hey yall....im wantin to change my plugs on my 99 3.9 2wd. ive never done this to my truck, so im wondering how easy is it....ive heard things about heatshields and everything. all im wantin to do is change to some new plugs, lol.

 

just changing plugs is not very hard at all. simply do them one at a time. remove the wire, use a spark plug socket with extension. remove the plug, then replace with the new one. ***NOTE*** do not change the plugs when the motor is hot/warm. let it cool all the way down and make sure not to over-tighten! i would suggest doing the plugs/wires/rotor/cap instead of just the plugs. when you change just the plugs, you are still using parts that should probably be replaced in the rest of the ignition system.

 

i agree. do them one at a time and everything shoud go fine. my wife did a cap, rotor, wire and plug change on her escort from just reading the instructions. you just have to be willing to try :-)

 

another thing to consider too is you dont want to over tighten the plugs when you put them in... might want a torque wrench if your not comfortable with snug/tight. also you need to make sure they are gapped to the right spec.

when you pull off the wires, grab the boot with your index finger & thumb and wrap your pinky around the wire... that way you dont yank the wire out of the connector and have to fix that too

 

Been there, done that.. on my 2001 Impreza. Stupid set of wires cost $100. [:@]

When I put plugs in I always use the extension/socket but no wrench, just thread them in until they're tight, and then I chuck the wrench on and go an extra ~1/4 turn or so.

 

I was reading on the forum in the Dakota Gen 3 section plugs are due at 25,000 miles is this true?

 

funny story...a couple of weeks back I was working on one of the rentals and a neighbor comes over and asks "do i have a 16"... I said "a 16 what? more details more details" <in a joking manner> she then said her husband needed a 16. OK, I give so I go over to see what he's doing and he was asking for a 16 mm socket to change out the spark plugs on his cavalier. Sooo, I put my hand over my face and lower my head and shake it "no... no...", I tell him he needs a sparkplug socket to get them out. which he doesnt have. so I was about to head home for lunch and told him i'd bring back the tools he needs to get it done.

I return with a sparkplug socket, u-joint and a few extentions just in case and hand them over to him and told him he needs to make sure the plugs are gapped right. fortunately he had the gapping tool and knew enough to check the gaps. So i'm off to go back to work across the street. 10 minutes later he comes back thanking me for loaning the tools and says it's got to go for a tuneup... i'm like huh? you just tuned it up... he then says "I broke it"... DOH! (damn i'm not going to get much done today am I)... so I head back across the street to see what the damage was. as we arrive at his garage his wife is coming out of the house and says $237 bux to get it tuned up... (damn i'm in the wrong business). anyway, he shows me a busted sparkplug wire that he pushed back onto the plug insulator and was thinking it would be ok. well I gave it a gentle tug and out it came. "OK, hold on" I tell him, be right back. So I head back over to my truck, whip out the wire strippers & crimpers (just so happend I had the plug crimpers on me) and proceeded back over to his house to fix it... 10 minutes later he was back on the road. He mentioned that he didnt grab the boot when he pulled it off... oops...

moral here is to always grab the boot as well as the wire (with one hand) when yanking plug wires...

 

what does your owners manual say?

 

In my RS I swapped plugs every other oil change, and it seemed to make a difference every time. It would develop a lag at a certain rpm that went away with new plugs. They were cheap so whatever. On my dakota I got new plugs at the 60k service (wanted it on record for the warranty, and I bought it at 42k with unknown service history), I'll probably swap them at 90 next.

 

i have a little story of my own!

my father lives in detroit and came out to visit a while back. he isnt too handy in the garage but he really wanted to give me a hand with tuning up a honda accord i previously owned. i knew that this was going to be a thing for him to be able to boost a little pride/self esteem, not to mention a little father and son time so i agreed with no questions asked. flash forward to the moment when my father has all of the wires off at the same time, i am busy grabbing a beer and i come out to him trying to figure out which is which. two hours later, we are still trying combinations from the distributor to the cylindars. (i couldnt even imagine what it would be if we were working on an 8cyl.) then my girlfriend walks out and asks us why we dont just look at her cars wires. (she had the exact same year/make/model/even color if my accord) you should of seen the look on our faces. i still laugh out loud to this day about that moment. priceless.