Ticking time bomb TICK TICK TICK: Spark plugs Alert Alert Alert! (1 Viewer)

[UGN]

Turn the coil about 180 degrees.

A few I've seen need the line forced just a bit. Those likely have been in accident and frame bent, or the line was pushed inward a bit. But they will flex just enough to pull out coil.

Thank you Paul, I have turned the coil at different angles and 180 degrees. There is still about 10 mm clearance issue.

You are right, the vehicle had an accident back in November, 2006 but I do not know what was the damage or repairs. The firewall looks straight though as it was at the factory. I will try to remove the A/C line bracket completely, maybe it will give me the most room to remove the coil eventually.

 

[2001LC]

Removing bracket or just loosening, should do the trick. But in all difficult cases I've delta with. I just pulled on AC line and maneuvered the coil out.

In one, I saw signs the frame had been on a frame puller. The pulled the right side outward. Others it seemed the body shifted.

 

[UGN]

Finally I was able to remove the ignition coil and replace the spark plug today. It was easier for me to replace the plug rather than remove the coil. I had to remove the bracket holding the A/C lines to give more room. Hopefully I do not need to do the spark plugs again in a while.

When I started the engine it sounded louder than usual and RPMs were higher even after 5 min of running (1100 idle and 800 in R or D). Before reassembling the air intake connector I cleaned the throttle body with a special cleaner couple days ago.

Is it possible the cause of the loud running engine was due to the cleaner or is it due to the new spark plugs and ECU recalculating amount of fuel? Do I need to do anything about it or will it go away eventually?

 

[2001LC]

No worries! Idle will stabilize. Best if the battery was disconnected for 20 minutes. Either way the ECU relearns, after 3 warm up cycles.

As part of tune up:
Makes sure you've no vacuum leaks, "hose get old and cracked".
Also clean battery post and grease them. Also disconnect negative post first and reconnect negative last.
Check the coolant level, after 8 hour cool down. By looking in radiator.

 

[UGN]

No worries! Idle will stabilize. Best if the battery was disconnected for 20 minutes. Either way the ECU relearns, after 3 warm up cycles.

As part of tune up:
Makes sure you've no vacuum leaks, "hose get old and cracked".
Also clean battery post and grease them. Also disconnect negative post first and reconnect negative last.
Check the coolant level, after 8 hour cool down. By looking in radiator.

Disconnected the battery for half an hour, turned on the key to Start and waited for 10 sec before cranking the starter. The engine fired as usual Thanks for the hint to disconnect the battery. VGRS was blinking afterwards but it went away quickly after 5 min driving (The wheels were straight when the battery was disconnected).

The hoses looked fine, I did not notice any cracks when reconnected the air intake connector. The battery terminals are in perfect condition. I drained the coolant from the radiator last fall as a preventive service (It was over 4 liters) and set the level correctly (Usually I set it to the Max when it's hot).

P.S. I set the spark plugs to 15 ft. lbs. or 180 in. lbs. as my small torque wrench does not have foot pounds.

 

[2001LC]

Disconnected the battery for half an hour, turned on the key to Start and waited for 10 sec before cranking the starter. The engine fired as usual Thanks for the hint to disconnect the battery. VGRS was blinking afterwards but it went away quickly after 5 min driving (The wheels were straight when the battery was disconnected).

The hoses looked fine, I did not notice any cracks when reconnected the air intake connector. The battery terminals are in perfect condition. I drained the coolant from the radiator last fall as a preventive service (It was over 4 liters) and set the level correctly (Usually I set it to the Max when it's hot).

P.S. I set the spark plugs to 15 ft. lbs. or 180 in. lbs. as my small torque wrench does not have foot pounds.

The motor you hear with IG key on 10 sec, is brake master booster pump motor. Read what is embossed on brake reservoir for proper topping procedure!

