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Originally Posted by ti cali ed  Has the fittings on the back of the head and side of the block ever been changed? If not pull the intire intake and make the starter job easy and while you're at it replace the coolant connectors. The intake isn't hard or bad to remove, took me two hours to get it apart and back together and that included running to the parts store and the dealer to get the parts and antifreeze. |
I've seen so many people screw up their engines by removing the intake manifold to gain access to something. Usually it's because they forget to plug something in or hook a hose back up, but people also lose stuff and break stuff without even knowing it. The starter itself is a big enough job for most DIY'ers. Why complicate things just to get slightly better access to that one nut? 2hrs worth of work and the risk of messing something else up is not a good trade off for one stubborn nut.
Instead, just get a really long extension with a swivel/socket, have someone under the car and someone in front of the car, then have the person in front of the car feed the extension/swivel/socket between the upper and lower intake manifolds while the person under the car guides it onto the nut. Once it's on the nut, have the person standing in front of the car hold the socket firmly in place, while the person under the car wrenches on the bolt. Problem solved.
Of course this is only necessary if you have the older/non-threaded starter. If you have a newer starter, with a threaded mounting hole, you won't need that second person. As for removing the starter once it's unbolted, you may have to remove the oil dipstick tube(which is easy and only takes a second), then you rotate the starter LENGTHWISE 260 degrees and it drops straight down.
As for killing two birds while replacing those plastic coolant fittings, I have a better solution. The valve cover/spark plug seals are known to leak over time. Removing the valve cover gives you way more access than the intake manifold in regards to the "Y" fitting on the back of the cylinder head. This makes it a good time replace the valve cover gasket/spark plug seals as well as clean the orifice towards the rear of the valve cover that the CCV hose attaches to.
The other coolant fitting, also known as the "octupus" fitting is located on the driver's side of the engine block. Conveniently, so is the oil filter housing. The oil filter housing has a paper gasket and two o-rings that are known to harden and leak. Removing the alternator and oil filter housing not only gives you a chance to replace those things, it also gives you slightly better access to the octopus fitting. Now I'll admit, removing the intake manifold would probably give you even better access to the octopus fitting, but you're not killing two birds with one stone, it's a lot of extra work and you risk messing something up.
Just my experience after owning several 318ti's and working on several others.