Spark Plug Replace Time or Mileage Dependent?
10-25-2019, 10:12 PM
#31
When you do the oil change, use nitrile gloves, put a large ziplock bag around the oil filter housing and above as you're loosening and removing it and have rags ready. Then it's not too bad.
10-26-2019, 08:50 AM
#32
Rennlist Member
No, for now, not even oil. I have to admit that I am brand new in the DIY world, just started 2 or 3 month ago but already have done lots of fun stuff, so there has been lots of sense for adventure
:
- Replaced the frunk carpet and cleaned up the mess created by exploded tire sealant. Had to clean up the entire wire pack behind the carpet, which was pretty painful. This was more or less the beginning.
- Replaced the rear pads and rotors
- Replaced the serpentine belt
- Replaced the engine air filter
- Replaced the cabin air filters
- Replaced the side blinkers
- Replaced the shocks of the frunk
- Next: spark plugs and coil packs
With that being said, I am gradually getting familiar with my porsche. Love to do the hardware stuff, maybe moving forward will start to play with the fluids as well. My Indy charges me 200 for an oil change. When I think about recycling the old fluid and dealing with dirty oil, the motivation is low and I rather pay my mechanic to do the job.
:- Replaced the frunk carpet and cleaned up the mess created by exploded tire sealant. Had to clean up the entire wire pack behind the carpet, which was pretty painful. This was more or less the beginning.
- Replaced the rear pads and rotors
- Replaced the serpentine belt
- Replaced the engine air filter
- Replaced the cabin air filters
- Replaced the side blinkers
- Replaced the shocks of the frunk
- Next: spark plugs and coil packs
With that being said, I am gradually getting familiar with my porsche. Love to do the hardware stuff, maybe moving forward will start to play with the fluids as well. My Indy charges me 200 for an oil change. When I think about recycling the old fluid and dealing with dirty oil, the motivation is low and I rather pay my mechanic to do the job.
I use this, can be had for cheaper (about $20) for oil changes on my Porsches.. I needed one that was a bit deeper than your typical auto-store pan as the oil tank on my turbo will dump 7+ quarts out in a hurry, not exactly a slow drain for it
I have 2 plastic 2.5 gallon seal-able containers that I pour the used oil into after the oil change, and once a year or so I take it to AutoZone (1 mile away) and dump it into their tank.. Almost all auto parts places provide this "service" for free around here.
Doing my own oil also allows me to collect a sample for a Blackstone analysis.. I started this years ago on my turbo each oil change and have now been doing it on my Cayman.. That, plus looking at the spark plugs, can give you a really good indication on the health of the engine..
The only one on your list, maintenance wise, I haven't done yet is the belt.. At 30k miles, I'll prob wait a while before doing that one. What made you want to change it early?
10-26-2019, 12:15 PM
#33
Nice write-up, your plugs looked pretty identical to mine..
Same bolt / coilpack design, same dimensions. Occasionally I have heard of new(er) coilpacks being thinner or thicker (this is the case on my turbo), necessitating a different bolt. But not in this case for the 981 CS.
Same bolt / coilpack design, same dimensions. Occasionally I have heard of new(er) coilpacks being thinner or thicker (this is the case on my turbo), necessitating a different bolt. But not in this case for the 981 CS.
I'd say you're 3.4L is looking pretty good.
BTW, Excellent write up, best I have seen on 981, Thank You! My only comment would be not to do the job on a hot engine, a warm engine should be fine. The problem of a hot, running temperature engine, is two fold: Nr. 1 you will burn your fingers Nr. 2 when you install back the sparks and torque them with the recommended torque, you might get a huge issue when you want to remove them again. My recommendation is to remove all spark plugs at a warm engine (when the engine is around 100-120 Degrees) and wait until the engine is fully cooled down and than install the new spark plugs.
I might go for the job this weekend and will report back, hope it will go well
I might go for the job this weekend and will report back, hope it will go well
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john981 (10-26-2019)
10-26-2019, 01:21 PM
#34
Nice work! Great to see you tackle jobs as a new DIYer..
