Bad starter

[pjdavep]

2011 QX56 - around 170k miles - dead in the garage.

Wife went to leave the other day, comes back inside and says car won't start. I went out to diagnose and the battery is fine. Wife said the last few times that she tried to start it, it took a few tries. She tells me once it's dead There was no SES light according to her. All lights on dash light up when attempting to start, but start button doesn't seem to activate the starter, thus, I think it's the starter since I've seen others have to replace it already. I plugged in my code reader and didn't see any codes related to the starter - should there be?

I have a new one on order from Amazon, and in watching a YouTube tutorial, I'm not sure I want to take on the work involved. The starter is buried under the plenum with some difficult to reach (and turn) bolts. Is there any way to see or reach it without taking off the plenum? I was hoping to tap the solenoid once or twice to see if I could get her to start once more and avoid having to get it towed to the dealer.

Thanks!

pjdavep

 

[primov8]

I removed the intake manifolds on my QX80 and my previous 04 Armada; the QX80 is hands down, much easier to remove. Unlike the first gens where the fuel rails and injectors sit outside the manifold, they're located under the intake manifold on the Y/Z62s so no worries having to do anything fuel related.
Besides the 10-(10mm bolts) that hold down the intake manifold, all I did was loosen/remove some of the other 10mm bolts that hold down the harnesses on the passenger side, towards the firewall. I did this because that corner bolt is a pain trying to get a socket on there. Also, you have to disconnect the pigtail for the MAP sensor on the back of the intake manifold.

 

[pjdavep]

This is the video I watched -

Is the pigtail sensor you speak of at the 5:37 mark of the video?

Thanks!

 

[primov8]

Yes it is. For the intake manifold and throttle body gaskets, I ordered it from infinitipartsdeal.com.

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[pjdavep]

Sorry, now I'm a little more confused. You ordered what, the gaskets? You just replaced those since you had it open? And you were forced to replace your starter because it failed?

I'm thinking I may try this myself. I wasn't going to replace the gaskets though (unless they looked bad).

 

[primov8]

The IM has 8 individual gaskets + 1 tb gasket. You'll want to replace those because you don't want to have to do it over again because of vacuum leaks. Also, torque the bolts to spec.

I diagnosed and figured out what was causing a P0171 DTC, followed with a P0300. Here's the thread I posted:

P0171/P0300. Fixed.

I haven't been able to post/update as much on some of my favorite forums because my wife and I both work in healthcare and its just been ridiculously crazy. I finally got some time off and decided to post up my latest mods and past fixes. I hope this helps out any forum members who may have...

infinitiforum.net

 

[pjdavep]

Here's the thread I posted:

Ha! I recall that thread, and thought...."this guy is a maniac, but I like him"

Also, torque the bolts to spec.

I am VERY HAPPY you posted this because I didn't even think of that. So I pulled up the service manual, and while they show recommended order of bolt loosening/tightening, it mentions nothing about torque specifications. This is manual section EM-30 thru 32. Hopefully you confused this with another project?

Thanks!

 

[primov8]

Confused? Hopefully never.
Its 11N•m.
EM-31 has the exploded view of the IM, TB, gaskets, bolts, etc. and also shows the torque #s for the corresponding bolts.

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[pjdavep]

Confused? Hopefully never.
Its 11N•m.
EM-31 has the exploded view of the IM, TB, gaskets, bolts, etc. and also shows the torque #s for the corresponding bolts.

Aha, so when you say 'torque to spec', you are not referring to a torque wrench to put Xft-lbs of pressure, but rather the ordering of the bolts. That must mean I was confused (always), thanks!!

 

[primov8]

Before I confuse you anymore, I am referring to the recommended torque pressure (11 N•m or 8 ft/lb) AND the order of the bolts.

 

[pjdavep]

Another AHA moment and hopefully it helps others. The exploded diagram on EM-30 shows recommended torque pressure, and I assumed they'd show something like that on the rebuild diagram.

thanks for the time Primov, you've been a great help!

Just came back to update what turned into a saga.

First, the starter I ordered from Amazon was 'lost in transit'. After discussing with customer service several days after ordering, they sent me another one, but that was basically a week long fiasco. We've gotten Amazon packages weekly for years and this is the only time I can recall something was lost.... and of course it was the thing I needed in a timely manner.

While the starter was in transit, I had my FX at the dealer for recall/service and the master mechanic and I had a chat about my QX project. He insisted I borrow/use a special wrench he had and I'm so glad he did. It was a Matco 15 degree offset box wrench (13/14mm), and while that allowed decent access to the starter bolts, they are torqued so tightly that I needed more leverage. I ended up finding a pipe at Home Depot that fit over the wrench, but was short enough to fit in the engine bay to where I could pop the bolts free.

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That was by far the hardest part of the job.

Putting it back together wasn't that bad at all. She fired right up, but idled high. Backtrack to talking to the mechanic, he said 'don't touch your throttle body'. When I took it apart, I only unbolted the TB, and carefully laid it aside with everything still connected. Diagnosing the high idle, I did the pedal dance/ECM reset at least 10 times to no avail. Then I tried cleaning the TB, but it really wasn't that dirty at all. Then I tried the pedal dance again to no avail. Finally I gave up and took it to Infiniti hoping they could use the consult tool to reset it. They couldn't get it right either. The mechanic smoked the intake to make sure I put everything together properly and finally came to the conclusion that my throttle body was bad I found a new one on sale at an out of state Infiniti dealer for under $500 (no tax), got that installed and I'm back to running well. So kids, "don't touch your throttle body"! I noticed the TB went from part rev A all the way to D, so maybe Infiniti realized they made these things a little too hypersensitive.

Later,
pjdavep