2006 LR3 Spark Plug Change

[johnsoax]

Thought I would make a post to show my findings, and experience with changing my spark plugs myself at 90,000.

I purchased OEM replacement plugs (NGK IFR5N10 Part# 7866) from Advance Auto's website. They had a pretty good deal of $15 off orders over $50, so I ended up getting them for $11.25 each shipped.

The job took me about 2.5 hours... an hour of which was getting the blasted electrical connector wiring clip off the coils.... Pushing the button, while laying on the engine was a pain in the butt for the back plugs.

On the Passenger side, I had to remove the air box top, and the hose over to the intake. I also removed a 6" flat disk that is screwed to the top of the head with a vacuum hose attached...

The driver's side required me to remove a heat shield.

Then it was just a process of piecing the plug socket and extensions in and out. I used a breaking bar to loosen and a torque wrench to tighten. Besides taking the electrical connector plug off the coils, it was pretty straight forward and pretty easy. I also put anti-seize on all the plugs as they went in. If I had to do it again, I could probably do it in half the time.

Started right up afterwards. Unlike when I changed the plugs on my old Disco I and got the wires crossed... That was fun.


Loosening the second plug on the passenger side. by johnsoax, on Flickr

More Pictures here.

 

[khronus79]

Thanks for posting this, I'll be tackling this job soon. I've been praying that the back 2 plugs weren't as bad as the ones for my old Durango, seems like they will be a pain in the @$$. I forsee good times ahead :sombrero:

 

[proper4wd]

Coil connector removal tools

 

[proper4wd]

also a helpful tool

 

[johnsoax]

The plugs are too deep for that swivel socket to be useful. Except for maybe helping you get the whole thing in without having to take apart your tools..

I found that I didn't need a swivel at all.

 

[proper4wd]

Swivel not necessary, but it does provide you with a lot more wiggle room to work. Also for the record, I dont recall ever having to remove any heatshield to do these? But I might be wrong its been a year.

 

[discodisco]

Thank you for posting

Thanks for posting...makes the task less daunting

 

[johnsoax]

Mike,

That was why I posted it. If I can do it, anyone can .

 

[rmuller]

I just did this job this weekend for the first time so I thought I'd share a couple of tips;

1. For removing the electrical connectors, it's much easier if you use a tiny screw driver to lift up the tab instead of pushing down on it, and then another flat-head screw driver to slide the connector off.. I was able to slide them off in no time using this way.
2. I removed each clip on one side at once, as it's easier to pop the coils out without the harness there.. they are spaced appropriately, so no worrying about not knowing where they go.
3. I put my plug socket on with a 3" extension and would drop it in the hole and get it situated, then I'd put another 3" extension on top of it and for almost all of them, I was able to easily to get them off (1 or 2 I ended up using a u-joint to make life easier)
4. heatshield on drivers side wasn't sliding out of the two bottom tabs for me easily, so I managed to do the job without removing it
5. I did one coil/spark plug at a time so I knew which hole it'd go in.
6. I got the sparkplugs off ebay, cheapest price (~84 or so shipped)... they were gapped properly out of the box

Job took me about 1.5 hours

 

[Mx468]

Are these the right ones? Thanks.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/8-pcs-NGK-L...Parts_Accessories&hash=item589b54abdc&vxp=mtr

 

[rmuller]

Are these the right ones? Thanks.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/8-pcs-NGK-L...Parts_Accessories&hash=item589b54abdc&vxp=mtr

Yes

 

[jhawk]

For what it's worth I'm running the plugs below. After some research the only difference is one iridium surface vs two, and all that does is increase the life of the plug. The NGK Iridium IX are to be replaced at 60,000 the factory at a little over a 100,000.


http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/d...ch_spark+plug_1430989_3640&keyword=spark+plug