I use this, can be had for cheaper (about $20) for oil changes on my Porsches.. I needed one that was a bit deeper than your typical auto-store pan as the oil tank on my turbo will dump 7+ quarts out in a hurry, not exactly a slow drain for it
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I have 2 plastic 2.5 gallon seal-able containers that I pour the used oil into after the oil change, and once a year or so I take it to AutoZone (1 mile away) and dump it into their tank.. Almost all auto parts places provide this "service" for free around here.
Doing my own oil also allows me to collect a sample for a Blackstone analysis.. I started this years ago on my turbo each oil change and have now been doing it on my Cayman.. That, plus looking at the spark plugs, can give you a really good indication on the health of the engine..
The only one on your list, maintenance wise, I haven't done yet is the belt.. At 30k miles, I'll prob wait a while before doing that one. What made you want to change it early?
I use this, can be had for cheaper (about $20) for oil changes on my Porsches.. I needed one that was a bit deeper than your typical auto-store pan as the oil tank on my turbo will dump 7+ quarts out in a hurry, not exactly a slow drain for it
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I have 2 plastic 2.5 gallon seal-able containers that I pour the used oil into after the oil change, and once a year or so I take it to AutoZone (1 mile away) and dump it into their tank.. Almost all auto parts places provide this "service" for free around here.
Doing my own oil also allows me to collect a sample for a Blackstone analysis.. I started this years ago on my turbo each oil change and have now been doing it on my Cayman.. That, plus looking at the spark plugs, can give you a really good indication on the health of the engine..
The only one on your list, maintenance wise, I haven't done yet is the belt.. At 30k miles, I'll prob wait a while before doing that one. What made you want to change it early?
I changed the belt because my car had 56k miles and it is recommended to change at 60k. Let me tell you: The old belt look almost brand new, so I did it just for fun but it was abosolutley not necessary. I would recommend to inspect at the 40k mile service and again at 60k mile service but these belt should easily last 90k miles.
I am on my way to the dealership to pick up the parts. Are there any other items (other than the plugs and coils) I would need for the job. I was thinking to buy the coil bolts and am not sure if the new spark plugs come with a washer. If they dont have the washer, I think I will buy a new washer for each of them too. thoughts?
10-26-2019, 01:54 PM
#35
Rennlist Member
I'm pretty picky about using the correct fasteners and such when working on my Porsche, and I usually clean them all when doing a job after I've taken them off, but replacing the coilpack bolts seems overkill to me. But, if they are in stock and only 63 cents, go for it 
The plugs come with a built-in crush washer. Nothing else needed..
The plugs come with a built-in crush washer. Nothing else needed..
10-26-2019, 01:54 PM
#36
Burning Brakes
I have yet to ever buy a set of plugs that didn't have a crush washer already on them. I like to DIY because I like to know the vehicle I am driving. I find it easier to recognize something starting to go wrong when they are kept clean and well maintained.
Good on you for putting in the effort.
Good on you for putting in the effort.
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CaymanCarver (10-27-2019)
10-27-2019, 04:08 AM
#37
Wanted to report back: I did the job today, spark plugs + new coil packs. Wow, what a pain and in the same time what a pleasure! It was from all my DYI jobs by far the most difficult. Below my impressions and experience:
- First of all, I did the job with the engine still warm. I took a ride in the morning and started with the job around 1pm. The temperature was still showing 135 and right before kicking off, I started the car for about 5 minutes. The working area was not hot at all, just make sure wearing proper gloves to not cut yourself in the different sharp areas in the working zone.
- I decided to do the job in a different sequence than most reported: I removed first all coils and spark plugs on both side and once everything on both sides was out, I put the new ones in. this way I was hopping to have still a warm engine to get the spark plugs easier out on both side. I started with passenger side first (supposed to be easier) to get familiar with everything and than moved to the driver side.
- The strategy worked out pretty well, all 6 spark plugs came out without any issues, once you had the right combination of extensions. This part of the job was probably the easiest part of the job.
- One of the biggest issues was to get the middle coils on both sides out. It is very difficult to grab them and pull them out, everything is very tight. The inner coils on both sides which are supposed to be the most difficult were not that difficult to pull out but to take the bolt in and out on both sides was the most difficult part of the entire job. Getting axial access to these small bolts, even with the right extensions, is such a big pain in the A**. But once the bolt is out you can grab these coils much easier than the middle ones and pull them out.
