Infiniti QX56/QX80 - Starter Replacement 

Buy starter here: geni.us/WKA3pG2 Recommended: geni.us/JustVlads

UPDATE!!!!! I got a tip to help improve this video. When you get to the starter. undo the "power to unit wire" then the wire connected to the bottom of starter. After those 2 are removed, un-bolt the 2 bolts holding the black bracket to the starter. They are 12mm. Then the right side bolt (14mm) holding on the starter is easy to reach. Great Video

Great video! Just replaced my wife’s. Would never have tried this without this video. thank you!

A couple words of wisdom from someone who spent a good chuck of their weekend performing this swap-out (thank you for the video, it helped immensely!) 1) Do yourself a favor and get a bright color of frog or painters tape and mark all the hoses/wiring harnesses with it - it really helps reconnecting everything and making sure you didn't miss any of them. 2) As some others have mentioned, the troublesome bolt on the actual starter (driver side) isn't too difficult to get to if you take the two bolts off the starter/solenoid bracket before removing the original and before installing the new one. The nuts on that side bracket that connects the starter to the solenoid are really easy to get to and really opens up some real estate in there with turning a wrench on the hard starter bolt. For the new one all I did was loosen the bolts and swing that bracket to the side but it gave me more room to play with. 3) One step I'd add is to bring a vacuum with a fine nozzle extension to the garage when you do this repair. I found a fair amount of what looked like beach sand and various small debris like broken plastic clips and other things in there. I vacuumed what I could before I removed the manifold, then removed manifold, then taped off the openings and vacuumed again. Less chance of dirt falling down the cylinders and nice to clean up those cavities while you're in there if you can. 4) Not sure why but I did not have a "wire" to unhook at the back of the manifold. I looked and looked and looked and nothing was connected back there. There is a little rubber capped off nipple-looking thing back there but nothing clipped onto it. I just thought I'd mention it in case others were doing this repair and confused by this step. 5) For the troublesome manifold bolt (all the way back and left on the passenger side), what worked for me was to unhook the large wiring harness snap-clips and take a large crow-bar - shove the rounded end against that harness and wedge the crow-bar under the metal bracket on the top of the manifold that the engine cover sits on. This helped not only push that big mess of wires out of the way, but the crow-bar held it there and out of the way while I worked. I also took some heavy duty gorilla tape and put a couple wraps around that hardness to hold it to something else out of the way so it wouldn't budge when I removed or re-installed the manifold. Obviously be careful shoving anything sharp against it, but the rounded end worked for me without damaging anything. I also used a very stretchy soft bungee cord to hold some of the air tubes out of the way which was also helpful. After holding that mess of wires out of the way, a 1/4 inch drive with 6-inch extension going to a 3/8 inch adapter/3/8-inch ratchet worked almost perfectly for turning a wrench above the manifold. For the other 9 bolts with more room I found having an extra 2-3 inch extension to be more helpful and raise the wrench higher. 6) If you don't have one of those flexible grabber tools where there is a magnet and claw hook at the end of it, I'd get one before this job. The hard manifold bolt was much easier to grab out of there (putting it back in I'd maybe set it in the the bolt hole before setting the manifold there?) and other small pieces of this or that that I had to grab - so I used this tool probably 1/2 dozen times for grabbing whatever I dropped or debris I saw and wanted to get out of the engine cavity. 7) I'm a big dude (240 lbs) and laying flat on top of all the uncomfortable engine parts really did a number on my rib cage and belly. I'd suggest some soft foam or something to lay out there both to make it more comfortable for you and also minimize possible damage since most of those parts aren't meant to be laid on for extended periods of time. It's early May and I've been watching 2 NHL hockey playoff games per night, so a 20 minute intermission between periods was the perfect amount of "I'll lay on this uncomfortably for a bit then take a break" before repeating it all again 45 minutes later. I didn't keep track of how much time I spent start to finish but would wager it was probably 4-5 hours if I did it start to finish. Was a lot easier putting everything back afterwards versus taking it apart and figuring out how things connected and what snap clips to un-do. 8) I bought replacement gaskets for the manifold, but ended up not using them. I took the old ones off and any that were flattened or smooshed on the mating side I just flipped over and they looked brand new again on the other side. I bought the same starter this video recommends and it was $94 + tax so right around $100 on Amazon. So re-using the manifold gaskets saved about $60. I obviously would have replaced them if mine weren't re-usable. 9) Lastly - I was a bit concerned with torque values on the manifold bolts as I have a tendency to over-tighten things. I searched online and couldn't find them, so I tried to snug them up without over-tightening them. Many cars have a tightening procedure for this in a certain order and torque spec. My wife's car is a 2016 Infiniti QX80 and had 161,270 miles when I did the starter swap-out - oddly enough almost the same mileage as the one in this video. Hope these notes may help some other folks viewing this video and tackling this DIY repair.

