hello fordforum my name is Nate

Some background: I am not a mechanic, first of all. I’ve changed brake pads/rotors, batteries, side mirrors, taken apart interior door paneling to remove a Jim that fell in there, done oil changes, swapped engine filters, pried open doors with shims to unlock it with keys locked inside- you get the picture but nothing impressive. I have the part ordered to my house bc I can tell the starter is probably near death from experience. I’m at 149.5k and I can hear it. It sounds just like my last car before it died at 150k. the last one on my Honda died with no warning other than this same noise, when you fire the ignition. I know what an old versus new starter sounds and feels like. So I felt comfortable ordering the part and I am attempting to replace it Sunday because I can’t afford to get stuck out, don’t have family in town. There’s not really a good YouTube video for a 2012 that I’ve found

Where can I access the starter the easiest? Do I need any unusual tools? Does anything else need to be removed to get to it? I think I’m going to have to remove some of the protective paneling underneath the engine to get at it, but I don’t want to do anything I don’t have to. I’ve seen a video where someone could reach it from the side by removing the battery on an older escape, but not sure if the starter is even in the same location on mine

also while we’re at it if anyone knows, is my transmission really going to fail at 180,000 miles like people are saying? The car fax report on this thing shows it was serviced diligently for the first 100k miles by original buyer, barely driven by the second owner for 4 years (10-15k) and still serviced. The third owner put 30k on it in 18 months with only 2 oil changes on record but I think they were doing a lot of them without running the VIN. Now it’s mine. The engine bay is very clean, looks like it has been detailed not too long ago. New battery ‘21. Fluids are all topped off and not nasty looking/smelling/gritty. None of the filters are abused or that old. Gas mileage like you would expect. Engine sounds fine, accelerates fine, switches gears fine, etc. No rough idle. No rusting in the engine that I’ve found yet, so it was probably parked under cover + it rarely rains here in central Texas. No collisions on record and no damage to suggest hit and run. Just a heavy commuter, clearly

I appreciate any advice or if anyone has pictures too because I’m a visual person. This is my first ford and first time replacing a starter myself, although I worked on a 2011 transit a little

 

by the way this is a v6, and I think fwd, if that matters