Detailing the engine bay and spark plugs. a bit of a writeup.

[austin713]

I did a bit of DIY 100k Maintenence this weekend, and while i was in there decided to detail the engine bay. i used most of the tips from

Here is the Part number for the plug: FXE24HR11 i bought mine off ebay, $72 free shipping no tax. dealer wanted over $300 to change the plugs. no thanks.

for anyone needing to do their spark plugs and hesitant, it is an extremely easy DIY Job. only special tools needed are a long extension, and a 14mm Spark plug socket, or just a very deep well 14mm will work as well. i just used a very deep 14mm and used the coil packs to extract the old spark plugs out of their holes. the first two on each side can easily be gotten to by removing the intake tubes, but the back 2 on each side the throttle bodies need to come off. i just unbolted and pushed to the side. DO NOT UNHOOK ANY HOSES OR ELECTRICAL CONNECTIONS. this will mess with your idle and possibly require a trip to the dealer for reprogramming.

While you are in there, go ahead and clean those throttle bodies. i did mine at 75k, so they werent very bad, but if you never have you might as well while they are off. i used some Throttle body cleaner from the parts store and some microfibers.

I used a Degreaser from autozone, left my intake tubes off, bolted my throttle bodies back on and plugged both sides of the holes and any vaccum lines that were unhooked. after spraying it down, i used a pvc brush to agitate everything, then hosed it off with my hose sprayer. make sure all your plugs and coil packs are back on and connected and tightened down before doing this, you dont want water down there!

used https://www.walmart.com/ip/Meguiar-s-Ul ... 3=&veh=sem to restore the shine.

heres a Before

and After

[armybrat]

Cool thanks for sharing! I changed my plugs this past Saturday. (M56) I bought mine off of Ebay, $130 for 8 NGK Laser Iridium plugs. I used a 3/8" drive ratchet, 11" long extension, swivel and another 3" extension connected to the 14mm socket. (in that order) This combo works for all 8 cylinders. I used a telescoping magnet to grab the plugs. I unbolted a wiring harness bracket and detached the harness in two places to make it easier to access the back coil pack on the passenger side. Other than that, no problem. Mine had 82K on them; to be honest, I probably could've ran them a while longer. The gap was a few thousandths wider but the electrodes still looked ok.

[Larz]

Well ... I am so glad to see that I am not the only person who is semi-anal about giving the engine bay a proper cleaning. You can see my engine bay in the pics in my sig. I would add one thing though. There is a product called GUNK that is available as cleaner spray and also a detailer spray. I do NOT recommend these (I used them for years but soapy water is truly the best). These products have an odor. If you spray the GUNK detailer in your engine bay, that odor will be circulated into your cabin and takes 2-3 weeks to dissipate. By applying the detailer as shown in Chris' video, you avoid any unpleasant odors and brushing the detailer / restorer onto the surfaces does a much better job. I shouldn't have to say this next bit as it has been mentioned by many members since forever ...... if you have Armor-All ... CHUCK IT! I would never use any Armor All product on anything at any time.

[austin713]

Well ... I am so glad to see that I am not the only person who is semi-anal about giving the engine bay a proper cleaning. You can see my engine bay in the pics in my sig. I would add one thing though. There is a product called GUNK that is available as cleaner spray and also a detailer spray. I do NOT recommend these (I used them for years but soapy water is truly the best). These products have an odor. If you spray the GUNK detailer in your engine bay, that odor will be circulated into your cabin and takes 2-3 weeks to dissipate. By applying the detailer as shown in Chris' video, you avoid any unpleasant odors and brushing the detailer / restorer onto the surfaces does a much better job. I shouldn't have to say this next bit as it has been mentioned by many members since forever ...... if you have Armor-All ... CHUCK IT! I would never use any Armor All product on anything at any time.

yea armorall is gross. i didnt use anything that was oil based or would dry oily. that just attracts dirt and makes your engine bay dirtier quicker.