FWIW: VGRS; Drive in a straight line at 35 MPH, then turn steering wheel one direction to the lock/stop (as far as it goes) than the other direction. I do figure-eights after diving straight at 35MPH.

Drain and fill, annually of coolant is great. But a full flush, including draining block (open both block drains) each 50K miles or 5 years, is best and proper PM.

Very very important:
Coolant level is set after 8 hour cool down. With vehicle level or better yet, front end higher than rear end. Look under radiator cap, topping all the way up neck of cap area. Than fill reservoir. Reservoir hose needs to going straight to bottom of reservoir. Fill reservoir to low line (or above) if OAT at low for your winter. Fill to high/full mark, if OAT at high for you summer.

 

[SSMO]

one of the coil packs (cylinder #3) is stuck and does not want to come out. Used some force but worried if I break it. Had the same problem with cylinder #6 but came out fine. The boot is brown on #6. But the others are pretty fine. It's a 2006 LX470 with 125k on the clock. I think plugs have never been replaced.
Any advice on how to get this one out?

 

[flintknapper]

one of the coil packs (cylinder #3) is stuck and does not want to come out. Used some force but worried if I break it. Had the same problem with cylinder #6 but came out fine. The boot is brown on #6. But the others are pretty fine. It's a 2006 LX470 with 125k on the clock. I think plugs have never been replaced.
Any advice on how to get this one out?

Pull harder.

It's got to come out.

It will either break or not.

Better to have any trouble with it NOW...under controlled conditions than when you are on the road someplace.

IF the spark plugs have never been changed...then some of them will probably give you trouble (removing) too, so just expect that.

 

[2001LC]

I agree, pull on it. Try slight twisting (rotating) action back and forth as you do. Boot may get stuck on plug, but coil will come out.

 

[fooldall1]

I agree, pull on it. Try slight twisting (rotating) acting back and forth as you do. Boot may get stuck on plug, but coil will come out.

This. It has to be replaced, has to come out..no choice..tap ta tap it with your bottom palm and keep tension on the wrench. If you use a bit of oil from the dipstick on the threads of all plugs you replace..I've never had an instance where a plug refused to back out even after going past usual service interval. Just a little, enough to coat the threads. Get a foot pounds TW, they're cheap at Harbor Freight. If you cannot, snug with 1/4 turn has done me well over the years.

 

[SSMO]

Thanks all. Finally came out after some wrestling and a bit of penetrating oil. Replaced the two brown boots in the pic and put em back together.
Spark plugs were the original ones manufactured in Japan. The appearance of the spark plug suggests normal condition I guess??

 

[2001LC]

Looks like a good burning plug/cylinder. Gap is key. But even if under 1.2mm gap limite. I prefer not reusing. Unless crush washer not fully collapsed or replaced.

 

[SSMO]

Looks like a good burning plug/cylinder. Gap is key. But even if under 1.2mm gap limite. I prefer not reusing. Unless crush washer not fully collapsed or replaced.
View attachment 2407359

yeah I didn't mention. Replaced with OEM denso plugs despite the gap being 1.15mm.

 

[2001LC]

OEM denso pricy. But you know if from Toyota Dealership, it's not boot leg from China.

I've been using Denso IK20TT lately. China can't copy the .4mm of the TT, that I've seen.

 

[mdcoa]

'04 with 147k miles. According to Toyota records, PO had dealer replace plugs ~30k miles ago. I checked them a few weeks and they seemed pretty tight, but I noticed some of the coil boots looked TIRED, so ordered a Denso boot set and new TT plugs and one spare Denso coil for the glovebox.
Checked the gap of all plugs before install, and all were just a _hair_ too tight to get my 1mm feeler gauge into, so I opened them all up just a bit.
Installed them tonight. Realized that with the wobble head extension I had on my plug socket I wasn't going to be able to torque them properly, so just turned them all finger tight and then probably halfway between 1/4 and 1/2 turn (per Denso instructions).
Put new coil boots on (going to post in "When to replace ignition coils" thread too), but could NOT get the new springs to go in, and couldn't find anything on line about getting this style of spring to seat, so put the old spring back in (thankfully pretty easy). Used a very small amount of dielectric grease on the inside edges of both boots per the Denso instructions (the kit came with some).
Only did plugs 1-7 tonight--will do the even numbers later this week. #1 had some oily looking threads and was probably a bit loose. All plugs looked pretty good otherwise, but the #5 and #7 boots were clearly getting old, and #7 tore while trying to twist it off. Must be a bit warmer at the back of the engine, causing the boots to age more quickly.