- Once everything was out on both side, I put first all 6 spark plugs back and than all coils.
- Putting back the spark plugs was straight forward. The only issue was that the recommended torque to put the new spark plugs in felt pretty high, but if this is what porsche recommends, I guess it should be ok.
- Putting the coils back was not as difficult as to take them out but tightening few of the bolts was a huge pain.
- Another big challenge for me was to put some of the connectors back. I had big issues to put them back, I used a big, long flat head screw driver. Than my dad took over and he could get with hands in and push the connectors in place. Make sure you hear a click when you push them in.
- Overall the job took us 5 hours and I still have to put the covers and tires back tomorrow.
- Once everything was done, I started the car and it was running like a champ. First immediate impression was that the rough idle was gone and that the rpm is not fluctuating anymore. As mentioned before, the last owner had done the spark plugs during the 40k mile service around 2 years and 11k miles ago. Initially I was not sure if I should do this job or not, but after seeing the old spark plugs, I am very happy that I have changed the spark plugs. The old ones were not terrible but were not great either, most of them looked definitely more worn than after 11k miles. I am also very happy that I have changed the coil packs. Even though they looked ok, there is no way I would have gone through this crazy job without swapping the coil packs. You can never be sure if the issues are coming only from the spark plugs or if there are some issues associated with the coil packs as well. When you have to take the coils in and out anyway, you can also spend the few bucks to replace the old ones.
- Again, the job was super tough but afterwards I felt like king of the world and was super happy that I did the job. I will take the car for a ride tomorrow and looking forward to see more clear results of this job.
Thanks again to everybody who helped me with their/your tips, could have not done this without the great tips of the great people here!!
- First of all, I did the job with the engine still warm. I took a ride in the morning and started with the job around 1pm. The temperature was still showing 135 and right before kicking off, I started the car for about 5 minutes. The working area was not hot at all, just make sure wearing proper gloves to not cut yourself in the different sharp areas in the working zone.
- I decided to do the job in a different sequence than most reported: I removed first all coils and spark plugs on both side and once everything on both sides was out, I put the new ones in. this way I was hopping to have still a warm engine to get the spark plugs easier out on both side. I started with passenger side first (supposed to be easier) to get familiar with everything and than moved to the driver side.
- The strategy worked out pretty well, all 6 spark plugs came out without any issues, once you had the right combination of extensions. This part of the job was probably the easiest part of the job.
- One of the biggest issues was to get the middle coils on both sides out. It is very difficult to grab them and pull them out, everything is very tight. The inner coils on both sides which are supposed to be the most difficult were not that difficult to pull out but to take the bolt in and out on both sides was the most difficult part of the entire job. Getting axial access to these small bolts, even with the right extensions, is such a big pain in the A**. But once the bolt is out you can grab these coils much easier than the middle ones and pull them out.
- Once everything was out on both side, I put first all 6 spark plugs back and than all coils.
- Putting back the spark plugs was straight forward. The only issue was that the recommended torque to put the new spark plugs in felt pretty high, but if this is what porsche recommends, I guess it should be ok.
- Putting the coils back was not as difficult as to take them out but tightening few of the bolts was a huge pain.
- Another big challenge for me was to put some of the connectors back. I had big issues to put them back, I used a big, long flat head screw driver. Than my dad took over and he could get with hands in and push the connectors in place. Make sure you hear a click when you push them in.
- Overall the job took us 5 hours and I still have to put the covers and tires back tomorrow.
- Once everything was done, I started the car and it was running like a champ. First immediate impression was that the rough idle was gone and that the rpm is not fluctuating anymore. As mentioned before, the last owner had done the spark plugs during the 40k mile service around 2 years and 11k miles ago. Initially I was not sure if I should do this job or not, but after seeing the old spark plugs, I am very happy that I have changed the spark plugs. The old ones were not terrible but were not great either, most of them looked definitely more worn than after 11k miles. I am also very happy that I have changed the coil packs. Even though they looked ok, there is no way I would have gone through this crazy job without swapping the coil packs. You can never be sure if the issues are coming only from the spark plugs or if there are some issues associated with the coil packs as well. When you have to take the coils in and out anyway, you can also spend the few bucks to replace the old ones.
