I called them up, the guy that answered told me people normally just buy a new starter. I found that comment odd. I guess they were busy, and in a hurry to get me off the phone. I had the part number from their website and gave it to him.

Anyway, Napa lost a sale that day. It was about the same price on eBay. I like Napa, I will keep comparing prices with them.
Here's the deal, you need to get the number off of your starter and double and triple check that you are ordering the right parts. Just a few minutes can save you a lot of time and frustration.

Don't get me started on running to the hardware store for plumbing fittings! Seems it is always more than one trip for me.



Lets get to it!

The starter is right in the front and you can get to it very easily from under the hood.

You do not need many tools to do this. To pull the starter, You will need 10mm wrench, 12mm wrench, ratchet, 10mm socket, 14mm socket, (maybe a 3" extension if you are not using deep well sockets like I am), some pliers and a wire brush or steel wool to clean the connectors if needed. Probably some brake clean or contact cleaner to  clean the inside of the starter.

Disconnect the battery Negative cable. You only need to disconnect one battery cable for this, since you are not pulling the battery.

You should always disconnect the negative first. You could accidentally short to ground with your wrench if you try to remove the positive first.

Radiator fan bolt

Next unplug the fan motor and pull the wire loose. To pull radiator fan, it only has two 10mm bolts. When ever you put it back on, make sure you hook in the bottom first. Once you get in there, you can see it.
















Here is the starter with the rubber boot over the connecter.
Pull the boot of and removed the wire. Its a 12mm nut (my new solenoid had a 13mm nut). There is also a wire plugged into the solenoid. Unplug it.

pointing to the bottom Starter bolt

The Starter only has 2 bolts holding it on, but they go in at different directions. The bottom bolt slides in the same direction the starter slides in. and bolts into the transmission.

Pointing to the upper starter bolt

The upper starter bolt slides through a transmission lug into the starter.

Remove them both with your 14mm socket and ratchet.

Thats it!
Starter comes out.
If you bought a new starter, reverse the order.
For the more adventurous and thrifty; see below on rebuilding your starter.











I used the steel wool to clean the wire connector to the starter. It looked like it needed it.








Tools - Phillip head screw driver, 8mm, 12mm, 13mm wrench or socket, Snap ring pliers, and some cleaner (break clean or contact cleaner spray)

2 phillip head screws holds the solenoid on.

I put the starter in a vise (Be careful, the housing is cast aluminum), but you really don't need a vise. On the careful note, none of this stuff needs to be gorilla tight. You can damage the solenoid and brushes if you over tighten this stuff.
I decided to replace the solenoid first. The solenoid is held on by these 2 Phillip head screws.




Once I got the solenoid off, I compared it to the new one that came in.
I made sure the plungers and electrical connector looked the same..

 

Looks good, hook in the plunger and reattach the solenoid back on.

starter on its side, but you can see the 8mm bolt heads

To replaced the brushed, you will need to first removed the motor from the aluminum gear housing.

Just remove the long 8mm bolts. The gears can fall out, so keep a sharp eye on what your doing.
These pictures are from when I first pulled the starter out and tried cleaning it. Note the solenoid has not been replaced yet.

The gears can fall out, if they do just put them back.

I set the gear assembly aside so I could use my vise. This time, I made sure it was sitting face up so I would not have to put the gears back in.

Now you can just pull the motor apart. Mine had a bunch of crud in it. Metal from the brushes.

Sprayed it with contact cleaner. You should do it outside, I made a mess on my garage floor.

Turn over the shaft and armature assembly, and removed the dust cover. It is just a rubber piece that you can pry out with a screw driver or something.

dust cover removed

Warning - The snap ring might fly off, so keep your finger or hand over it. The other thing is when you remove that snap ring the armature can fall out the bottom. Possibly damage it, if it hits the concrete. Lucky when I did it, it did not get damage. That little snap ring was a booger to find. There is also a small washer under the snap ring.






The shaft is held in by a snap ring. Use some snap ring pliers to remove the snap ring. See above warning. There is also a small washer under the snap ring.

Those 3 philips head screws hold the brushes in. Go ahead and unscrew those.
The single screw screws into a clip that can fall out. Just make sure you get the clip back in when you put it back together.






Pull the brush assembly out, and compare them to double check you got the right parts.

See how much longer the new brushes are compared to the old? That is normal wear and explains all the crud that was in it.

Lets get this back together.

Make sure that clip is back in for the single phillips head screw.








Put the armature back on with the washer and snap ring.



Put it back in the stator frame, line it up on the gears, put the two 8mm bolts back in.

Stick it back in the car, put the fan motor back in (don't forget to plug it back in) connect the battery.

As always check your work. Make sure the fan comes on.

Just start the car, and turn on the A/C. The radiator fan should come on with the A/C on, if it does not then check the connector to it You may not have it all the way on.

If the car still won't start, check your connections.

This is real easy to do, anyone can do it.

The only thing is knowing if you do need a new starter, or if you can rebuild what you have. You should be able to research online to figure that out.

NEVER go with the first thing you read when researching. Find multiple sources, it only take a few minutes.

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