 

[SCARd4Life]

Check and adjust gap on new plugs, always. I was finding 1 in 4 need gap adjusted. But lately they've been spot on. But always check

same here...found 1 of 8 replacement DENSO SK20R11 plugs was clearly under 1 mm gap. Others were a consistent 1.1 mm. Also found most of my installed plugs were no longer snug. Will check more often based on this thread- thanks!

 

[OwnerCS]

Does anyone know what brand of spark plugs were used for 2006 Lexus LX 470 at the Toyota plant - Denso or NGK? I do not know if the spark plugs were ever replaced on my vehicle and when I removed one of them it was NGK brand. It says "Japan" on the round metal part.

Can one tell if this is the original spark plug for 276,000 km or 171,500 miles? They are good for 192,000 km according to the maintenance schedule. As I could tell based on carbon deposits and sludge on the threads they might be installed some years ago.

View attachment 2304283

The 4 character code H59R on the body with the / / / marks tells me those are the real McCoy. Authentic Denso, Aisin, Aisan, and Toyota parts will have special codes stamped from two to four characters on the product or box to identify a manufacturing quality control lot number. Beware of parts without it.

 

[OwnerCS]

The Toyota 5VZFE (V6 Tacoma engine) came originally (at least the ones I know about) with copper dual-tip Denso plugs in one bank (right) with NGK dual-tip in the (left) or vice versa. It looked like Toyota wanted to give equal opportunity to each plug manufacturer. LOL.. Ok..

Note there are only three coils on the right bank with spark plug wires to the left bank. The discussion about that situation continues 25 years later.

Both are great plugs. Personally I like NGK copper dual-tip or V-power plugs because I've found them to get along well with very old coils. Yea they require changing every 25,000 miles. But recently I have changed my ways with the Iridium Densos for the 100 series engine.

 

[mdcoa]

Well, did the passenger side tonight. Some of the plugs were none too tight, and have oily deposits on the threads, so even relatively recently (30 miles) dealer-installed plugs are worth checking/replacing.
I used my torque wrench tonight, set to 16 ft/lb, which seems like a nice middle-of-the-road setting based on what I've read in here. That was about 1/2 turn on each plug past finger tight. So I might go back and check one or two of the more accessible plugs on the DS and then turn the rest a bit further depending on what I find on the ones I check.
Pics:

 

[NoTempoLimit]

What's the consensus on correct torque value for re-torquing used plugs with a light coating of anti-seize?

I bought my '06 last year and checked the plugs to make sure they were OK (PM said they were changed but did not have receipt). Turned out the plugs were in good shape, looked like they hadn't been in there that long.

I re-torqued to factory 17.5 N-m [13 lb-ft] value. I did not read the part about needing higher torque until after I did that job.

Since then I've put 23k mi on the plugs. I think now would be a good time to check them again.

I'm a firm believer in anti-seize on spark plugs in aluminum heads, especially used plugs being re-installed. I brush on a LIGHT even coating. By light I mean you can see through it.

I've seen what happens when you don't do this. A BMW I owned (I-6, aluminum head), bought used with 145k miles had one plug get stuck. It was a PAIN getting it out.

Galling on aluminum-steel thread intefaces is a real problem. And unless you pull the heads (or turn the whole engine upside down) you can't run a tap or brush out the threads.