So my wife said her car had started going way down in the mpg area, so I started thinking and realized it was probably time for a tune-up. It is a 1996 Mazda 626, and shares a common interest with a lot of Dodge's in that it has had the tranny rebuilt. Anyway, the recommended spark plug gap is .044. So I get all of my new Autolite[&:]5224 plugs out and gap them, put on some anti-seize, etc. When I pull out her plugs, they are HORRIBLE looking...no wonder the mpg was sucking. Took my gapper to them...they were all at or around .061![:@] And the ceramic was kind of toasty looking near the threaded end... Needless to say, as soon as I started it after the tune up, I could tell a difference. I went with 7mm Bosch Premiumwires ($94[:@]) and oem dist cap & rotor. Should definitely be getting the mpg back up. Over the past year, the car went from getting about 350-400 miles per tank/city driving to about 250...and she just mentioned it about a week ago!!![:@] Guess I need to keep a better eye on the wife's car, too. Just wanted to share... Not something I did to my Ram, but fun anyway

 

Hey it will save you money in the long run, I dont have a wife so I wouldn't understand

 

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/j...e55555/007.jpg

 

 

Sorry Ram2ki, just tryin to get my pic to work, dont mean to jack your thread

 

No problem...not really much of a thread anyway...just wanted to share how crappy the plugs were for the most part. I hate the plugs on her car...I have to use a 6" extension on the front 3 plugs and a 12" extension on the back 3. Stupid recessed plugs on a stupid side mounted V6...[:'(]

 

Yea especially when you putting the new ones in, Your like UH........ is it in there, so you just keep turning until you realize that the damn thing isnt started. Then that really pisses you off

I believe on the older Grand ams, you have to jack the motor up to change the damn plugs, I would say screw it and buy another car

LOL

 

My fiance has a '99 Mercury Cougar 4 banger. I won't even touch the thing as everything in the engine bay is so damn tight I can't get my hands in there. Not to mention the fact that they made some of the parts under there purely for looks and you have to remove worthless junk to get to anything. Not worth it IMO.

 

Thats why I love working on my ram.. I can sit in the inner fender and everything but the distributor is fairly easy to work on. My girlfriend has a '02 Ford Explorer 4X4.. And that thing has more plastic than I know what to do with.

 

My neon has all 4 plugs right on top through the valve cover, takes 30 seconds to remove them with my air ratchet, then another 3 minutes to gap them and reinstall new ones with a regular ratchet.