Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years. We're dedicated to delivering quality auto parts, expert customer service, fast and free shipping, all backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee. Visit us at 1AAuto.com, your trusted source for quality auto parts.
In this video we're going to show you how to remove and replace your engine's spark plugs. If your vehicle only needs cylinder 2 or cylinder 4 replaced, this can be done without removing the intake manifold. However, if you need to replace all six or one of the other four cylinders, we'll show you how to remove the intake manifold in order to access those. If you like this video, please click subscribe. We have a ton more information on this car as well as many other makes and models. If you need these parts for your vehicle, you can follow the link down in the description over to 1AAuto.com. Here are the items you'll need for this repair.
Open the hood latch on your vehicle. Open it fully. The cylinder two and four ignition coils and spark plugs can be done without removing your intake manifold. To do this, we'll disconnect the connector on either one. We'll remove the 10 millimeter bolt at the top with a socket and ratchet. Remove the bolt. You may have to wiggle and pull up a little bit to remove your ignition coil.
Using a 5/8 spark plug socket, go down into the spark plug tube. Remove your spark plug. If you use a proper spark plug socket, the little rubber bushing in there will hold the plug in place.
On these plugs, it's pretty easy to tell our vehicle may have been running a little rich. It’s very, very dark, with very heavy deposits on there. Either that, or it may have been running a little cold. You can see the electrode is worn down to almost nothing. We'll show you what a new spark plug looks like for reference.
Here we have our old spark plug that we just removed from our #2 cylinder, and our new plug from 1AAuto.com. As you can see, there's some pretty clear differences here. The actual body of the plug, the threads, and the nut are all the same. However, the old electrode is worn down and this plug is very heavily contaminated. It's definitely been running way too rich. The vehicle does have an aftermarket intake and exhaust, so it might be struggling with that, or we could have some other problems. Now we know we need to look into how our motor is running, and why it's not running as clean and smooth as it should. Fortunately, part of that process is going to be installing these nice, new spark plugs to make sure we're getting a good, full burn out of our vehicle and using up as much as our air fuel mixture as we can. If your old spark plugs look like this, or have any other corrosion or any other type of contaminants and build up on them, these new plugs from 1A Auto are going to go in direct fit just like your original equipment, and fix you up right.
We're going to torque our spark plugs to 20 foot-pounds, which is the manufacturer's specification. Guys who've been doing this for a long time can just do this by feel with a ratchet, just know how tight a spark plug should be. Having your spark plug in not tight enough could allow combustion gases and compression to leak by the threads, which can damage your ignition coils as well as create misfires, a rough-running condition, or a whole bunch of other issues.
If you don't have a torque wrench handy, we'll show you real quick. Torqued to the 20 foot-pounds. This is all about leverage. This is the length of my ratchet. I can tighten 20 foot-pounds from my wrist. If you have to tighten it much more than that and start using your elbow, you're going to be over-tightening it, or if you're really pulling you're going way too hard. Just that little click with your wrist is all you need.
Reinstall your ignition coil. Reconnect the electrical connector. Go ahead and put your 10-millimeter bolt back in and tighten it down with a socket and ratchet. Now this is just securing it in there. I'm just going to get it down as tight as I can by hand here spinning the extension and we'll give it just turn from the top of the ratchet with the wrist just to secure it into place.
To remove your intake manifold we'll loosen the clamp at the throttle body with a flat blade screwdriver. You may want to disconnect this sensor. Looks like ours has been glued on because the clip is broken. You can also simply pop it out of the boot. Disconnect these two hoses from the back of the intake located just behind the throttle body. These just pop off by hand. There's one more at the back of the manifold.
Pull back on the red safety tab, push down and disconnect the sensor from the top of the intake, as well as the two electrical connectors at the front. Disconnect the connector from the throttle body. Again, we have one of those little red safety tabs we have to push down. Then we'll push down the tab and remove the connector.
We'll remove the two 10 millimeter nuts from the throttle body, the seven 10 millimeter bolts from the center of the intake manifold here, as well as the two 10 millimeter nuts over on the passenger side of the intake manifold. We'll do this using a 10 millimeter socket and ratchet where we can and a 10 millimeter wrench where it's a little too tight. Remove the two 15 millimeter bolts at the bottom of the throttle body bracket.
