jplumlee

hey folks,

I received my new ignition coils/plugs and plan on doing the replacement tonight. I've read over the DIY and seen the pics from Mudman, however, I have a couple of questions that I hope someone can help me with.

1. what are the sizes of sockets I'll need (torx, standard, metric?) for the covers, plugs, and the torque stabilizer thingamajig.

2. any other "special" tools I'll need for the job?

3. any specific things like order or procedure that will make things go smoother? what about the black air handlers on either side of the engine?

4. does the stabilizer on the passenger side of the motor unhook and hinge out of the way from the engine side or the fender side?

thanks in advance for any help or advice

John

wirunner

1. Nothing fancy required (basic toolset should suffice). Make sure you have a spark plug socket (not sure if that's the official name).

2. T50 or T55 (can't remember off hand) needed to remove stabilizer. Probably was a metric bolt but the T worked fine and you can pick it up at hardware store for a couple bucks.

3. Nope. Knock yourself out (not literally of course).

4. Hinge away from engine or just remove. Hardest/longest part of whole project (for a novice) is getting the passenger design cover off without ruining it. You'll see...

Word of wisdom: Do not drop any wrenches into the engine. They fall into the secret black hole where the dealership homing device lives...

jplumlee

thanks for your quick response. I was a little worried about those covers especially on the passenger side... looks like a pretty tight fit. any advice on getting that thing out of there without messing it up?

Kermit

I'm also going to give this a try tonight. Had a look at it just now, and the passenger side design cover does indeed look a bit tricky to get off. Can anyone explain this in more detail?

Should you loosen the big bolt going through the stabilizer arm and pull it out? Or the 4 bolts that connects it to the engine? And how do you get the cover past the air pump? Can you jiggle it past the pump, or does the pump need to be moved / loosened? Any information about this would be helpful.

jplumlee

For me, the easiest way to go was to remove the torque stabilizer. Unhook from the engine (the bolt through the bar AND the 4 bolts in the engine have to come out) and swing back towards the fender. The little black air pump on that side (just unbolt it, unhook the hoses, and move it up out of the way. Once those are out of the way it's just a matter of easing the design cover in and out. In retrospect, it wasn't too bad. My payoff for all the headache was a Cayenne S that's never ran so good, and knowing that my coolant pipes, ignition coils, and plugs are up to date!

Kermit

Ok, thanks for the information!

Just a few moments ago I found another forum thread with some pictures and information about this (including the passenger side), I'll post the link if anyone else is interested: http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...placement.html

Doesn't seem too bad. I'll get the parts in a few hours and try it out. The previous owner changed 2 coils not long ago (just bought the car), and now I get a warning about 2 other coils. Will change all the 6 stock ones while I'm at it, from what I hear the coils tend to give up on Cayennes. Looking forward to trying out the car again after

JohnnyBahamas

I also did the above steps. The whole torque stabilizer needs to come off... bracket and all.

Removing the little black air pump first will make life MUCH easier.

Reinstall torque stabilizer bolts to the body and to the bracket at 44 ft. lb. each. The bracket to engine torque is 23 ft. lbs. on the biggest, fattest bracket bolts (M8 x 45mm) and 7.5 ft. lbs. on the smaller of the bracket bolts (M6 x 40mm).

New plugs are torqued to 22 ft. lb. w/ reinstalled old plugs to 19 ft. lb.

Coils themselves are torqued to 7.5 ft. lb. and the Design Cover fasteners to 3.5 ft. lb.

The secondary air compressors on the firewall are torqued to 7.5 ft. lb. and I removed them from their brackets and used packaging string looped through a bolt hole to the hood to hold them up and out of the way.

PTEC

Aside from basic hand tools you will need..
16mm socket
12mm triple square socket (also called XZN sockets)
T40 socket
T30 socket
E12 socket
E10 socket

None other than the semi specialty sockets listed above. A torque wrench would be nice for tightening for the engine torque mount. 44 ft lbs is pretty darn tight if you're just using a regular length ratchet wrench. Most of the other torques are low enough you can be close enough and be okay. The post above me is spot on with the torque values.

You are referring to the secondary air pumps. The T40 torx socket will remove the three bolts that fasten this to the engine. You only really need to remove the one on the passenger side. There is also the hose and the electrical connector if you want to remove it completely but you have the option of tying it up out of the way if you want to minimize chances of something going sideways on you. Also getting the passenger side design cover off and can be tricky. My method is pull the cover towards the center of the engine enough to get the part of the cover out from underneath the torque mount. Once that is clear slide it back towards its original position, keeping the cover above the mount as it slides. After it goes back down it should pull up and out towards you. Also the coils are sometimes kind of tricky to get bolted back to the engine as it usually seems like the holes don't want to line up. Be patient and don't force anything. You don't want to add restoring threads to your job

I unbolt it from the engine and then swing it up. You will need to loosen the side that fastens it to the body but once its positioned out of your way you can lightly tighten it so it will stay up and not interfere

Good luck

.

Kermit

Great descriptions, I now have a pretty clear idea of how to go about this, it seems simple enough . I even found a forum thread containing pictures of the process (including passenger side). I posted the link here but got a message saying a moderator have to clear the post since it contained a link, so I guess it will show up eventually.

I didn't get around to it last night due to bad weather, will give it a go tonight instead. Thanks again everyone for your help!

Kermit

I gave this a go last night. I have to agree the passenger side cover was quite tricky to get off. It took some force at times, and I was worried the cover would crack, but luckily it didn't

The previous owner changed two coils, so I inspected the other 6 - turns out all 6 of them were cracked! I also put in new plugs while I had everything opened. Wow! What a difference that made. Well worth the money, and a fun / easy DYI-project. The only problem was that I had to drive around town looking for an E12 socket, and just as I loosened the bracket it fell into the Engine Black Hole (tm), and I couldn't find it again

Thanx again for your help on this, much appreciated.

wirunner

Don't drop any tool there. Whoever owns my beta will one day find the wrench I dropped.

E sockets are impossible to find in the US. My dealer parts dept even told me 'i don't know' on where to find them but to ask for a cheesehead. I said I am a cheesehead!!! Both Sears and Ace told me they never saw anything like that before (really?!). Good news is, you can usually use a T socket. I think the T55 worked on the bolt you referenced...

Kermit

Yeah, I was going crazy trying to get the correct tools. Both the M12 (triple square one) and the E-sockets were hard to find. After some looking I stumbled on a socket kit that had a bunch of normal sockets, a range of E sockets and also M8 - M12. Nice kit for Cayenne tampering . Set me back about $50 though.