My spark plug changing NIGHTMARE.
OK soo this is how I spent my memorial day. On saturday, I flushed the coolant on my car, finding out in the process that the radiator cap IS NOT ON THE RADIATOR! WTF?!!! Who designs this crap?! Anyway I then pulled the front 3 plugs, and replaced them no prob. Looking at the back ones, I seriously gave up, figuring you would have to pull the intake manifold to get to them right? Saw on here that you can do them yourself, so on sunday I got up bright and early and together with my friend we began the job. First off pulled the passenger side plug, no prob. Took 10 min at most, piece of cake. Then everything fell apart. Went after the drivers side plug, got my socket and extension together, stuck it in the whole and THE SOCKET FELL OFF! WTF?! So i stuck the extension back in and it wouldnt latch on! Nothing! Tried for over and hour to get it out, got a mirror in there with a light and it APPEARED the sparkplug was long or something, so we fished in there with a magnet on a stick and a coat hanger, and almost 2 HOURS later fished out the socket. It wasnt backwards! No idea what was going on, we went out and bought a longer socket, stuck it in there and it wouldnt grab! It wouldnt grab the spark plug! Got a better look, and screw it all the end of the spark plug wire was stuck on the tip of the plug! AAARRRRGGGHH!!!! So stuck in the spark plug wire, pulled it out and sure enough it grabbed the metal thingy, then got a socket in there and 5 min later had that spark plug in. That took 6 hours. If you're wondering why it's SO hard to do this, there is NO space, you can't see what you're doing, and the shaft is like 6 inches deep! Absolutely terrible design. Oh but it gets better! Went after the middle plug. After spending an hour just trying to figure out what extension to use, and how to get it in the shaft, I loosen the plug-and it won't come out. Then the socket gets stuck, and 2 hours later-the plug spins like it should come out, but won't, and the socket it stuck on it! Given the space i was working with, we gave up for the day and returned yesterday (monday). Over 10 hours has now been invested. Returned fresh at 11am yesterday, and started trying again. An hour later, we realize the spark plug is probably STRIPPED OR CROSSTHREADED, AND THE SOCKET IS STUCK IN A HOLE THATS IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE OR REACH! So I start my car in hopes of blowing out the plug, my only hope. Sure enough it blows out, and thus begins my 10 hour get the new plug in ordeal. Get the new plug in the shaft-IT WONT START. Examined the old plug, the threads look fine! Theyre ok! So I took the plug and tried to make a homemade tap out of it, and tried and tried and tried to start it! NOthing! ANd you cant get any leverage in there at all! Oh yeah the old plug was stripped, which is why the socket got stuck. Long story short, the guy who did this before not only stripped the plug getting it in, he also overtorqued the plug and crossthreaded the flippin threads!!!! screw!!! SO now i am without a plug, and i have to tap the hole today. Don't do it yourself!! What a flippin nightmare, I spent over 20 hours this weekend, and still havent finished. PEace out.
- methyl mike
- SolaraGuy Driver
- Posts: 330
- Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2003 6:49 pm
- Location: San Jose