How to Replace Starter 2002-06 Nissan Altima L4 2-5L

Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

Remove the negative battery terminal using a 10 millimeter socket or a 10 millimeter wrench, and place that aside.

Remove the upper intake tube. Start with this vacuum line here. Take some pliers, squeeze the clamp together, move the clamp down, and work the hose off. If you need to, you can take a right-angle pick, work it under the hose and break that seal. Clamp down further out of my way. Loosen the two hose clamps. We'll start with the one nearer the mass air flow meter, using an eight millimeter socket or a flat bladed screwdriver. Loosen the one at the throttle body, this one is actually a 10 millimeter. If it got replaced, it could be a different size. Work the hose off the throttle body, and then I'm going to work it off the mass air flow meter. Move this hose out of the way, this one out of the way, then I'll lift it straight out of the car.

The starter is located right here. You can access this from the top of the vehicle; you don't have to put it up in the air. I start by removing this electrical connector here—there is a push-in tab on the back side of it. So we're going to push it in and pull it out. This is the main power wire of the starter—it's under this rubber cap that insulates it, because when the battery is hooked up, it is live with 12 volts. You need a 12 millimeter wrench—break that free. I'm going to switch to a 12 millimeter ratcheting wrench. It's pretty loose, so I will remove it the rest of the way with my fingers. Pull this cable off with a little bit of slack. There it is, just kind of reach down, pull up on the cable, it can be a little tricky. Just push that down to the side.

Now we'll remove the two bolts that are holding the starter in—there's one on the top and one underneath. The bolt on the top is a 17 millimeter head, and the bolt on the bottom is a 14 millimeter head. This wiring harness runs right by the top bolt for the starter, to give myself a little more room for the socket. I'm going to actually move this harness just out of the way. I'm going to push in on the clips, pull it down, then I'll just pull it up and out of the way. It needs a 17 millimeter socket and a breaker bar with an extension. I'm going to pull to the front of the car, so I get it somewhat free like that. I'll move onto the bottom one. You kind of have to just feel around for it, cause you can't see it.

This is our new starter. So just to give you an idea, the top bolt is over here. The starter is sitting in the vehicle like this. I'm trying to get to the one that is over here. It's roughly opposite, kind of in the same plain, but you have to reach down underneath in the car and get the bolt that's over here. So that's what I'm trying to do right now.

Now I'm going to use the socket with a 14 millimeter and reach underneath and get it set before I put the breaker bar into it. Pull to the front of the car. Once that's loose, you can reach in with a ratchet and finish it off. It actually broke free loose enough that I'm able to use just the extension and the 14 millimeter socket with my hand to unscrew it the rest of the way. I just sort of reach down from the other side, and I've got the bolt. Before you fully remove the top 17 millimeter bolt, it's just loose. Now’s a good time to remove this bracket holding onto this shift cable here, 'cause that is bolted to the starter. It's a 10 millimeter bolt. I'm using a 10 millimeter socket on a ratchet. Break it free. See how loose the starter is?

There are two bolts: one on the top and one on the bottom. I can move this shift cable out of the way. That harness can stay there. Finish removing the 17 millimeter bolt on the top. It's actually really loose, so I'm going to switch to just the socket and extension, and using my hands. Pull that bolt out. I'm going to reach down. The starter should be nice and loose. I'm going to lift it right out of the vehicle.

Here is the old starter out of our vehicle. Here’s our brand new one from 1aauto.com. It is not a remanufactured one; this is a brand new starter. As you can see, the old one is pretty crusty and rusty. They have the identical mounting holes, and they've got the two holes for the bracket that holds on the shift cable and the harness. They have the same electrical connectors for the signal wire, and the new one comes with a new nut and lock washer for the power cable. This should fit great and get your car started for you. It's a little easier to deal with later, so I'm going to remove this nut, lock washer, and washer before it's in the engine bay. That way I don't have to take it off and put it back on to get the cable on. It'll be a little easier.

I can just slide the cable on, then come down with these and put them on. I'll just put these aside so they don't get lost. Before we feed the starter into the engine bay, I'm going to take that lower bolt, the 14 millimeter head, the shorter one, and put it in that hole. I'll hold it with my hand so it doesn't fall out. I'm trying to feed this down, and at the same time, get it into the bell housing. You can sort of see the bolt. Get it started in the hole there. Take my 14 millimeter socket and extension, and try to reach underneath.

I'm going to bring my other hand around and try to guide it onto that bolt. Okay, now I've got it on the bolt. Push the starter into the bell housing. And since you are going into aluminum, you want to make sure that this threads in nicely. So I'm just going to do it by hand and get it started. I've got that threaded in, it stopped, so it's fairly tight, and now I can work on the top one. Take our top bolt. This is the 17 millimeter head one, the super long one, put it in top hole.

Start the threads by hand. That's started. I can take the 17 millimeter socket and extension, and just use that to spin it down. I've got my torque wrench set for the bottom bolt to 41 foot-pounds. It is on an extension unfortunately. That’s the only way to get to this bolt. I'm just going to torque it down. The torque for the top bolt is 55 foot-pounds.

I'm going to reinstall the bracket that holds the shift cable and the harness. That's going to go back down. Line up with the two holes that are on the starter. Take a 10 millimeter socket with an extension to help me feed it in there. I've got the top one installed. Now I'm going to install the bottom one.

Now these are very small bolts; they're going into aluminum, and all they're doing is holding this bracket on. So I'm just going to take my 10 millimeter socket ratchet, and I'm just going to tighten them 'til I feel them get tight and stop. Right there. Can take the harness that we unclipped, push it back into the holder.

I'm going to reinstall the positive battery cable to it. Pull this up. I'm going to take a washer, a lock washer, and then a nut. The new starter nut is 13 millimeter, so I'm going to use a 13 millimeter ratcheting wrench. Get this tightened down. This is just a stud that goes into the top of the starter, so you don't want to put a ton of torque on this, 'cause you can break it off. So, as soon as I feel it start to get tight and that lock washer squishes down, I'm going to stop right there. You can see the lock washer is nice and flat, everything is compressed. That shouldn't come off.

Replace the cap here, because when the battery is connected, this will have live 12 volts, you don't want it to potentially short out if something metal could touch it, that's why this little rubber protective cap is here. I'm going to put that back over it. Reconnect the signal wire down here at the connector, that'll clip in.

Reinstall the intake tube. Start by feeding it into the engine compartment and placing it over the throttle body. Push this vacuum hose just out of the way for a second. Make sure that's seated on the throttle body. You can use a flat bladed screwdriver, or on this one it's a 10 millimeter socket. Just bring it down 'til it feels tight. Make sure that this is loose enough. Slide over. Slide the intake tube, it will squish down. Put it over the mass air flow meter housing. With the hose clamp in place, you can use a flat bladed screwdriver, or on this side it's an eight millimeter. Tighten that down. Reinstall this vacuum hose, take some needle-nose pliers.

Reconnect the negative battery terminal and tighten it down.

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