How to replace the starter on a GM 2.2L Ecotec engine in Cobalt, Cavalier, HHR, Malibu and more

     The starter on GM's 2.2L Ecotec engine is more difficult than most to remove, owing to a hard-to- access upper mounting bolt. This post applies to many small GM cars such as the Cavalier, Cobalt, HHR, Malibu, Alero, Grand Am, Sunfire, Saturn L series and Ion and some Opel and Vauxhall cars.  I posted this tutorial with the hope of  helping the home mechanic in performing this frustrating job.
This post features a 2006 Chevy Cobalt.

                                                        The job at a glance

• Tools: floor or other jack, jack stands or wood supports, 8mm deepwell socket, 13mm socket (1/4" drive) 15mm socket and 3/8 or 1/2" ratchet, 3 and 6" extension bar 
• Materials: none
• Parts: Starter  
• Cost of parts: Starter $85- $130
• Time: 1-2 hours

Removal

1) Remove the large plastic engine cover to get a better view of the position of the upper bolt. Pull the cover free of the two ball headed posts, one at the extreme left of the cover and the other near the dipstick at the lower front. 

2) Jack up the front of the car. I used a floor jack on the front tubular cross member, with a  three foot long two by four to spread the weight of the car more evenly. Set it down on some jack stands or wood supports. 

3) Disconnect the battery with a 10mm wrench or socket. It is in the trunk. 

4) Unwire the starter. There are two connections to unwire. The small 8mm nut is the solenoid control signal and the larger 13mm uppermost is the battery plus connection.

Remove these two nuts to unwire. GM left the starter studs unprotected from the elements. 

5) Break the lower 15mm mounting bolt loose.This is the easy one. The upper bolt will more than make up for it though. 

6) Break the upper 15mm mounting bolt loose and then remove. This is the toughie. Use a three or six inch extension bar and a deep well socket fed from underneath. To find the bolt, have the socket and extension close to the engine and just probe until it seats on the bolt head. This may take a try or three. It may help to check the fit from above as the bolt head is just visable from up there in just the right light and angle.

At last, we're on the bolt. Note position of tools relative to starter and engine. 

7) Completely remove the lower starter mounting bolt.

8) Remove the starter. Mine was corroded in place. I used a large screwdriver wedged between the right end of the solenoid and the transmission to force it apart from the transmission.

There's the hole for the upper bolt

Installation

1) Affix the upper starter mounting bolt to the deep well socket. I used a piece of paperboard around the bolt head and then jammed the socket on it. This serves to hold the bolt to the socket so they don't fall apart during install. That would be very frustrating. Use a three inch extension with the deep well. Hold the bolt and tools in the upper mounting hole in the new starter as you place it in position. 

Start the upper bolt first if possible or at least hold it in place until the lower bolt is turned in to hold the starter up.

The socket and bolt are like one part going in

2) Tighten both bolts. Precision torque is not critical on a starter. 

3) Rewire the electrical connections. 

4) Remove the stands and lower the car. 

5) Install the engine cover. 

6) Connect the battery.

7) Test.

                                   

Replacing the crankshaft front oil seal on a GM 2.2L Ecotec engine in a Cavalier, Cobalt, HHR, Malibu, Grand Am, Sunfire and more

     When this seal gave way on a 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier with GM's 2.2L Ecotec engine, the leak was huge. If it's a big leak and it seems to be coming from the front (belt end) of the engine, the crankshaft front seal is the major culprit. The serpentine belt will tend to become oil soaked and throw the oil all over the bottom of the engine, so the drips will seem to be everywhere.  This repair is simple, relative to many other vehicles. It can be fixed in just a few hours. Other GM cars with this engine are the Cobalt, HHR, Malibu, Alero, Grand Am, Sunfire, Saturn L series and Ion, a well as some Opel and Vauxhall cars

                                                      The Repair Basics                                       

• Safety: Safety glasses, gloves. 
• Tools: A hydraulic or scissors jack, jack stands or substantial wood supports, 19,21 and 7 mm sockets, a 24 inch breaker bar, 3/8 and 1/2" ratchets, a pry bar or other sprocket holding tool, a small seal prying tool 
•  Parts and materials: Crankshaft front oil seal (Fel pro TCS 46112), new crankshaft pulley bolt, serpentine belt (if needed), rags, engine degreaser, grease, oil. .
•  Cost of materials: Seal $7.50 (Napa), pulley bolt $7 (GM), Serpentine belt $21 (Napa) , consumables $4.00. Total $31.50  
•  Shop labor cost for the job: $100 
•  Home mechanic estimated time: 2-3 hours   

Dis-assembly

1) Break the 19mm lug nuts on the right front tire

2) Jack up the front of the car and place on stands. Used two RR ties behind the wheel

3) Remove the right front wheel

4) Remove the right front wheel well cover. This is a complicated cover and will take awhile to get off. It is held on by 8 or ten 7mm hex screws. The topmost one is shorter. Two panel fasteners must also be removed, one by the horn in front and one way low behind the wheel. Two wires are also clipped to it, one in the front by the horn and the other along the bottom, clipped on in three places.

