B8 S4 Starter Location / R&R procedure.

[KodiaKSE]

Pretty sure my starter is on the way out, recently replaced my battery. About a week later, car leaves me stranded in grocery store parking lot. Car has power, everything works, but I get a single click when I engage the starter. Fiancé comes to the rescue to pick me up. For giggles we put jumper cables on the battery. Bam car starts.

Fast forward to today, it’s about 20 days later, today I’m prepared with test meter that I’ve been carrying with me since last time the car acted up just in case. Grocery store again, I come back out.. get in the car, push the key in the dash… “ click” .. son of a.. ok, I check voltage at battery, has plenty of juice to start the car. Call fiancé again, maybe the jumper cable trick will work again.. this time, no go.

So I guess I need to tackle the starter, I really am not finding much on line or on these forums Searching under my platform or for the 3.0tfsi engine for changing the starter. Has anyone done this job or have any ideas/ things to check before going on a hunting mission for the location. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[fastboatster]

This is not a DIY, but will let you judge what you’ll be up against:
https://youtu.be/lvz6muokSFc
You need to double check that it’s really your starter, it’s not a very pleasant job to do. The starter is “caged” by the right engine mount arm, you’ll need to remove the right engine mount and unbolt the right cat (and maybe undo the downpipe). This was one of the very first things my then new to me car needed done and I didn’t hesitate to pay 600 bucks for this repair.

[maksym]

Pretty sure my starter is on the way out, recently replaced my battery. About a week later, car leaves me stranded in grocery store parking lot. Car has power, everything works, but I get a single click when I engage the starter. Fiancà comes to the rescue to pick me up. For giggles we put jumper cables on the battery. Bam car starts.

Fast forward to today, it’s about 20 days later, today I’m prepared with test meter that I’ve been carrying with me since last time the car acted up just in case. Grocery store again, I come back out.. get in the car, push the key in the dash… “ click” .. son of a.. ok, I check voltage at battery, has plenty of juice to start the car. Call fiancà again, maybe the jumper cable trick will work again.. this time, no go.

So I guess I need to tackle the starter, I really am not finding much on line or on these forums Searching under my platform or for the 3.0tfsi engine for changing the starter. Has anyone done this job or have any ideas/ things to check before going on a hunting mission for the location. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

You can’t really check the battery with the voltmeter since you need to know amps capacity and that can be done only under a load with a specialize tester. Take your car or battery to the autozone or advanced autoparts and have them check the health of the battery. If your car starts when jumped - your starter should be ok.

There’s shop manual floating on this forum- should give you a good idea of the work involved.


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[B7TitaniumA4]

My engine is out so took some pics for reference. Keep in mind that the alternator sits directly in front of this area. Red circles are the 2 bolts holding the starter in.







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[jereocam988]

I didn’t hesitate to pay 600 bucks for this repair.

Where did you take the car? The shop where I took my S4B8 wants $2,500 for the job! It's stupidly expensive. I bought my 2010 S4 in June 2023 with 104K miles and A LOT of maintenance done. It broke down the first week of August I was on a road trip and the dash was stating that my alternator failed and wasn't charging the battery luckily I made it back to town before my S4 left me stranded in a parking lot. The battery died and after getting the S4 towed to my house and replacing my alternator (DIY) it wouldn't crank at all! I spent the whole month of August trying to diagnose the problem until I ran out of options so I got it towed to a shop to get it diagnosed. Today they told me the starter is shot and needs to be placed and they are asking $2,500 to replace it. The reason why I got it towed to a shop was because I thought I needed to get the alternator coded or something, since I also unplugged the battery and left the car without power for a couple of weeks while I waited for the alternator to arrive.

[fastboatster]

Where did you take the car? The shop where I took my S4B8 wants $2,500 for the job! It's stupidly expensive. I bought my 2010 S4 in June 2023 with 104K miles and A LOT of maintenance done. It broke down the first week of August I was on a road trip and the dash was stating that my alternator failed and wasn't charging the battery luckily I made it back to town before my S4 left me stranded in a parking lot. The battery died and after getting the S4 towed to my house and replacing my alternator (DIY) it wouldn't crank at all! I spent the whole month of August trying to diagnose the problem until I ran out of options so I got it towed to a shop to get it diagnosed. Today they told me the starter is shot and needs to be placed and they are asking $2,500 to replace it. The reason why I got it towed to a shop was because I thought I needed to get the alternator coded or something, since I also unplugged the battery and left the car without power for a couple of weeks while I waited for the alternator to arrive.

it was some place in Sunnyvale, CA, probably quite far from you, and it also was pre-covid, so I'm sure now it's more expensive. 2,500 is still too much, though, it's not a pleasant job but not 8-10 hrs of labor. so call some other shops. worst case, give it a shot yourself, worst case, you'll have to tow it to another shop. you do need to remove the right engine mount and its bracket, and, depending on whether your swivels/wobble extensions allow you to get to the trans side starter bolt, you may need to unbolt the passenger side cat converter. you got a 6mt, so should be easier to reach that starter bolt

[jereocam988]

I got an update, and I ended up doing the starter replacement myself. There was no shot. I was gonna pay $2,500 for something I could probably do. I must say it was a pain, but to take that one bolt in the transmission, I also did not need to remove the cat.