spark plug change

[frank]

well, bot coolant, a fuel filter, and 4 sparkplugs yesterday. thanks to
advise from nger a few weeks ago, i successfully flushed the system, and
added new coolant. i installed the new filter, and contemplated changing
the plugs; looked at left bank and decided to remove battery in order to
get to the front plug (battery terminals needed a good cleaning anyway);
pulled s/plug wire and fiddled around with a wrench, and then chickened out.
not your father's kind of a change job.
what has been your experiences? what have you paid to have it done?

 

[Kurt C. Hack]

I changed mine on an 02 OB and didn't find it too difficult. I did have
to remove the coolant overflow tank and the air intake tubing. After
that it was pretty easy with a universal and a couple of extensions.
Much easier than some of my old GM V6s where you had to remove the
"dogbone" and rock the engine forward to get to the rear bank.

Overall, it took about an hour.

-Kurt

 

[John O]

I changed mine on an 02 OB and didn't find it too difficult.

Overall, it took about an hour.

Four plugs, one hour, not too difficult? Man, you have way more patience
than me. I get antzy if four plugs take more than ten minutes.

-John O

 

[CompUser]

pulled s/plug wire and fiddled around with a wrench, and then chickened out.
not your father's kind of a change job.
what has been your experiences? what have you paid to have it done?

I'd read up on doing the WRX plugs
(scoobymods.com, nasioc.com), and found it easier
than I'd expected...not that difficult after
removing the suggested parts, and accepting the
fact that *you can't see* the plug, till you've
got it out!

 

[DaveG]

well, bot coolant, a fuel filter, and 4 sparkplugs yesterday. thanks to
advise from nger a few weeks ago, i successfully flushed the system, and
added new coolant. i installed the new filter, and contemplated changing
the plugs; looked at left bank and decided to remove battery in order to
get to the front plug (battery terminals needed a good cleaning anyway);
pulled s/plug wire and fiddled around with a wrench, and then chickened out.
not your father's kind of a change job.
what has been your experiences? what have you paid to have it done?

I've never changed the plugs in my GT, 7 years and 200,000km later they
still seem to be going pretty well.

Dave

 

[Hallraker]

well, bot coolant, a fuel filter, and 4 sparkplugs yesterday. thanks to
advise from nger a few weeks ago, i successfully flushed the system, and
added new coolant. i installed the new filter, and contemplated changing
the plugs; looked at left bank and decided to remove battery in order to
get to the front plug (battery terminals needed a good cleaning anyway);
pulled s/plug wire and fiddled around with a wrench, and then chickened out.
not your father's kind of a change job.
what has been your experiences? what have you paid to have it done?

I did it, and with me being not a car guy. I did have a seasoned shadetree
mechanic looking over my shoulder, and he handed me the tools but I did the
job. Although the plugs appear to be difficult to get to, in reality they
are not. The stuff that's in the way is easily removed and he had some
unique tools anyway, so in my case I only had to move the washer bottle and
about an inch at that. Wires are the easiest ever, since there's no way to
mix up the order, at least on the EJ22 and EJ25. One wire is longer than
the others on the EJ22 at least, but I forget which one.

-Matt

 

[Mickey]

well, bot coolant, a fuel filter, and 4 sparkplugs yesterday. thanks to
advise from nger a few weeks ago, i successfully flushed the system, and
added new coolant. i installed the new filter, and contemplated changing
the plugs; looked at left bank and decided to remove battery in order to
get to the front plug (battery terminals needed a good cleaning anyway);
pulled s/plug wire and fiddled around with a wrench, and then chickened out.
not your father's kind of a change job.
what has been your experiences? what have you paid to have it done?

If you didn't purge all the air from the cooling system as part of
replacing the coolant, you can expect a problem down the line.
Trapped air can lead to local overheating and failure of the headgasket.

On my 00 obw, took less than an hour and all I had to remove to make
things easier was the windshield washer tank. recently replaced the
plug wires and that took less than 30 mins.

Mickey

 

[frank]

mine is a 98 forester, and it really seem hard to tell if the socket was
firmly on the plug. since its way down there, a stripped thread on
replacement is the last thing i want. much $$$ to have it done?