If you find that your car won’t start, and after you jump start it the car immediately dies when removed from the jump source (jump box or another car), then you probably need a new alternator. Your alternator isn’t providing enough power to run the car and charge the battery. This guide will follow a 2004 Honda Accord V6. The process will be very similar for most cars, especially other Hondas but the bolt sizes and locations will vary.

Today I’ll be replacing a starter in a 2004 Honda Accord V6 (7th generation 2003–2007). Replacing a starter is largely the same in most cars but I’ll include specific information like bolt sizes and locations for this car. As always, I’ll include affiliate links to the tools I used.

The starter is always attached to the transmission so it’s usually pretty easy to find. In our case it is on the right side of the transmission below and to the left of the the battery. The first step is to disconnect and remove the battery because it blocks access to the starter’s bolts and also because there is a hot unfused wire (+12v) connected the starter.

While rooting out the “clunking” sound my 2004 Accord has been making I noticed a very worn looking transmission mount. We can see it is torn in at least 2 places.

These mounts are cheap but very important. So let’s replace it. To access it I’ll need to remove this air intake.

Before I unbolt the mount, I’ll need to support the transmission from below by placing this jack with a piece of wood up against the bottom of the transmission.

2004 Honda Accord outside of a detail shop

This is my 2004 Accord. It has been my daily driver for 6 years. It has 285k miles. Everything works and it’s great — except that lately the throttle has been… weird. It starts jerky and doesn’t cruise at a consistent speed even if I am very smooth with my pedal input. I hooked up my OBD reader (on-board diagnostic reader) to see if I had any error codes. It returned p2138 which indicates a fault with the Accelerator Pedal Position Sensor. This is a kind of expensive part at $125 but at least I know what to replace now. Sometime around 2000 car manufacturers decided that having the gas pedal pull a steel cable to move the throttle plate directly was too simple, cheap and reliable. So they started implementing “fly by wire” which means there is an expensive sensor and electric motor involved now. Not that I’m bitter… Let’s fix it, oh and by the way, links to tools and parts are affiliate links and I may earn from purchases.