Starter motor Denso or Bosch

A reman Denso starter is a reasonable compromise.

Mine did the same thing recently. I would turn the key and everything would light up, car would act normal, but the starter wouldn’t engage. I replaced the starter with a reman Denso unit off of RockAuto and I’ve been good to go since.

I replaced the starter in my '09 with a reman Bosch back in '20. Been flawless ever since, can't say enough good things about mine.

Thank you all for the tips and advice. I've ordered a Denso (OEM) starter. I'm relived we ruled out the flywheel.

I literally just did this job on my mom’s 08 528xi last weekend. I used a NEW Bosch starter (I specifically avoided remanufactured).

I agree with the other fellow, your OEM starter is goin to be much more robust than what you buy.

If it's OE it is Denso and worth keeping compared to the parts stores garbage.

One was from rock auto and was new Bosch. It looked different than the one in the car but matched overall length and teeth. The other one was a rebuilt bosch from advance auto. They tested it for me in house before I left. I can hear the gear spin but not engaging.

I assumed my starter was going out so I replaced it with a new Denso one and it fixed the issue for maybe two weeks. After that it started to not crank first try and would take a while, now it’s almost every time I start it, it takes a while. I hear the starter spin and click every time so I assume it’s just not engaging the flywheel.

I'm having a similar issue. Only hear a click when I push the ignition, the starter motor doesn't spin. I replaced the starter with a Denso remanufactured, getting the same problem. I bench tested and verified the remanufactured one spins.