how to change sparkplugs 2TR-FE

Tacoma recommends 2.7 change at 100,000. I'd start getting things together so on a nice day when you have time and no pressure you are good to go. Don't forget the beer to reward yourself afterward.

 

Afterward?....uh....oh yea.

 

Yea - B 4 and you might F everything up - not good.

 

don't you need to torque spark plugs to a specific ft lbs?

 

sub'd for future reference. thanks for the write up.

 

I don't know why it took me so long to look into getting into a Tacoma forum but THANKS! I blew my 2.7 4 banger back at 53k miles (just under power train warranty) but they haven't been changed since then (149k now). Now I just have to scour this forum for a way to modify the air filter to avoid buying a cold air intake. This poor ole gal sounds like it has asthma during the 100+ degree Houston Summers. I heard there is a way to remove some elbow or something and re-attach. Anyone familiar with this fix for the 4cyl 2.7? My Taco is a work truck...not worthy of showing any more

 

i thought if you over tightened them you could damage your engine but, if you under tightened them that could cause its own problems.

the reason i ask is i was thinking about losing the factory plugs for those iridium ones. what would be the best plug i could run in my 4 banger or should i just leave the factory plugs in there?

thanks in advance guy's

 

Okay, so after reading this blog, I decide to change my plugs in the 02' for the first time. I assume that the Toyota dealer put new plugs in when they swapped out my shortblock (4 cyl 2.7) back when it had 53k??? What I found P*SSED ME OFF! The rear-most plug assembly was not only loose by about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch (could pull it up and down about that far, but even the screw didn't look right. It had an orange/redish looking powder on it. When I pulled that long plug (not the spark plug but the long first part) it too had rusty and yellowish powder/stain on it. The worst part is that when I looked down the spark plug hole, I think I saw some minor pitting on the piston top. It may have been my imagination since I was so ticked off. I have been running this thing for nearly 100k now with that cylinder in that condition. Not only that, but they used the cheapest possible Densos for the vehicle. Their "Traditional" value plugs. Hold on...I have to go back outside to tick myself off more to see if they even gapped them correctly at .44

.75, .66, .72 and .70. The worst one at .75 was on the rear cylinder with the loose connection on top. Real nice Joe Meyers Toyota in Houston, TX!
Denso Traditional spark plug 3120

$2 K16R-U11 Denso 3120 Spark Plug

K16R-U11 .044"

Anyway, I had a set of Autolite single platinums that I have been carrying around for about a year now in the package so I installed them, put a washer on the rear screw to make sure that long rod sealed tight to the top of the block (it actually wouldn't crank down far enough to seat...so they just left it like that!) and put it back together.

I also thank whippersnapper02 for the lead on how to change out that air intake. I did the search and found a great instructional page with pics on how to rip out the intake and do my first Tacoma mod. Yea...I think I may be addicted now.

I cut the tube part that lays just under the K&N filter so that there was more open surface area exposed, tore out the whole pipe out of the front quarter pannel and cut the elbow off flat just about 1/2" inside the quarter pannel so that it still all looks factory from under the hood. Makes total sense after doing it but it sure paid me hell to think about it while doing it in the dark by flashlight tonight ha! I can't wait to see what happens to my fuel economy with the new plugs and mainly the properly seated plug. I doubt I was losing compression because the plug was still in there...but something was different down there with all of that orange rusty looking crap that I saw. Here are a couple pics. You can see that even the color on the silver part of the right plug is different than the rest of the old plugs (that's the one from the rear cylinder). We'll see. Till now, I have been getting a very stable 19 mpg at very close to 70mph average per tank. My commute is 18 miles via nothing but toll road and I weekend 100 miles away from here so it is about 95% highway miles for me. Oh yea...and to be fair, I did start adding Lucas to my tank on this last fill to clean stuff up a bit. Another thing I wanted to try is adding some top oil Twc3 or something like that??? Gonna have to look that one up next.

 

My '11 2.7 manual says 120K.

bill

 

Wow ! 120 in one year. Time to change them.

 

do you have to gap them?

 

I just changed the plugs on my '07, 115 k miles. There was a lot of rust around the ceramic where it meets the metal. NGKs - couldn't get Denso's other than at a dealer and I had to go to 3 auto part stores. No problems. Took an hour. My Chiltons said to torque them to 15 foot pounds or 20 NM which didn't EVEN match up on the torque wrench. 15 foot pounds seemed too little and 20 NM seemed like an awful lot. I went to 10 NM.

 

FYI...15 ft. lbs. = 20 NM.

 

Great guide Yotaman..Will definitely be put to use tomorrow when I change the plugs on my 07.

 

Nice write up! I am so used to working on pre 80s vehicles, back when replacing spark plugs on a big V8 only took 10 minutes, dont get me wrong I love newer vehicles, but why must they be so complex? But thankfully there are people out there like you willing to write these types of write ups!

 

I have about 115K on my 2007 2.7L Access Cab PreRunner SR5.

From looking at the plugs - I think I would stick with 100K interval even though the book says 120K. They were still working, but they were really starting to wear down. My truck came with Denso Iridium Plugs (

$53 SK20HR11 ---- IRIDIUM PLATINUM power pack Spark Plugs -- # 3421 ----- 6 PCS NEW

SK20HR11) from the factory.

As of 2/25/2012 Advance Auto Parts sells them for $8.99 each by the way (Toyota wanted nearly 2X that for the **EXACT** same plug).

Write up on this thread is about spot on. Took me about 1.5 hours total (though you can probably do it in 45 mins if you are in a hurry). I did also gap the plugs to 0.43 (per the book). Looks like they came pre-gapped to 0.40. Being off by that margin won't hurt anything, but just figured I'd go ahead and do it (Just used a flat feeler gauge).

Engine seems to run a bit smoother at idle now.

 

subed schweet

 

With these newer rigs people have told me you can safely go 100k on a set of plugs, I will probably change mine every 50k to be safe though. Newer motors run so much cleaner than old carbed ones did! My Bronco or Jeep need plugs every 5-10k miles!

 

Hello everybody
My 06 Tacoma access cab (2tr-fe 2wd) had a high idle whenever I started it up cold, maybe 3000-3500 rpm. The maintenance required light came on a while later and it was running a p0300 code. I thought maybe it was a bad plug, so I changed the plugs today with denso iridium power plugs. There was an immediate difference in the idle...maybe 1000 rpm, but it's idling low now when I come to a stop, 500-600 rpm. I disconnected the battery to try to clear the code but the maintenance read light is still on.

My question is: is this normal? Can anybody help explain what is going on here? I'm not a mechanic so any help is appreciated

 

Great write up and pics! I needed a 'special locking extension and socket' to get the plugs out. Otherwise, the socket & plug would slip off the extension. I borrowed it from a buddy, need to get one for the next project!