I just did mine today. It was a gods damned miserable job. Not difficult; just a pain in the ass. I couldn't have done it without your video. Thank you, sir!

Perfect video. I have a 2013 qx56 and it kept clicking every now and then but not starting. U saved me $1,100. Premier gear starter cost me $125. Intake gaskets and throttle body gaskets was $55. Infiniti dealership wanted $1,300. Thanks man u made it easy. I will say that those bolts holding the starter was hellacious. Took me forever to get em off. Took me a total of 6 hours to fix. I am a rookie at it

Just wanted to give you a big thanks, followed this video step by step and got the starter changed out on my dad and step moms QX56. Took us about 6 hours to do so at a leisurely pace but well worth the savings of having someone else do it.

Amazing video. I had same issue and was able to knock out the whole job with relative ease because of you’re very detailed instructions. Thank you for taking the time to make the video. One of the best maintenance videos I’ve ever seen.

I had same issue with 2012 qx56 (clicking sound sometimes it would start sometimes you had to press ignition button couple of times) and dealer suggested starter replacement I did not agree and did a little digging and found out that starter relay under the hood was to blame, there are three identical relays in the fuse box under the hood, one for starter relay second one for radiator fan and the third one I don't recall but I replaced all three about year and half ago and never had this problem again not even once,

Thanks a lot for the video, this is exactly what I needed! I did this yesterday morning and it took exactly 3 hours. I could have shaved 30 minutes or so if I'd had an air or electric ratchet. The only thing I might add is you can just remove the top of the air box without removing all of it. Also, I did see comments where others removed the "bracket" on the starter to help access the bolts, but that didn't seem to help me. I just used about a 2" extension and was able to get around the hoses that were in the way-those really weren't too bad though. The hardest part was the bolt closest to the firewall on the passenger side. It is a huge pain, but do remove the ties on the wiring bundle that's in the way and just push those back with one hand while you get the socket on that bolt - just make sure you have a long enough extension for your ratchet. Overall, although not easy, it is a very doable project if you've spent any time on a car. My biggest peice of advice is do this job first thing in the morning, not late at night when you're tired. I was tempted to try it the night before but glad I waited until the next morning when I was rested.

just completed this job. my one recommendation is removing the bracket on the starter. the one that goes from the back of it (held on by a nut) and goes to the front, and you put the main power wire from the vehicle on. this allows much more room when loosening and tightening the starter bolts. thx for vid

Wifes 2016 QX had the same issue. Dealer quoted me $1,558 to replace the starter. No thanks. I had no idea the starter was where it was. Thanks to your awesome video, I'll not spend 3 hours under the car looking for a starter.

