cab13367

Recently, my 2007 RDX with 123k miles will sometimes not start. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won’t and when it does, it turns over pretty slow. I thought it was the battery so I replaced it but it did not help. It turned out to be the starter going bad. Got a reman starter at Autozone for $180 with a lifetime warranty and now it fires right up every time.I replaced it last night with the help of some limited instructions I found on this site (which I can’t seem to find this morning) so I thought I would write up a DIY since there does not seem to be one that is easy to find. It’s a pretty straightforward job. Here is my step by step:

1. First of all, the starter is located under the intake manifold, in the front and center of the engine. So it’s between the engine and the radiator, and between the serpentine belt on the left and the battery on the right, for those that don’t know what an intake manifold looks like.
2. Disconnect battery. Remove the plastic intercooler cover on top of the engine.
3. Remove coolant overflow bottle being careful not to spill any coolant. Just remove the one plastic fastener and pull the bottle straight up. The plastic fastener is removed by carefully pulling the head of the fastener out about ¼” inch. Once you do that, the whole thing should come out easily.
4. Next, you need to remove the bracket that the hood prop rod sits on. To do that, you need to remove the plastic fasteners that hold the top bumper trim in place so you can get at the screws that hold the prop rod bracket in place.
5. Next, you need to remove the passenger side radiator fan assembly (described as the A/C condenser shroud in the instructions elsewhere on this site). There are two fan assemblies – you do NOT need to remove the driver’s side one. Disconnect the electrical connector located at the bottom, between the two fan assemblies. You’ll have to play around with it to find and squeeze the tab that locks it in place. Then remove the two screws at the top of the fan shroud and lift it straight up and out. That gives you enough room to work.
6. Now remove the screw and the nut holding the intake manifold support arm/bracket in place. You will need to unsnap two electrical connectors that are attached to the arm/bracket so that you can completely remove it.
7. Next, disconnect the electrical connector at the starter (you need to push on the tab that locks it in place), and remove the positive battery cable that is attached to the starter. It is under a rubber boot.
8. Now it’s time to remove the two bolts holding the starter in place. The bolt in the back takes a 14mm socket, the front is a 17mm. I used a deep socket with a ratchet and was able to get both out without much problem. It helps if you have a ratchet that has a smallish head as there is not a ton of room in there. Be careful not to let your socket slip and round off the bolt head.
9. Remove starter and install the new one and put everything back in reverse order.

This job is pretty straight forward and does not require any special tools. The limited room to work is the main obstacle but this can definitely be done without removing the intercooler or the intake manifold as some instructions suggest. Also, all the connectors are locked together so you need to play around with it and figure out where to squeeze (or in some cases, which little tab to lift) to unlock them. Once you do, they come apart easily. You should not have to force anything apart. All in all, it took me about an hour and a half start to finish. The cheapest price I found to replace it parts and labor was $450 so I saved myself a good chunk of change. Good luck and PM me if you have questions.

Sanders

Just finished this job. Took me about 2 hours to complete. I second your suggestion to use a shorter ratchet for some of the bolts; a longer ratchet will bang into the radiator.

I noticed that my old starter says “Honda Remanufactured by USA” on the side. I doubt this is the original starter, and my 2007 RDX only has 127K miles on the odometer. Should I be concerned that my RDX is now on its third starter (including the original)? If so, what could be causing premature failure?

Tomtwtwtw

Sounds like luck of the draw. The car has a sensor for the starter so it's not like you can burn it out by trying to start the car while it's already running (it'll sense that the engine running and not engage the starter). Maybe one of the previous owners used it for pizza delivery or something to where it could be started dozens of times per day? For what it's worth, I'm still on my original starter at 160k miles.

modrid81

Just want to say "thank you" for this DIY. Spot on, and save me a ton of time figuring out what to take out/apart. Just did the whole job in about 90 minutes this morning.

Md Subbir Rahman

Hi,

I have 2008 Acura RDX. I have lost two bolts for my Starter Mount. I have downloaded Service manual as well. Tried to find the bolt size for the Starter Mount. But it is not over there. It only says 12 X 1.25mm for the bigger one and 10 X 1.25mm for the smaller one. I think these are not the bolt size. Can someone help me?

Thanks

CSmoney28

I appreciate the write up as well. Great, work with the whole written procedure. I also have around 144,000 miles on the stock starter with no problems so far thankfully.

wusty23jd

I'd like to take this opportunity to share my own experiences for those that may be weekend warriors like myself.

I just replaced the starter of my wife's 2007 Acura RDX and ran into a pretty serious issue. When removing the intake manifold bracket, be careful not to puncture the radiator. I was battling with a stubborn/rusty fastener and wasn't paying close enough attention to the swing of my ratchet. As a result, once the fastener broke free, the handle of my ratchet swung around rapidly and made a nice dime-size hole in my radiator. See image below:



With that said, my weekend project turned into quite the nightmare as I was now forced to replace the radiator as well. On the bright side, there was a slow leak already and I was planning to replace the radiator later this summer. However, it didn't help my emotional state in the moment.

Additionally, I was really having trouble with removing the14mm bolt at the back of the starter. The only way that I could get enough leverage to break the bolt free was to attach a 14mm combination wrench and an18mm (or similar size) combination wrench as an extension. It's extremely tight in there and I wasn't able to successfully use a ratchet/socket combination to break it free. I hope that this helps others in the future!

wusty23jd

PS in 99% of cases, I use only genuine Honda/Acura OEM parts. However, in this instance, I purchased a Denso remanufactured starter from RockAuto. Denso is the OEM manufacturer for the radiator and a few other parts, so I didn't question the quality. It saved me several hundred dollars.

MtnRDX

OK, so I missed this thread before swapping mine out. When I searched again before writing a DIY I found this thread so I'm going to add my input here that should help out.

- Remove battery cables 10mm and push to where they cannot touch battery
- Take radiator catch bottle loose from bracket and move the whole thing (hose still attached) to battery side.
- Reach down the center between the two fans and unplug the connector at the bottom
- Remove two 10 mm bolts on top of fan and carefully wiggle out... will come out past hood prop rod bracket with some patience
- Lay a towel over inside of radiator to protect you from it's fins
- Remove 1 nut and 1 bolt from intake runner support bracket 14mm (I think)
- Remove clipped on wiring harness points from bracket, then unhook from every other mounting point, also unhook the one sensor plug towards the belt side of the engine seen between intake runners
- Unhook starter connector, remove 12mm nut holding starter cable to top of starter.
- Remove lower starter mount bolt 17mm, make certain you are on the right bolt head here, there are 2 close together, and mine was tough, don't hit radiator with tools
- Remove upper/back starter bolt 14mm. I recommend a 1/2" drive ratchet, short extension to get you left past the starter motor, and this is why to unclip all the wiring mount points. It took me a bunch of tries with different combinations of wrenches, ratchets, sockets, extensions, to get where I could even get on it and have any room to turn anything, much less apply the torque it took to break it loose. One other combination put me too close to that sensor I said to unplug by the way. Be mindful of it.

Putting it back together, all I can add is...
- DON'T over tighten that nut on the starter cable. That is what caused my starter failure I believe. That stud is mounted in plastic and mine was broke.
- Attach the harness back to the support bracket before bolting it back.
- Make sure to get all the harness mount point clips back in place and don't forget to plug that one sensor back
- Putting the fan back, it's a little harder than removing when skipping removing the hood prop bracket, have patience, make sure the mount brackets on the bottom get aligned, make sure to plug it back in