5) Disconnect the battery.

6) Remove the serpentine belt by moving the tensioner upward to release tension on the belt. Use a 3/8” square bar as found on a ratchet in the square hole in the tensioner arm.

7) Remove the crank bolt with a 21mm socket and 24 inch breaker bar. Jam a pry bar or other bar in an opening in the pulley and against a solid part of the car to keep the pulley (harmonic balancer) from turning.

Jam a pry bar in a spoke of the crank pulley and turn counter-clockwise

8) Remove the crank pulley. Mine slipped right off. It may be necessary to use a puller. There are three holes for a puller to be attached on the pulley.

9) Remove the bad seal. This one comes out by prying along the underside. I used a six inch long prying tool and it came out easily.

An ordinary prying tool will remove this seal

10) Thoroughly clean the belt path. An engine degreaser  and plenty of rags will help here.

Re-assembly

1) Install the new seal by pressing it in carefully. Put some grease on both sealing surfaces.  I used a 2” (OD) piece of pvc to push the seal on.

2) Re-mount the crankshaft pulley. Line up the key slot with the key in the crankshaft and seat the pulley.

3) Install a new crank shaft pulley bolt and torque to 74 foot pounds plus and additional 75 degrees of rotation. A pry bar must be inserted into the spokes of the pulley to prevent turning in the clockwise direction. This works best with two people, one holding the pry bar and the other with the torque wrench.

4) Install the serpentine belt. It runs around the outside of the alternator and AC compressor and crank pulley and then under the tensioner.

Using a 3/8" ratchet to release tension and seat the belt

5) Put the wheel well cover back on

6) Mount the wheel and just snug up the lug nuts.

7) Raise enough to remove the stand and then lower to the ground

8) Re connect the battery

9) Torque the lug nuts and test the car for leaks.

                                    

How to replace the front crankshaft seal and timing belt on a 2.2L Daewoo Leganza with GM made E-TEC-II DOHC engine

   The leak is from the front of the engine. This is a GM family 2.2L DOHC engine with the crankshaft pulley driving a timing belt, the two cams and the water pump. Driving the car up on ramps and removing a plastic cover, which covers the underside of the front of the engine and the right wheel well, and running the car, revealed a steady stream of oil coming from under the timing cover at the crankshaft sprocket. The front of the engine will have to be torn down to complete this seal replacement. The oil contaminated timing belt will also need to be replaced. It is not too difficult to tear this engine down to get to the belt and seal.

                                                              The Repair Basics                                         

• Safety: Safety glasses, gloves. 
• Tools: A hydraulic or scissors jack, jack stands or substantial wood supports, a  set of metric sockets and wrenches (10, 13,15,17,19 mm), a 6 mm Allen socket,  a 24 inch breaker bar, a piece of angle iron for holding the crankshaft, a two inch piece of pipe for installing the seal,  pry bars, a hammer, vice grip pliers, electric drill and a small bit, center punch and additional tools per specific job requirements.  
•  Parts and materials: Timing belt, crankshaft front oil seal, lacquer thinner, rags, grease, oil.
•  Cost of materials: Timing belt $28 (Autozone) , seal $14.75 (Napa), consumables $4.00. Total $47.75  
•  Shop labor cost for the job: $400-600. 
•  Home mechanic estimated time: 6-8 hours   

The 2.2L engine as found on the 2001 Daewoo Lagenza

1) Break the 19 mm lug nuts and jack the car up and remove the right wheel.  If the wheel well lower cover was not removed earlier, remove it now. Set a jack under a substantial support beam and raise until high enough to remove the wheel. I set the outer part of the lower control arm down on railroad ties.
2) Unsnap the air cleaner upper cover clamps. Loosen large screw clamp from the outer intake duct. Unbolt two 10mm bolts holding the  lower cover to the wheel well. On this car the lower duct does not separate from the lower air cleaner cover. It unsnaps from an assembly further down.
3) Remove the air intake duct from the throttle body (optional, removal is simple and gives more room to work). There is a hose and electrical connector that must be removed.
4) Disconnect the battery.
5) Remove the serpentine belt. With a 15 mm box end wrench on the tensioner, release the tension and pull off the belt.

Relieving tension on the serpentine belt with a 15 mm wrench

6) The right wheel well engine mount will have to be removed. Put a scissors jack under the oil pan, with a large piece of wood on the jack to distribute the load. Also add another small piece of wood to the front of the setup since the pan is greatly angled back.
7) Unbolt the engine from the mount on the right wheel well. There are three 12 mm bolts on the wheel well side and two 17mm nuts and one long 17mm bolt on the engine side of the mount that must be removed. A little tapping got the bracket loose and removed.

With the engine supported, remove the indicated fasteners from the mount bracket

8) Remove the upper timing cover. There are two self storing clamps that must be un-clamped. Then remove a 10 mm bolt holding a small plastic inner cover that fits over the engine mount. Remove the cover by pulling upward. Remove a lower 10 mm bolt just above the oil filter. The cover can now be removed through the top by flexing it and slipping it through the small gap between the brackets.
9) Remove the four 6mm Allen bolts from the crankshaft pulley and pull off the pulley. It will be necessary to hold the crank bolt to remove these.