Oh man... Thank you for this video. Thank you. THANK YOU! Saved us at least $1000. Just finished this today and your directions are spot on (we have a 2015 QX80). I have some tips for anybody looking to do this. - Get a metric set of wrenches if you're worried about the sizes. You'll use the 10mm the most. - Get a good socket wrench and some extensions. This will help a lot with the 10mm manifold bolts - The clips are a bit of a pain, but we just pried them lose and snapped them back in. - As others have said, take the bar off of the starter. It will give you more room to remove the 14mm bolts - We used the box end of a 14mm wrench on the "easy to get to" bolt and a socket on the "not so easy to get to" bolt. Wouldn't advise effin' around here as I almost stripped that bolt being goofy. - Careful tightening the bolts around the manifold - don't over tighten (!) - If you buy wrenches/sockets, spend a little extra on quality...you don't want to have broken pieces falling down in here - Take your time or you're going to lose something in that clusterf*ck of fuel lines, hoses, and like...a thousand dark crevices - If you can find somebody with little-bitty hands, your life around the back side of the manifold will be 100% easier - Take the battery brace off if you have one and get something comfortable for your knees. I'm 6'1" with long arms and I was UP IN THAT ENGINE. We definitely leveled up today. Not difficult, but time consuming. I kept wondering how big this dude's hands are because man...I couldn't do SQUAT on the back side! One more time THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the video, I especially appreciate your description of the original symptoms. My 2016 QX80 is behaving the same. No crank no start. Very intermittent.

Vlad - great video! You explained things perfectly. The steps were specific and clear. I can't thank you enough. This job took way too long because of a few extremely difficult bolts. But that is the fault of the Nissan engineers (who should lose their professional licenses for this miserable design). If you post a way to contribute a some money to you, I would because you saved me a bunch of cash that would have gone to a dealership/mechanic. Fixing the starter also gave me an excuse to buy a new angled breaker bar. Super awesome video. Thanks again!

This would be my first comment ever on RU-vid use account just for background viewing, but mannn god bless this guy almost paid stealership 1500.00 to do this and trust me I don’t even change my oil and I was able to do this, now happy wife happy life, 2013 Qx56 105,000 miles and started acting up, forgot to add bought the starter in his link seems like great quality

Excellent video and description! The patience to deal with all that is not for everyone. I've been there. Every repair on my Infiniti took much more time than expected with me being a novice. I keep doing it myself though to save money. Videos like this cut down on time for sure. I can't thank you enough!

Excellent video, works perfect for 2016.

Top notch video. Just did exactly as shown and qx80 is rolling again. Thank you

Man O Man! You know your stuff. I followed everything you said in the video and the final results was a running truck. Thanks for the DIY video. It couldn't have been more accurate on starter replacement. I will definitely turn to you for any other issues I have. Thanks again.

Thanks so much for the tutorial. Saved me about a $1,000 on replacing the starter on a 2011 QX56 rocking 160k on it now. Mine doing something similar, started fine most of the time, but occasionally I would push the button and get nothing. After a couple pushes it would finally fire up, but was for sure on its way out and I didn't wand the family to get stuck somewhere. Got the starter from Rock Auto for $90 and took maybe 3 hours to install (including about 1 hour working on those impossible starter motor bolts). I nearly gave up on those bolts, but they finally came loose after I cut the wire ties to move the wire loom back there and disconnected/capped off a coolant hose to make more room for a breaker bar.

Thank you, did an install today with the same part. Got it all done in under 3 hrs with a few breaks.

Man you save me money i will follow you. Texas weather 107 is not joke so it took me 2 days to fix. everything is true on the video i bought the part from amazon 110 2 year warranty and gasket from dealership. the intake left side is the hardest but just remove zip ties from engine. Tip you can remove that black bracket on the starter just remove that black plastic cover, then you can reach that 2nd bolt. i used a jack handle pipe to loosen bolt super eazy over the wrench. The Dealership confirm they used autozone parts sometimes. I found acorns on top of engine with the wire chewed up by squirrels.

Called around, $1500 to repair, minimum $100 to diagnose. I had no previous issues in starting, this was 1st and only failure. I could hear the starter click but not turn over. Followed video and was able to fix with the starter, link provided for $100.. Took sometime on the back left intake bolt…. Not easy to get to for sure. Great video, thank you! 2016 Qx80 with 65k miles

100% correct on every detail. It took me about 2 hours. Thanks so much. 👍🏽

Awesome video. Wouldn't have attempted this without it. We just passed the 106K mile mark and started having issues. Yes, that one back manifold bolt was a pain to get to, but not as bad as the starter bolts. I used a breaker bar on the right starter bolt and used your method on the left side (breaking it free with a hammer). The Premier starter is great as well. If you have the tools, go for it. Thanks!

