Ross
01-05-2004, 08:59 AM
I didn't think the car needed new plugs, but I thought I'd do it for 2 reasons:
1. Since there is a TSB out about using longer thread plugs, I figured I'd go ahead and change them.
2. After 26,000 miles I really wanted to see what these plugs looked like just to diagnose any potential problems.
Well, to begin with, I had to use 2 long and 1 short extension to get down to the plugs! I've never seen anything like that!
Plugs were in very tight. Had to put some real oomph on the ratchet to get them broken loose. BTW, this was on Saturday morning after the car had sat all night and the engine was cold.
Plugs looked clean, and appeared to be wearing uniformly. I'm not a great mechanic, but I've seen different kinds of wear and fouling on plugs over the years, and these looked good to me.
The plugs had a reddish looking substance on the area above the threads, not on the part that goes down into the cylinder. Could this be some sort of anti seize or something that was put on at the factory? The two rear plugs (one on each side; sorry, I haven't found a diagram to tell me which numbers those are) appeared to have noticeably more of this red stuff than the other plugs. Any idea what this was?
Since the plugs were so hard to remove, I decided to use a little anti seize when putting in the new ones.
Definitely duct tape your plug socket and extensions together. You don't want to lose anything down that deep hole.
1. Since there is a TSB out about using longer thread plugs, I figured I'd go ahead and change them.
2. After 26,000 miles I really wanted to see what these plugs looked like just to diagnose any potential problems.
Well, to begin with, I had to use 2 long and 1 short extension to get down to the plugs! I've never seen anything like that!
Plugs were in very tight. Had to put some real oomph on the ratchet to get them broken loose. BTW, this was on Saturday morning after the car had sat all night and the engine was cold.
Plugs looked clean, and appeared to be wearing uniformly. I'm not a great mechanic, but I've seen different kinds of wear and fouling on plugs over the years, and these looked good to me.
The plugs had a reddish looking substance on the area above the threads, not on the part that goes down into the cylinder. Could this be some sort of anti seize or something that was put on at the factory? The two rear plugs (one on each side; sorry, I haven't found a diagram to tell me which numbers those are) appeared to have noticeably more of this red stuff than the other plugs. Any idea what this was?
Since the plugs were so hard to remove, I decided to use a little anti seize when putting in the new ones.
Definitely duct tape your plug socket and extensions together. You don't want to lose anything down that deep hole.