I'm planning to do it later this year.
To save aggravation unhook the cable between battery and starter and feed it down with the starter about 8 inches. This witll expose 12 mm battery cable mounting nut on solenoid and make a swap easier.
So far there are 3 tough items to overcome :
14 mm starter mounting (upper) bolt
Oil dipstick tube
ignition switch wire on the starter (locking connector)
I took some pictures during practice p:
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/1st-...your-part.html

 

I have a 2007, non-Sport w/ approx 240k miles. The Fit has made the noise others described for the past three winters. This year, it looks like the 2007 will not get the garage and will have to face NJ winters out in the cold. I suspect that the problem will become significant by January (or before). Reading through the posts in this thread, it sounds like 1) I need to allocate a lot more time than I'd like & 2) I'll need to kick my cursing game up a few notches. To help reduce the need for either of these, any additional pointers to make this replacement easier? I have the 2007 Honda service manual and they do not mention removing anything except the oil dipstick tube. How necessary is it to remove the air filter assembly (or anything else)?

 

Thanks for taking the time to document this!

 

Unless you doing it on the lift , here the items to be removed :
Engine splash shield
Air cleaner housing
Starter body to lower radiator hose bracket
Engine oil dipstick tube
Low engine oil pressure switch
Some people are removing engine oil filter
Note: you need to identify battery to starter cable and disconnect it from the brackets .
This will make a necessary slack to to pull the starter low enough to undo cable to solenoid terminal 12mm nut
The aftermarket starter solenoid has longer battery cable stud (so the rubber cap may not cover it completely) Also, the quick disconnect terminal may need some sanding (YES!), so the wire connector will slide in and out without great deal of effort

 

I just replaced the starter on my 2008 Fit last weekend. Same grinding noise after cold starts that everyone else has described. Took about 5-6 hours to complete. I read a bunch of these forum posts and watched a few YouTube videos. I purchased the started from O'Reilly. Since I don't have a lift, I decided to take it out from the top. In the end, I think it was the right choice. You have to remove the dipstick tube, unbolt the wire harness that crosses the intake manifold as well as the vacuum tube, remove the air intake box, and remove the intake manifold. Once you do this, you have decent access to the starter and its bolts. My dipstick tube wasn't really stuck in spite of being 12 years old. The lower, middle bolt of the intake manifold is hard to see, but can be accessed with a 12mm socket on a 1/4" wrench with a short extension.

The 17mm bolt on the driver side of the starter was relatively easy to access, but very tough to break. Used penetrating oil first followed by a 1/2" socket wrench with a 2 foot long steel cheater bar. Using a swivel might give you a little more space to move the ratchet. The 14mm bolt on the other side was also very tight and very hard to access. Even with the wire harness and tubes pulled away, there isn't a great angle from any direction. I purchase a cheap S shaped 12 point metric wrench at Harbor Freight which could get on the bolt and probably helped loosen it after applying penetrating oil. The limitation of the S wrench is that it has a 15mm head on the opposite end (and a curve) making it impossible to put a cheater bar on it. Most of the work was ultimately done using a combination of a swivel, U joints and extensions (all done from the top side with the wrench ending up close to the headlight assembly). The large electrical connection under the rubber boot was fairly easy to unbolt. The locking push connector was a challenge. From the top, it sits under a fixed metal pipe that blocks the view. I removed the main bolts first so that I could rotate the starter and see the connector. You have to push on the back end of the connect to lift the flipper that catches a small tab on the other side. Mine would not slide at all, especially in the awkward way you have to grab it. In the end, I pushed the back end of the flipper with a small screw driver while my son tapped the connector with a small pry bar to gradually knock it off.

Many people have said that the low oil pressure sensor has to come off, but I didn't find it to be necessary. The back end of the starter easily swung clear of it. There is another sensor above it that I disconnected because it was obscuring my view and was very easy to access and undo. It took some wrestling, but I was able to get the starter out through the top. If I had to do it over, I would remove the metal bracket that holds a plastic coolant pipe bracket. Even though it's small, it's makes a difference in that tight spot. When I put the starter back in, I left the bracket off first and it was much easier to slide in.

After getting it bolted back in place, I put the electrical connectors back on with relative ease. I replaced that gaskets for the intake manifold (about $35 from O'Reilly) and bolted it back in to place. Everything else went back together pretty smoothly. Fortunately, after all that work, the grinding noise is now gone. Almost certainly the pinion gear not disengaging fast enough after starting.

Just wanted to post my experience if anyone else wanted to tackle this project.

 

Thanks for the guide.... but I found this too late.

Mine is an 07 and maybe a bit tighter to get to things but it was a mini nightmare. I didn't remove the intake or any of that, I figured 2 bolts! how hard can it be? Getting that dipstick tube out was a real picnic. I pounded the crap out of it on the bracket with a long screw driver and it finally gave. The 14 mm bolt required a magical combination of extensions, a flex and ratchet. It was so tight and I just couldn't keep that socket square on the bolt. Finally when it broke free I could get one click out of each movement. Once I got two bolts out, you'd think that starter was welded in place, it was soo hard to get it out with hammers, screwdrivers, cuss words and pry bars. Getting that stupid protecto boot off the solenoid to get at the 12mm nut wasn't easy either. Broke the oil pressure sending unit trying to get the connector off... it was brittle and almost broke itself when I looked at it. I finally got the thing out of there and thought if I put some grease on the rim might help getting it back in easier, but nope, I needed a 22 ton press and didn't have one. I have no idea why these fit so tight! Anyway, next time it goes out, I might just park the car or make a flower bed out in the front yard with it.

By the way, mine was making the death seize noise after releasing the key all last winter and on cold mornings this summer. I disassembled the starter and there was a bunch of loose carbon inside from those brushes. I cleaned and blew everything out. Cleaned up the armature with some fine steel wool, greased the gear assembly with some light grease, put just a dab in the armature end bushings, put just a dab on the gear shaft and teeth. It's amazing how quiet it sounds now... no more loud labored starting noise. I hope it lasts another 15 years because I'm not doing this again (I'm 60+ and cranky).

 

An Offset Extension Wrench makes some of this job much easier. This tool is a rod which can transfer torque from a distance to bolts in tight spaces via linked socket gears.