Thank you! I have a Q70 and QX80 with the same motor. Both are having some issues starting. Battery and alternator check out fine. I'll be doing this soon.

I just finished this. What made this loads easier was disconnecting that coolant hose right above the starter. Just plugged it with some rags and I was able to get a swivel head ratchet in there real easy.

Thank you very much for posting this video you gave me the ability to change my starter in my 2015 QX80, Thank you very much

Take the two bolt off the bar on the starter then both starter bolts are easy to get to and just take the top one off of the new one and loosen the bottom them it’s easy to install

Thank you so much. This was so helpful. I believe I can do this now.

Thanks for the excellent video! 2018 Imfinity QX80 (120k)that randomly wouldn’t turnover/start unless boosted. Swapped batteries out a number of times and it was good for a few months until weather was hot and then went back into no starts. This was the best video that I followed and had it changed in 3+ hours. Also ordered the same starter on Amazon for $90 and so far so good. He’s right about the last bolt on passenger side is a bit of a dick but nothing too bad. Get yourself some needle nose pliers to drop a couple of the hard to reach bolts back into holes when buttoning things up. Fat fingers dropped the last one and of course it went under manifold so I had to take it off again 😂. Easy with needle nose pliers.

I’m totally not handy but you video is so concise I have confidence talking to my mechanic about the work I’ll pay him to do for me so thank you

Thank you for posting! Great video, had the same issue and your video helped me out, thank you again!

Big thank you!!! Your video helped me a lot

would love to see a video on changing spark plugs and trans fluid. I have the exact one please?!

I have this problem currently in my 2004 qx56 getting worse,great video!

Thank you I wish life was explained like this lol the world be so much different

Great detail. Good video. Going to do mine tomorrow.

You got a new subscriber man.

The gaskets should always be replaced, the intake and TB gasket. Good video.

❤ thanks I got to do this job tomorrow

Thank you Very much for this videos it was a great help.

Pretty well explained! Right to the point

You think starter relay has to do with anything?

Great video!!!!!!!! Do you have anymore QX56 videos….. my friend just spent $1500 at the dealership for this repair! I wish he would’ve found your channel first! How’s the starter holding up!!!???

Vlad, thanks for the great video. It helped tremendously. 👍🏼

DUDE!! THANKS FOR THE VIDEO! YOU MUST HAVE SOME GOOD MECHANICS BACKGROUND! MINE STARTS TO GIVE ME PROBLEMS, I WILL BE REPLACING SOON!

Thanks so much! You are awesome,

Very nice video. Thank you.

good job young man!

That’s a nice detailed video!

EXCELLENT video man. Thank you

Great video thanks 🙏🏽

Well made video. Thanks for your time.

I have a '17 Nissan Armada doing the exact same thing. The same starter on Amazon is now only $101. Any complaints after nearly 4 years about the part? I don't want to go cheap on something that is such a pain to replace but why spend $500+ on OEM if I don't have to :) . Awesome video btw. The vids specific to Nissan are terrible but seeing yours gives me confidence to do it myself. Everything explained well. Thanks

awesome, thank you Vlad... you're rad!

How long did it actual took you to do it?

Very intelligent design for Nissan

Followed your video to a "T". New starter installed and everything put together perfectly. When I push the start button I just get a large "click", like the starter is not engaging the flywheel. Did I do something wrong? Are there shims for the starter that need to be placed? Any help would be appreciated.

It’s been 5 months since the starter replacement. How is it holding up? Good video thanks for posting.

Hi, excellent helpful videos. Any video or tips on how to fix air leak in rear struts. The rear of the body sags due to this.