Remove the crankshaft pulley with a 6 mm Allen socket

10) Set the engine at top dead center for cylinder 1. Turn the crankshaft clockwise with a breaker bar and 17mm socket. There is a rectangular depression on the outside of the crank sprocket that will align with a timing mark, a notch, in the lower inside timing cover. When this mark and the two camshaft sprockets are aligned at the same time, that’s top dead center.

The crankshaft sprocket aligned properly 

View of the cam sprockets in aligned position

11) Remove the timing belt. Loosen the tensioner with a 13mm socket and a ½ ratchet with adapter. Release tension by turning the arm with the hex hole counterclockwise.  Lock the cam sprockets in place with vice grip pliers.Remove the timing belt from the top to bottom. Keep all three sprockets aligned throughout this procedure.

The following steps are for replacement of the crankshaft front seal. Skip to step 20 if only replacing the timing belt.

12) Mount a piece of stout angle iron to two of the holes in the outer face of the crankshaft pulley with two of the existing bolts. The holes in the bar are 4 cm apart. Remove the crank bolt with a 17mm socket and 24 inch breaker bar with the fabricated tool jammed on the spindle, axle or block of support wood.

13) Remove the crank sprocket. This is a one piece part with the flange that has the holes for the pulley drilled in it. It is on there good. I used two pry bars, a small one deep in there under the sprocket and a larger one under the edge where the sprocket portion meets the flange portion. It took a while to work this off. At then end I went to a large “toad sticker” screwdriver and the biggest prybar.
14) There is a bushing behind the key that has to come out. Tap the key with a hammer and screwdriver and it will move up and out. Remove the inner bushing.
15) Remove the crankshaft seal. Use a punch to indent the middle bottom of the seal for drilling.  Drill a small hole through the seal. I turned in a small Philips head sheet metal screw and then a larger one . When fully seated, I used a pry tool repeatedly for maybe 5 minutes before the seal gave way. This seal was really in there. The rubber part of the seal had separated from the metal part, causing this big leak.
16) Seat the new seal with a piece of pipe and a big washer and the crankshaft bolt. I had to add the big bushing with the 3.1 cm wide piece of 2 inch diameter PVC to get the seal all the way seated. Make sure to lubricate all contact surfaces with grease. Take care to seat the inner spring loaded portion of the seal to the crankshaft mating surface before driving the seal into place.

Use the crank bolt with the outer bushing on a 3 cm piece of 2 inch PVC

Installation
17) Clean up everything in the belt path. I used cue tips on the cams and water pump pulleys and cleaned the crankshaft sprocket. Re-install the inner bushing and key back into the key way, tapping it in with a hammer.
18) Install the crank sprocket back on the crankshaft. Cleaned it up a bit first with some sandpaper. It slid right on.
19) Once again using the holding bar, torque the crank bolt to 77 ft lbs.
20) Install the timing belt. Remove the firewall side idler pulley with a 13 mm socket. Start with the belt over the crankshaft sprocket and work up the right  (radiator) side, keeping tension around the idler pulley and up and over the two cam sprockets. Then route it down to the right of the post for the removed idler and back around the water pump sprocket, then over the loosened tensioner. While putting all the slack to the right of the idler pulley post push the idler pulley into place with the belt inside and torque to 18 ft lbs. This is a tight fit.
21) Adjust the tensioner. Using the 6mm hex head slot in the adjustment arm of the tensioner, rotate it in a clockwise direction until the pointer above lines up with a notch behind it. It is useful to have a second person for this or you will be up and down a lot to get this right. When properly adjusted torque the tensioner nut to 18 ft lbs.

With the timing belt tensioner out, the pointer and notch can be readily seen

22) Rotate the engine by using a breaker bar or ratchet on the crank bolt, a minimum of two revolutions and check the timing marks again. If all marks are aligned move to the next step. If not, loosen the tensioner and re-position the belt until every thing lines up, re-tension and try again.
23) Install the large timing cover and torque the two bolts to 8 ft lbs if using a wrench.
24) Install the small timing cover with the 10 mm bolt.
25) Install the crankshaft pulley with the four 6 mm Allen bolts to 20 ft lbs.
26) Install the serpentine belt.
27) Install the engine mount. The larger 17 mm bolts toward the engine should be torqued to 38 ft lbs, the three 12 mm bolts on the wheel well to 25 ft lbs.
28) Remove the jack from under the oil pan.
29) Install the lower air cleaner cover and bolt back on with the two 10 mm bolts.
30) Snap the air cleaner and cover in place.
31) Install the air intake duct to the throttle body and the air cleaner and reconnect all hoses and electrical connections.
32) Install the the wheel well cover
33) Install the right wheel and set the vehicle back down.
34) Reconnect the battery
35) Run the engine and test for leaks.

                                         good deal

                                            for kit