We're doing this with a 15 millimeter socket and ratchet. Remove the bracket from the throttle body. There's a 15 millimeter bolt at the bottom of the bracket on the passenger side of the intake manifold, both front and rear. We'll loosen those up with a 15 millimeter wrench until we can slide them off of the studs. Once you've loosened the brackets go ahead and slide them off the studs. Now we'll lift up on the intake manifold, slide it forward to release it from the EGR tube at the back. Once you're off that tube, lift up being careful for that transmission dipstick and remove the manifold from the vehicle.
While the top of the intake manifold is exposed we're going to wad some paper towels in there, just to keep any dirt and debris from getting in there while we're working.
The #4 ignition coil and spark plug are accessible with the intake manifold on. However, we always want to do our spark plugs as a set, so we waited until we removed our entire manifold before going to start changing out the rest of our plugs the same way we did with the first one.
Be sure to inspect each spark plug. We can see that this has the same condition. If the rest of our spark plugs look like this one, we know our engine is running too rich or is using more fuel than air as a whole. We're going to want to find out why that is. However, if all of our spark plugs look different, then we may be having different conditions on different cylinders or banks, and we'll want to see what's going on.
Remove the paper towels from the intake. Clean down this mating surface with some solvent and paper towels or a clean rag. Once again I'm using a brake cleaner here, but there's a variety of solvents you can use to get all that old debris and oil off.
Install your PCV breather tube on the back of the valve cover. You've got a nice little marking on it that says PCV with an arrow so you know which end goes where, and the other end should fall just about over here, where the back of the intake will be.
Remove the old gasket from your intake manifold using a small straight pick here, just to get in there and start popping it out. You should be able to remove the rest by hand. Start your new gasket. Line up. Press that in. Our old EGR seal is damaged so remove that. Install our new one. Make sure it sits all the way back past its edge.
Reinstall your intake manifold, being sure to set the opening for the automatic transmission dipstick into its proper place on the manifold. We'll also want to be careful for the bolts. We'll have to line up our EGR tube as well. Just be mindful of all of these things while we set it into place. Once the EGR tube is set and the intake is laid down onto the lower manifold, clip your automatic transmission dipstick back into place and start all of the 10 millimeter bolts by hand, just a couple of threads, to make sure they're all lined up before we tighten them down.
Tighten up the seven 10 millimeter bolts at the center of the intake. We're not going to tighten these down all the way yet. You just want them a little bit and then we'll have to torque them. Torque these bolts to nine foot-pounds. The manufacturer specification is 150 inch-pounds. However, it's a lot easier to do with this wrench and that number rounds up to about nine foot-pounds. We want to start these in the center and work our way out in a cross pattern.
Reconnect the map sensor. Push the safety into place. Reconnect the two intake tuner valve control. Reinstall the support brackets at the front and rear on the passenger side of the intake. We'll start those 10 millimeters on, just a couple of threads to keep it in place. Using a 15 millimeter socket and ratchet to tighten up those two bolts all the way at the bottom of those support brackets. Once the bottom of the support brackets are tighten down you can use the 10 millimeter socket and ratchet to finish tightening up the top two bolts.
Reconnect the PCV hose and this fitting closest to the EGR tube. We have a small hose here, and a large hose next to that. Reconnect the electrical connector onto the throttle body. Lock the safety tab back into place. You can now set the support bracket back over the throttle body bolts. Make sure it doesn't get caught up in any of the wiring down below. We'll spin our two 10 millimeter nuts on at the top by hand, just to keep that in place. Reinstall the two 15 millimeter bolts at the bottom of the bracket by hand. Tighten up the two 15 millimeter bolts at the bottom of the bracket with your socket and ratchet. Tighten up the two 10 millimeter nuts at the top.
Install the other end of the intake boot onto the throttle body. Tighten it up with your flat blade screwdriver. Reinstall the coolant tank line bracket on the side of the intake tube. Reinstall the map sensor into the intake tube. Earlier when we removed our intake, we wanted to wait until we had the intake tube reinstalled to make sure this all lined up properly.
Thanks for watching. Visit us at 1AAuto.com for quality auto parts, fast and free shipping, and the best customer service in the industry.