Can you make a differantial fluid and a trans

I have the same problem with mine and eventually it stops starting luckily it was at my house luckily.I didn’t know that I damn near had to take the engine apart to put the starter on.

awesome. you don't have to remove the throttle body tho. leave it on and remove it with the manifold

Thank you for great video 5 stars... this 5.6 engine is very stupid designed... tons of pulleys no space to work.. manifold cracks frequently.. starter located end of the world... I have qx56 and qx80 unfortunately wife choice and we suffer 😅

Dealership (toyota) said they could not do this because they do not have the software to update after the install. Does the software have to be updated just to install a new starter?

Is this the same procedure on the M56?

Thanks a bunch for the vid. I’ve got a 2015 qx80 I’m going to do the job on this weekend. Any specialized tools needed? What torque value on manifold bolts?

Excellent video

Thank you 🙏🏽 sooooo much

Great video...I HV a question I HV a 2012 QX56..I can't locate the "map sensor" any help...thanks

this replacement Is a pain in the butt man I'm on loosen the bolts of the starter but like you say they so tight I m haven problem w that also my socket is 15 m hope somebody knows knows if is a close standard socket or something? thanks for the video

Perfect. Thank's.

Just wondering how long it lasted / is it still fine after 3 years ?

Your video has shown me that I have no excuse, and the extra ~$400 a shop would charge just isn't worth it. Thanks!

I'm dealing with, what i think is the same issue. 2016 QX80. When I go to start everything comes on, I hear a click then nothing. But everything stays on, I have to disconnect the battery to shut it off, is that what you were dealing with as well?

What year is your truck? Thanks u for the tutorial

Could this be the same issue alot of m56 owners are experiencing?

Te amo gracias a tu video

Everyone that used the starter recommended in video is it still holding up? About to change our 2016 Starter out.

Is there anyway you can let me know what size wrenches are needed. I'm assuming a 10, 12 and 14mm, but I'll have to do this job off site (not my house) so I want to make sure I have every thing I'll need

Have you had an more issues since you changed your starter . I have a 2011 M56X that has had a random starting problem every once in awhile.

Thank you for your video it was very helpful, is the car starter something needs to be changed every once in a while?

Same starter as my 2010 Nissan Titan, also the Infiniti FX50. You can’t buy one of these new from Nissan or Infiniti. They only sell a remanufactured starter. Makes me wonder where the OEM gets their remans from and how the quality is compared to another reputable company.

Sorry if this is a weird question, but do you have a brand of socket wrench you prefer for the infiniti

Is starter performing good? Would you still recommend?

Here's a dumb question but I have a 06 and the starter clicks once so I was messing with it and nothing anyway I jumped the starter relay pin 30 and 87a and it sparked but no crank now it will not click at all . Is there a fusible link on the ignition

One more thing i having issues with my qx 80 shuttering at low speeds no check engine light. i changed spark plugs and all the fluids . i am lost not sure what is to check other then the coils. any suggestions will help me.

Hey with the replacement starter do it comes with the automatic start as well?

Any of you guys in houston??Houston??? I need help changing my starter I'm my qx56 I could use a hand,the mechanic prices are ridiculous lol

What’ are the size bolts for the starter that hold it in?

How much dealer will charge?

I’m doing this now and that back passenger side bolt is an issue. I have it halfway out but took my socket off. The hardest part is getting the socket on because of the wire loom. I dread putting that one bolt back in.

Dam I miss my two car garage 😭😭Mine is starting to do the exact same thing 🙄🙄

Has any one changed the transmission fluid and had any problems

Question.. I have a 2012 qx56 and have intermittent starting problems, and I am not sure it has to do with the starter.. once in a while after driving( doesn't matter for how long) when I turn the truck off and come back like 45 minutes later the truck will not start, it will try to turn over but it acts as if the battery is dying and will turn over slower and slower with every start button push but then I boost it and it works fine for weeks. I have brought the truck to Autozone as well as AAA and they both say that the battery(less than 2 years old)and alternator are fine. And now it is happening more frequently, Have you ever come across this problem?

Looks just like the $400 Advance auto carquest starter.

Great video. Anyone know who designed this setup? Some jackass that does not have to work on it.

Is this the same for the q70 5.6 motor