- Again, the job was super tough but afterwards I felt like king of the world and was super happy that I did the job. I will take the car for a ride tomorrow and looking forward to see more clear results of this job.
Thanks again to everybody who helped me with their/your tips, could have not done this without the great tips of the great people here!!
Last edited by john981; 10-27-2019 at 04:27 AM.
The following 3 users liked this post by john981:
10-27-2019, 10:06 AM
#38
- Once everything was done, I started the car and it was running like a champ. First immediate impression was that the rough idle was gone and that the rpm is not fluctuating anymore.
...I am very happy that I have changed the spark plugs. The old ones were not terrible but were not great either, most of them looked definitely more worn than after 11k miles. I am also very happy that I have changed the coil packs. Even though they looked ok, there is no way I would have gone through this crazy job without swapping the coil packs. You can never be sure if the issues are coming only from the spark plugs or if there are some issues associated with the coil packs as well. When you have to take the coils in and out anyway, you can also spend the few bucks to replace the old ones.
- Again, the job was super tough but afterwards I felt like king of the world and was super happy that I did the job. I will take the car for a ride tomorrow and looking forward to see more clear results of this job.
Thanks again to everybody who helped me with their/your tips, could have not done this without the great tips of the great people here!!
...I am very happy that I have changed the spark plugs. The old ones were not terrible but were not great either, most of them looked definitely more worn than after 11k miles. I am also very happy that I have changed the coil packs. Even though they looked ok, there is no way I would have gone through this crazy job without swapping the coil packs. You can never be sure if the issues are coming only from the spark plugs or if there are some issues associated with the coil packs as well. When you have to take the coils in and out anyway, you can also spend the few bucks to replace the old ones.
- Again, the job was super tough but afterwards I felt like king of the world and was super happy that I did the job. I will take the car for a ride tomorrow and looking forward to see more clear results of this job.
Thanks again to everybody who helped me with their/your tips, could have not done this without the great tips of the great people here!!
Well worth the effort to keep the engine running smoooooth.
I won't hesitate to do this job again and prolly take half the time.
10-27-2019, 10:36 AM
#39
10-27-2019, 11:19 AM
#40
Rennlist Member
^ Good job, I found that putting the electrical connector back on before tightening the screw down made it easier to wobble the plug back and forth to get it connected.
10-27-2019, 01:48 PM
#41
BTW, I took my car for a ride. Everything was much smoother and a blast, but as I hooked up my icarsoft, it was still showing here and there random missfires. Even though these are very few, I was hopping the new spark plugs and coils would have solved the issue. I guess that is the way it is and I have to live with it. I am still very happy that I have done the job.
10-27-2019, 02:34 PM
#42
Rennlist Member
^ What gas are you using? I'm not familiar with the icarsoft, can you clear the codes/counters with it? How do you know they are recent counts since you did the changeout?
10-27-2019, 04:38 PM
#43
I am using ARCO gas the with their highest available octane in California (I think it is 91). My scanner has different ways to count missfires. It counts the missfires of the last 10 trips but also shows you live misfires. I saw few live misfires. Of course it doesn't show any codes but is still annoying that you have here and there some misfires. I asked this question about random misfires ( I had around 30-40 per cylinder over the course of 10 trips) here in forum but there was no good answer. I thought that would be somehow ok when you imagine you have 3000 average revs per minutes and when you drive 30 minutes over a course of 10 trips, these are lots of revs and 30-40 misfires out of those seem to be ok. It is apparently ok for the board computer otherwise I would have seen the CEL coming up.
11-05-2019, 08:45 PM
#44
Wanted to report back. In the meantime my cylinder 6 shows more misfires than it should. My scanner threw even a code P306 (never had a code before), but no CEL. I am wondering if whether the new plug or the new coil are faulty. Planning to go back and replace the one spark plug. In order to make sure it is the spark plug, I will swap the coil with one of the easier accessible coils and see what it does. Just to be sure: Cylinder 6 is the most difficult one, the closest to the middle of the car on the driver side, correct?
Any other idea what could have gone wrong here?
Any other idea what could have gone wrong here?
