A little rusty at auto repair...

[digitalwanderer]

Been trying to get my 2010 Infiniti M35x (Emmy) to start all week to no avail and couldn't work on it this weekend until about 5:30pm last night. Got her up on some new jack stands, got her driver's side wheel off, took off some protective plastic body armor from the bottom of her and I can now see/touch my starter!!!!

It's the first time I tried looking up how to do something on the internet and failed. I couldn't find a guide to it online, just bits and pieces here and there. Turns out the engine in Emmy is the same one that was in our 2004 350Z, and I have learned a hell of a lot about modern starting systems.

I got two more tests to run, checking the voltage at the starter solenoid and then jumping the solenoid to see if the starter turns over. Not sure of the point except to make sure it's a bad starter solenoid, but a new starter solenoid costs $89us and a new starter that has the starter solenoid included is only $70us; I still don't get that but I'm just gonna get a new starter.

Still trying to figure out how to jump the solenoid with getting a decent shock, this morning I wrapped up the mystery of the missing ground wire. (This starter doesn't have a ground wire, it grounds through it's connection to the engine. That was honestly bugging me)

Feels a lot more old school not having a tutorial or video guide to follow, and it's a bit scarier but I think that's making it a bit more fun/exciting for me. Gonna quit typing, finish my coffee, and go crawl around on my garage floor and get greasy!!!

 

[Grall]

Do you name everything around you, or is your habit confined merely to cars, computers, pets and children...?

Anyway, good luck with your tinkering! I myself was born with hands that are all thumbs; I'm almost completely worthless at building and fixing things. I can put a PC together, but it takes me a lot of effort and time, and I find the process more bothersome than fun these days honestly. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever liked it all that much... Too concerned with effing something up and wrecking expensive components... (Plugging a $1000 CPU into the socket and hearing the circuit board/substrate compressing when lowering the fastening levers... Uurrggghhh!) Not even when I was 25 and built my first own PC. (I had previously put one together in the early '90s with a friend who worked at a PC dealership; an old-style PC-AT, with the I/O ports you screwed directly into the case rather than having them all pre-installed in the I/O bracket area of the mobo like with more recent ATX systems.)

 

[digitalwanderer]

Do you name everything around you, or is your habit confined merely to cars, computers, pets and children...?

Just things/people I like and that are friends of mine.

Managed to get the starter off and everything disconnected, but apparently it really IS impossible to get it out of that spot without removing at least the steering column linkage. Got penetrating oil on the two bolts on that and will play with it more in the morning.

Oh, and I ordered a new starter that will be here Weds. I was born with all thumbs too Grall, I just bloody stubborn my way through because i refuse to pay for what I can do myself for 1/4 the cost.