Starter Troubleshooting

[Phantomx]

Quick troubleshooting help. Why BMW has to make stuff so difficult is beyond me but here we are. Ok new battery is installed so that part is fine. I haven’t reset the battery setting, can’t until Monday when my dongle arrives, but I can’t imagine (or I can) that would cause the starter to not function accordingly. Or maybe it can but it’s got full voltage so who knows.

It’s quite intermittent I hit the start button sometimes starts right up. Then sometimes it just clicks, then hit it again and it Starts right up. The autostart/stop will sometimes restart sometimes not. I can’t find a dedicated relay (like many cars) that controls starter function seems to be in the BDC on this car but if anyone knows that would be helpful.

Since starters cost $400 (got quotes for up to $660 fyi) for this car would suck if there was something else that might cause it. I can’t see anything but some of you guys have been deep in the Supra and might know. Since it is a 2019 build car and the starter sits next to the exhaust I guess it could be bad by now?

As always you guys are awesome appreciate any input.

I get these errors (see image)

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[zrk]

216119 is a line disconnection or fault to ground on the starter motor. It'd incredibly unlikely that the motor is bad, but more so likey you have some electrical issue under the car. The starter motor is easily accessible from the bottom of the car, I'd double check the connections down there.

35AE00 is 'BDC could not start activate starter motor' this is a symptom of 216119

21A511 is 'Start system timeout' another symptom of the first two.

Definitely crawl under and peek at the ground and the harness that connects the starter motor to the rest of the car. Could be corroded, rat ate it, etc.

 

[Phantomx]

I’ll take a peak but since the starter motor is an electrical motor that could be the starter as well. Bad brushes, contacts bad would do some of those to.
It’s close to the exhaust that could be a problem to so I’ll look for any burns too

 

[Phantomx]

So the starter… that‘s a fun job. In case anyone else gets stuck doing one here’s how you do it.

1. Car in the air, your gonna need some room
2. Disconnect the battery
3. Remove the big silver aluminum skid plate there‘s a bunch of large bolts and a bunch of smaller 10mm one for all the plastic trim around it
4. The rear plastic aero cover remove a few more of those 10mm so the cover hangs down out of the way
5. The oil pan blanket, there are 5 plastic grommets 4 the center pops out and 1 pushed in that’s a real mother f’er to get out, recommend a trim tool but it’s probably going to break, I couldn’t get it totally out of the way but it’s loose enough to move around to get to the bolts.
6. unbolt the main power cable, its black and it’s big you can’t miss it
7. Use a screwdriver to loosen the tab and slide the plug off the starter I took the 2 clips around the wire off just make sure it wasn’t damaged but be carful not to mess up that wire.
8. 3 bolts 2 you can see and 1 way up opposite the 2 you can see in a rubber isolator
9. Remove the starter
10. Reverse that mess and put it back together (I hope…)

with all the covers and blankets in place you almost can’t see the starter. I checked the only 2 cables going to it and they appeared good. The big power wire runs up to the post under the hood next to the jump post and the other runs up the other side I assume to the BDC which from what I have researched controls the starter.

Really not much too it so once the crap was out of the way seems the only thing that could be wrong is the starter since wiring looks good. Picking up a new one tomorrow and will install and cross fingers no more starting issues.

Next will be sorting out the oil and putting on a catch can on since it’s in the charge pipe and looks to be dripping ever so slightly on the power steering motor below said charge pipe, since the oil was all over the charge pipe and no where else seems to be the place… more later….

