Changed plugs on 2006 2.5NA

[itzed]

I Just changed the plugs on my 2006 SE and thought I'd share some thoughts in case anyone is interested. The car had 50,000 miles on it with the original plugs. I resisted changing them before now because the car has always run like new, and I've never had a car with electronic ignition go through plugs as soon as 30K, so I opted to leave well enough alone.

First of all, as far as difficulty goes, as compared to about a dozen other cars I've owned and done this on, I would rate this difficulty at about a 5 out of 10. In other words, it's pretty easy. You do need to remove the air box and the battery, but both of those are pretty easy tasks. Getting to the plugs is pretty easy as long as you have an assortment of different length extensions for your ratchet. I found a 3" and 2" was most useful for the rear plugs where the space is tighter. The 3" attached to the spark plug socket will be easier to maneuver but is just about swallowed up by the access hole in the head once it's on the plug. So if you then attach the 2" to that, once it's in the hole, you can get the plug out easily. The fronts are easy to get to with anything from 6"-10".

I used stock NGK plugs, FR5AP-11. Supposedly these come pre-gapped at 1.1mm or .044 in. My gauge measured them all to be consistently gapped at about .038. But since they were consistent, and not knowing how accurate my guage really is, I decided to put them in like that. I figured the gap will increase as they wear anyway, so better tight then loose.

Removing the plug wires was a bit of a struggle on a couple of them, but overall not too bad. Getting the plugs out was pretty easy and staight forward, nothing too tight, and the tunnel/tube in the head actually makes it easier to make sure you're going straight on the plug. I measured the gap on the old ones coming out, and they were about .040-.044 according to my guage. So I figured my estimate was pretty accurate in putting in the new plugs with a gap that read .038 on my guage (as they came from the factory). One important note: All of the old plugs (with 50K on them) looked great. No odd colors, uniform, and burning good. They were also not that worn, and I could imagine them easily going another 25K.

Installation of the new plugs was pretty easy. I used some anti-sieze compound on the threads. They threaded easily in the head and could be turned by hand until they needed to be torqued. I torqued to about 20 ft.lbs, which "felt" right as well. But, for some reason, the spark plug boots didn't seem to "seal" against the head as well as they did when I took them off. They definitely "clicked" on the end of the plug, so that made me wonder if maybe the plug was not going down far enough in the head. I compared an old plug to a new one and noticed that the old one had apparently slightly less space taken up by a less thick washer. Upon closer inspection, I could see that the washer on the new plug was a "crush" washer, designed to seal, just like the one for the oil pan bolt. So I presumed the old ones were simply crushed and less thick because of that. I chalked up the wire boot issue to me pulling the rubber back when trying to get them off, and I'm hoping they'll seal better as time goes and they heat up again. I'll keep an eye on that.

I put it all back to together, turned the key, and she runs like a charm. Might be slightly more responsive, but that could also be the air filter I changed as well. Anyway, a pretty easy job that anyone with a little experience could definitely handle. So go for it and good luck.

[Osei]

Glad all went well.

 

Recently changed mine in the 07 and decided to try the E3 plugs.

 

I can only pray that they are gapped at .044. They have a triangular ring covering all but about 60 deg and you can't get a gap tool or feeler gauge in there!

 

The car is running well, but I am emailing them to check.

 

O.