I have a 1998 Audi A4 B5 2.8 and the dealer told me the starter is bad. It is 750 to have the dealer replace it and about 250 if I do it myself when ordering a part from ECS. I am looking for a diy for this project. Does anyone know of one? I have pulled the transmission on my other car but this one seems trickier though I am hoping since it is just the starter it won' be so bad. The dealer kept telling me about a special tool I will need to hold up the engine. Can't I just use a jack?

Does anyone have any input or can anyone possibly point me in the right direction to accomplish removing the starter? is there a diy out there for a 2.8?

 

Wrote one up myself

Jack car up and support it

Engine Bay:
Removed Ground Wire
Removed engine vanity covers
Removed entire air box assembly (easy-on passenger side under hood)
Removed one more engine vanity cover after air box is removed (it is accessible after you remove the air box-this will help you later)

Wheel Well:
Removed passenger tire
Removed plastic sheld located behind tire in wheel well. (easy to get off-there are a bunch of star screws to take out and it comes right out)

Under Car
Removed splash guards
Loosened sway bar ends (sway bar is long bar that extends and curves between driver and passenger wheels. It has two brackets holding it up and two bolts on each end that need to be loosened
Unscrewed and removed sway bar support brackets (2) by unscrewing bolts holding them up (2 bolts per bracket)
Pull off plastic tube vent that extends our under the car from the alternator - it is just hanging there and is pressed into the generator so just pull that out and put aside
Once this vent is out of the way, you can look up into this area where the vent was and see the starter.
Unhook two wires attached to the starter. They are a pain to get to and will really **** you off but get them off now.
There are two bolts securing the starter in place. These bolts are a couple inches long and are pretty large - thesereally take some work trying to get in the right position to get them out. One is going from the front of the vehicle back and is most easily accessible from below the car. You can see it from the wheel well also but it is most easily accessible from the bottom.
Remove that bolt
The other starter bolt is going from the rear of the car toward the front. This one is most accessible from the wheel well. Just get your hand in there and starter working it out.
Once these are out you will move on to the passenger motor mount.

Motor Mount and Support:
Find the passenger side motor mount - it looks like a large silver bracket with three 18mm bolts and one 13mm nut on it when looking at it from beneath the car. I used this to assist with pulling this motor mount out: http://www.wseng.com/a4/tech/mounts.htm
Read everything on that website for the pass mount because they do a good job of making sure you can line it up correctly when you put it back on
There should be a wire cluster on the bottom of this bracket and it just snaps off the bracket.
Support the engine by getting a large jack and a 2x4 pice of wood. Jack up the jack to the passenger side of the oil pan and put the wood in between the jack and the oil pan - jack it up just enough to take the pressure off the pass. side motor mount
Once it is supported Loosen the 3 bolts to the mount and then the small nut and the bracket (motor mount) will fall.
Once the bracket is out of the way, there is a large bulb looking thing that the 13mm nut was on that you pulled off with the motor mount. On top of that bulb is a small nut on top that needs to be removed to remove the bulb thing. (Anyone who knows what this thing is, please feel free to chime in). It is a pain in the a$$ to get to but it is pretty easy to break loose and makes the starter removal easy.
Once the bulb is out you should be able to just slide the starter out.
If you have any trouble, you can try to remove the wires that were part of the starter wire cluster that are attached to the generator - I did this
Once the starter is out you can check the part no. and get the right part. While you are waiting for the part or whatever reinstall the bulb and the motor mount to support the engine sufficiently. I even left the jack underneath as further support.