 

[zrk]

1. Car in the air, your gonna need some room
2. Disconnect the battery
3. Remove the big silver aluminum skid plate there‘s a bunch of large bolts and a bunch of smaller 10mm one for all the plastic trim around it
4. The rear plastic aero cover remove a few more of those 10mm so the cover hangs down out of the way
5. The oil pan blanket, there are 5 plastic grommets 4 the center pops out and 1 pushed in that’s a real mother f’er to get out, recommend a trim tool but it’s probably going to break, I couldn’t get it totally out of the way but it’s loose enough to move around to get to the bolts.
6. unbolt the main power cable, its black and it’s big you can’t miss it
7. Use a screwdriver to loosen the tab and slide the plug off the starter I took the 2 clips around the wire off just make sure it wasn’t damaged but be carful not to mess up that wire.
8. 3 bolts 2 you can see and 1 way up opposite the 2 you can see in a rubber isolator
9. Remove the starter
10. Reverse that mess and put it back together (I hope…)

You really made a 20 minutes thing sound like a lot longer by itemizing all of the 'put car in air remove panels' stuff lol.

 

[Phantomx]

When you don’t have a lift and your on your back it’s not anywhere close to a 20 min job. Just getting the car setup on jack stands to get under it is 20 min.
There is about 15 or more bolts and screws and then you get to be a contortionist to get the plastic clips out of the oil pan to move that cover.

Then sure it’s 2 minutes to disconnect the starter and take it out.

that big panel on your back is a pain in the ass even more so because you need to put the jack stand where your jack is because you have to take the panel out you can’t leverage anything but that jack pad or a little tiny spot under the front suspension you would have to land perfectly on and I didn’t trust that. So it has to go up in stages to get stuff in the right spot to get the under tray off

sure if you have a lift that’s great and it’s a lot easier but us home do it your selfers the Supra is a pain in the ass to get up on jack stands especially if your as low as mine with additional side skirts

 

[Low flyer]

Quick Jacks are the Bee's Knees.

 

[MisterSkiz]

When you don’t have a lift and your on your back it’s not anywhere close to a 20 min job. Just getting the car setup on jack stands to get under it is 20 min.
There is about 15 or more bolts and screws and then you get to be a contortionist to get the plastic clips out of the oil pan to move that cover.

Then sure it’s 2 minutes to disconnect the starter and take it out.

that big panel on your back is a pain in the ass even more so because you need to put the jack stand where your jack is because you have to take the panel out you can’t leverage anything but that jack pad or a little tiny spot under the front suspension you would have to land perfectly on and I didn’t trust that. So it has to go up in stages to get stuff in the right spot to get the under tray off

sure if you have a lift that’s great and it’s a lot easier but us home do it your selfers the Supra is a pain in the ass to get up on jack stands especially if your as low as mine with additional side skirts

I swear with all my car related stuff that getting the damn thing up in the air and double checking everything as "Safe" takes me almost as long as whatever job I am trying to do.

 

[MrNobody]

Quick Jacks are the Bee's Knees.

I second this statement.
Quickjacks are a great addition to any gearhead that wrenches on their own stuff.

 

[Phantomx]

They scare the crap outta me LoL. I have ramps I put under the tires so if a jack stand or jack failed it would still be on ramps. If I’m taking tires off jack stands with the jack providing support. I’m old school and the stands are the smallest footprint to workaround.

they do look nice though and it’s been tempting to try a set

 

[Phantomx]

Turns out the starter was bad. Put in a new one and so far no issues at all! Suprised it died with only 26,000 miles on the car but is what it is right. New battery + new starter $700 definitely not a cheap car to replace parts on out of warranty but also glad it wasn’t anything more major.

 

[zrk]

Turns out the starter was bad. Put in a new one and so far no issues at all! Suprised it died with only 26,000 miles on the car but is what it is right. New battery + new starter $700 definitely not a cheap car to replace parts on out of warranty but also glad it wasn’t anything more major.

Honestly shocked. Glad you found your issue.

 

[Phantomx]

Honestly I think auto/stop/start and a low battery kinda hastened its demise. That feature kills starters and batteries IMO instead of starting a couple times a day it could be 25 times a day if you’re stuck in lots of traffic on long commutes like mine. You go from maybe 50 starts a month to 250 then multiply that x 12 what should be 600 starts is now 3000. That’s like 5yrs of wear in 1 yrs time.

I coded my car to start in sport mode so that is off be default. Still playing with the coding to get it to remember the button when I turn it off.

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