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I had a car where you had to lift the engine off the mounts to change the spark plugs. Alternately, you could kind of wiggle the problem one in on an angle. You usually ended up breaking a few before you got one in and you never got them fully tightened down, but it was better than lifting the engine.
My engine bay looks virtually identical to the posted pic with 4 wires on top going into the engine block. I have a 2004 Nissan Frontier XE 4 cyl and it has a 2.4 liter engine. 2005 Nissan Frontier was re-designed and has the 2.5L engine.
My concerns are:
How tight are the plugs screwed into the block? Do I need to use a lot of force to turn it? I don't want to break the plug and have a situation on my hands.
Do I need a torque wrench to torque it back up? I have torque wrenches but I haven't used them in years so they're probably out of calibration. I used to work on motorcycles extensively so i'm pretty good at these sorts of things but I have never worked a lot on cars.
Would I need a spark plug gapper to gap the new spark plugs?
SHould be tightened to about 15-20 ft-lbs. Read the manual to get the exact #.
Torque wrench is nice to use, not necessary. A 3/8" ratchet that's somewhat hand tight should be fine.
A spark plug gapper is also good to have. A feeler gauge, not the keyring.
My engine bay looks virtually identical to the posted pic with 4 wires on top going into the engine block. I have a 2004 Nissan Frontier XE 4 cyl and it has a 2.4 liter engine. 2005 Nissan Frontier was re-designed and has the 2.5L engine.
My concerns are:
How tight are the plugs screwed into the block? Do I need to use a lot of force to turn it? I don't want to break the plug and have a situation on my hands.
Do I need a torque wrench to torque it back up? I have torque wrenches but I haven't used them in years so they're probably out of calibration. I used to work on motorcycles extensively so i'm pretty good at these sorts of things but I have never worked a lot on cars.
Would I need a spark plug gapper to gap the new spark plugs?
I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong but in my 30+ years of mechanic work I have never seen a torque wrench that needed to be re-calibrated by the owner,,, how in the world would you do that?,...lol
I've changed many sets of plugs and 4-cylinders such as that pictured (assmuming that's what you have) are some of the easiest to change. You should be able to do it yourself. As others said, just make sure you follow the toruqe specifications so you don't under or over tighten them.
I've changed many sets of plugs and 4-cylinders such as that pictured (assmuming that's what you have) are some of the easiest to change. You should be able to do it yourself. As others said, just make sure you follow the toruqe specifications so you don't under or over tighten them.
Changing plugs in some of the DOHC 4-cylinder engines is phenomenally easy. The Zetec engine in a lot of the small Fords, for instance. Also, the older 4-cylinder Saturn engines. They sit right there on the top of the engine. Pull the plug wires, change the plugs, and 10 minutes later everybody is happy.
I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong but in my 30+ years of mechanic work I have never seen a torque wrench that needed to be re-calibrated by the owner,,, how in the world would you do that?,...lol
After years of use, torque wrenches do lose a bit of accuracy, but it's generally pretty small (a few ft lbs or so.) The ones that lose the most are some of the monster 1/2 and 3/4 inch drive ones that can do 400-500 ft lbs, I've seen some of them lose 30 lbs of accuracy from wrenching on large industrial size bolts over the years.
A lot torque wrenches have a +/- 5% error when new too. The best ones are +/- 1 or 2%.
As for recalibrating yourself, I don't think it's possible. You'd have to send them off somewhere.
Lets be honest and call it what it is. The shop was trying to hose you. This is what they do, sometimes they get away with it, and sometimes they dont. Go there with the premise of having them show you the intake that has to come out (service writer or manager) and show them the plugs on top. Explain that you already changed the plugs yourself and they cost themselves a customer with this ploy, and you wont be back.
OP: I had a 1st gen Frontier for about 12 years. There is one particular spark plug that is a pain to remove. I'd recommend you look at web sites and message boards that deal with this issue. I have one website in mind but I don't think I can share the link publicly.
Anyways, I've heard that if you remove the hood it makes things easier to get to.
Just do what the dealership does and skip the difficult one.
I had a Dodge Stealth that had to have the intake manifold taken off to get at the back three plugs. That was costly, I had a plug wire shorting out blowing the ignition fuse. I had an independent shop replace the plugs and wires, it was around $600. Wires were $85 and 100,000 mile plugs were about$70 the rest was labor.
Take that $740 and wipe your butt with it because your just wasting it regardless.
Take a couple hours (max) search the nets and find how to do all of this. Spend another 2 hours and you can do it for free. Put that $740 into a vacation fund and be done with it.
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