What's up guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video I'm going to show you how to replace the spark plugs on this 2001 BMW 325xi. If you need these parts or other parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1Aauto.com. Battery's in the trunk. I'm going to disconnect the negative terminal, I'm just going to use a 10 millimeter wrench. Loosen up this nut right here, and grab the connector and disconnect that. Set it aside. All right, we're going to take this cover off. We have this nice light that we can see a lot better under the hood. We sell this at 1Aauto.com. Hooks right onto the hood. Open this up. Lift this cover, this should slide out, just like that. Just slides forward. We can grab this cabin filter, slide it out, take a straight blade screwdriver or a pocket screwdriver or even a pick, we're going to take this cover right off here, just get under there. Snap this off.
Just like that. Slide that out of the way. We can pull these wires down just like that. Just like that. There is four screws right here. One, two, three, four. When going to use a T30 socket, extension and a ratchet. Take these out. They should stay with the cover, so they're not going to fall out. With all those loose, you can grab this, slide it out. Might have to just loosen this by hand a little bit, and pull this off. Set it aside. So there should be two covers over here, and right here you just take a pocket screwdriver, get underneath there, pop those off. Then there is a bolt there and there. We're going to use a 10 millimeter socket, extension and a ratchet to take those bolts out. I'm just going to use a magnet to grab the bolt. I'll just grab this cover, pull it off.
We can just the oil cap, fill cap. Take a pocket screwdriver right here, and then it's also a cover right here. Just take these covers off. So I'm going to take a 10 millimeter socket, extension and ratchet, and there's a nut here and also under that cover. Take those out. Pull that nut out. We can grab this cover and slide it off. So this front coil has a ground strap on it and also that back coil has a ground strap, so you want to keep that in mind before you take it apart. I'm going to take a 10 millimeter socket, extension, and a ratchet, take these two bolts out. Set that ground strap aside.
Can slide this retainer up. There's like a lock on this. As you slide this up, you should be able to disconnect the connector, and then wiggle the coil back and forth and pull it up. This normally should be sealed off so nothing should get in there. There shouldn't be any dirt, but it's always a good idea to just take some compressed air and a blow gun and just blow the hole out. Make sure nothing gets down there when we take the spark plug out.
I'm going to use this spark plug socket to remove the spark plug. It's got a magnet in the end. It is a 12-point, although they're only 6-point spark plugs, which it doesn't matter. It's still going to work. We actually sell this socket at 1Aauto.com I'm going to use a little extension on the end of it and a ratchet. Once it's loose, I can do it by hand, and slide it out.
Here's the old spark plug. Here's the new spark plug from 1Aauto.com. It has the same shape, has the same thread. The important part is the fact that the threads are the same length, which they are. The electrode on the top is slightly different, but that's okay. Get yours at 1Aauto.com and, you'd be ready to do it yourself. Take the new spark plug, install it in my socket. Slowly, we'll drop it. Now these spark plugs, you don't have to gap because they come pre-gapped. They actually don't want you to get them. Once it's snug finger tight, then I will torque it.
I'm going to take this torque wrench, we actually sell this at 1Aauto.com. I'm going to torque this spark plug to 20 foot-pounds. Take the new coil, slide this on here. You could actually put some dielectric grease in there if you wanted to. It's a good idea. Slide this in position. We'll connect the connector and lock it down. And then this one has the ground, same as the last one. Take the two bolts for that forward one, put it through the ground strap.
Take a 10 millimeter socket, extension and ratchet and we'll snug these down, snug, and then we can do the same with the other ones. Now we'll put this cover back on. Slide it back into position. Put the cap back on. If you wanted to, you could have left the cap on once you take the cover off so you don't drop anything in there, and put the nut back on.
Put this nut back on. Get those started. I'll use a 10 millimeter socket, extension and a ratchet, tighten these down. Snug those down, not too tight. It is plastic that you're holding there. On this cover we have these two caps. Get those lined up, press those in. I'll reinstall this cover. Slide it under the wires, so this has to ... There's a couple of clips underneath you that have to slide onto this rail. Let's see. There we go.
All right, so make sure those clips slide in position, and take the bolts. Get the bolts started. Take a 10 millimeter socket, extension and ratchet, tighten these down, just snug. It is plastic, not too tight.
There should be two caps that go over here. This vehicle doesn't have them. They're missing, so I'm not going to put those in, but make sure you reinstall those caps. Now we want to install this. Just get this lined up. You can get these screws started. I'm going to take a T30 socket, extension and a ratchet, tighten these up. Now reinstall these wires in this cover right here. Just like that. Take this cover, line it up. That's good. Take the filter. We're going to slide it in with the curved side towards the vehicle, so the bowed side more towards the out of the vehicle. Just slide that position like that.
We'll take this cover. It's going to just slide in underneath this weatherstripping. Just push it in, get these lock tabs to line up and lock them down. They're spring loaded, and the last one, and you're good to go. Reconnect the battery, put the negative terminal on. Take a 10 millimeter wrench, we'll just tighten up this nut and just snug it up. Make sure it's tight, it doesn't wiggle loose, and you're good to go.
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