Spark Plug Change...04 STI's - i-Club

Island Style · 03-24-2006, 08:17 AM

Anybody change out their spark plugs recently?

Jared (Zillig04) and I just received ours and are about to change them out...looks kind of tight down there on the sides...

Any helpful hints would be greatly appreciated...I've downloaded the info off of Scoobymods.com and it seems pretty straightforward...but you know how that goes...

Pretty much..

1. Take out intake to reach coil packs/plugs on passenger side...
2. Take out battery and windshield washer fluid bottle on drivers side...
3. swiveling adapter for ratchet, some extensions, and a 5/8" spark plug socket.
4. Sounds also like people say a magnetic retractable pen works great for retrieving spark plugs and other small objects that seem to be hard to reach...

Anything else that would help, chime in please.

Thanks in advance,

myroncuz · 03-24-2006, 12:25 PM

thats pretty much it brent..let me know

Island Style · 03-24-2006, 01:54 PM

Well the spark plug change went down without a hitch...I heard so many people complain about it...but really it took maybe 30-45min to do it...and that's with taking off the battery, windshield washer fluid container, snorkel and intake...

what took me a while was putting my Red Top battery back in...apparently (I didn't check...bad) when Sears put the replacement battery in, they did not put one of the hooks back into the metal of the car, but just the plastic plate piece...my battery was actually only held on by 1 hook...yow...

Anyhow, all is secure now and I am about to take the car out for a drive...

btw...after 40K miles, my spark plugs looked really clean...pretty happy about that...healthy plugs...healthy engine.

luktang · 03-24-2006, 04:29 PM

Good write up Brent. I'm ordering mine real soon. Hope you're feeling better.

mokeOne · 03-24-2006, 08:13 PM

nice. makes me feel better when it comes time to change mine. from things i've heard, i thought it was gonna be a pain.

Island Style · 03-24-2006, 10:37 PM

Purchased the one step colder plugs due to my upgrades and future new AP maps...

Acceleration and idle all seemed to smooth out quite a bit...even my exhaust quieted down a bit...

I think it's the tools that either make or break you during the install...luckily I had them...here are some that really helped out...

I'll line them up when I have a chance and take a picture....the two most important tools to me were the 3/8 swiveling head ratchets...one long and the other a very short one...

I also used a 3" 3/8" extension along with the 5/8" spark plug socket for a perfect fit...you can insert and remove the spark plugs very easily with this combination...

The toughest spark plug to remove was the one closes to the driver...pretty tight back there but still not a problem...

Anyhow, I would recommend going to scoobymods.com and looking at the write up there...nice job...and by all means...this is definitely a DYI project...save some money and enjoy...

Brent