ennzzo

Do you remove the old spark plug counterclockwise or clockwise....

HI OFECR

righty tighty lefty loosey

Simba91102

In other words..... counterclockwise to remove.

ennzzo

Thanks.

Wow. Did I feel like an idiot . The first one would not budge. I went ahead and did the other three and they came right out. I went back to the first one and gave it extra love. The plug was black as night... Put the new ones in and they worked like a charm....

Thanks!

Simba91102

How old and how many miles? I changed the ones in the 05 recently (at 110K miles as recommended) and was amazed at how good the original plugs looked (and I can't say that I've noticed any difference in performance, starting, or mileage).

curls

I'm kinda worried that "black as night" means you have a fairly serious engine problem developing. Still have the plugs? Take a pic of all 4 of them next to each other and post it up on imageshack or photobucket for us to see ("read"). Do you recall which cylinder you took the black one from?
Spark plugs, aside from providing spark, are a wonderful way to see inside the engine and diagnose some very important issues that can arise inside and engine.

Work Hard

I have an 04, w/ 121,000, and am still running on original plugs, getting 24-25 mpg still. They are ngk (irodium I believe) , so you can get the max out of them. Did you also do the valve adjustment. I probly would have changed them 10,000 miles ago, but plugs + valve adjustment is $$$$. around $350-400 straight cash homey! And Curls is right, they should not have been black as night. Dirty yes, but no black. you could be buring oil in there and may have a cracked seal. What is your mpg?

Simba91102

If you're at all handy, you could probably do the plug change yourself and the plugs are not all that expensive (well under $20 a piece at a number of places). The valve adjustment is indeed expensive (if it's performed at a dealer like I had done). I did both only because they're part of the regular recommended maintenance (at 110K miles). To do it over again, I'd probably still do the plugs, but I might wait on the valves. They weren't noisy and I certainly haven't noticed any difference in performance or mileage.

Simba91102

I agree 100% (should have mentioned that above). Modern engines run so hot (lean) that there really shouldn't be any black on a spark plug (and as an aside rant, who the heck came up with "110,000 miles" as the time to replace them by the way?). Anyway, if I were you, I'd determine which cylinder is evidently either running rich or is passing oil through the rings. Might be time for a compression test.