Doing basic maintenance myself...

About a hundred years ago being 6 years old and living in Nebraska, my ol’ man, a travelling sales man, and I were cruising on down the highway and he looked at me and ask, “do you want to drive?” Recovering from the shock and awe of that, I said “HELL YA”!! (Well, maybe it was more like, ‘are you sure, is it legal, will we get in trouble?...’), and from that time on my dad made sure I sat on his lap and steered the vehicle straight down the road and when I was tall enough to reach the peddles, I was sitting next to him completely driving the car. I loved the classic cars and was always under the hood poking around with tune-ups or underneath doing the oil changes. I had a good knowledge of basic maintenance, swapping out tires and that was about as far as I wanted to take my mechanical experience.
Now, jumping ahead many years, I drive a 2017 tacoma and I still love doing maintenance myself, research and critical thinking and buying tools is fun and to some degree, keeps me in trouble.

Having bought the truck in 2017, my service department made the choice for me to do more on my own vehicle myself, easy like at 13k finding out all the oil levels in diff’s and transmission were low and not checked during the PDI.

As of late, my interest has been to research spark plugs and inquire into what my truck is running. The book says replace plugs with DENSO and provides a number and what the gap is. A small warning notation below says if using iridium plugs, DONT MESS WITH THE GAP.

Ok then, I’ve got 70,000kms on the truck and I decided I would simply swap out the plugs for a new set from the dealer but here is where things got confusing. Firstly, if Toyota doesn’t want you messing around with stuff, they won’t give you the information to mess around with it! (We’ll come back to this point)

I walk in to the parts department and say, ‘I want a set of plugs but the book gives me a choice of DENSO or iridium. Denso’s I can gap and iridium’s I can’t.’ Parts guy says they only sell Iridium plugs @ $30 each so I figured I’d just shop around. He also said these plugs last till 180,000kms so I shouldn’t bother replacing now. I then walked into the service department and asked the service advisor about the two types of plugs mention in my book. The advisor said DENSO plugs are changed at 50,000kms and are for older models and iridium plugs are standard on the new ones and changed at 180k kms. I said I’ve got 70k on my odometer so if I’m running DENSO plugs, IM A BIT LATE ON SERVICING THEM! What plugs do I have?? The advisor looked on the screen and was unable to tell me! So, I went home and pulled one myself. Lo and behold, wouldn’t I see that I am running DENSO Iridium plugs. So what’s confusing is that in the book, it shows the DENSO plug with the number ID that matched what I pulled and what the gap should be. Below that is the warning that if I’m going with Iridiums, DONT TOUCH THE GAP. Anyway, I just soaked the plugs and brushed them clean and put them back in. Searching online for iridium plugs, I wasn’t expecting to see 3
prong plugs so something else to look into...

Do stuff yourself, in most cases you’re better off for it and nothing wrong in expanding your knowledge base.

 

I asked if this was just Toyota charging double because they can?

 

I've Never seen a plug with an electrode coming down from the top prong like that....

 

I was gonna tl;dr, but I didn’t. It’s a heartwarming story about a man, his father, and spark plugs.

10/10

 

A great American story!

 

Nice story about you and your father,mine taught me to drive one hunting season when I was about ten. We were on a old gravel road and he stopped the old Hornet station wagon with a 3 on the tree manual trans on a hill. He set the brake,hopped out and told me to scoot over to the drivers side.
I had already learned how to use a clutch on my motorcycle so a car shouldn't be much different...He told me what the gear pattern was and told me to put it in gear and release the parking brake and go...Did I mention he had stopped it facing up hill to give me a challenge I stalled it several times but eventually got it going. He had me drive most of the way back home until we hit pavement. Shortly that after he had me help change the plugs and points in it.

And FWI it's worth Denso is the brand of plug and iridium is the electrode material

 

Awesome story sir!! My dad did the same thing when l was a kid. He'd let me take the wheel as we drove down the road. Then later let me sit behind the wheel and let me drive the quiet roads.
l watched as he serviced spark plugs and fuel and air filters etc etc etc. l learned a lot and have great memories wirh my dad. How many kids will be able to have those kids of memories today.
Especially without Family Services and the police being called and getting involved?
Those moments got me interested in vehicles and doing my own maintenance for the last 40 years.

 

Those plugs work best when you take the time to index them.

 

Yeah but it's a lot easier than saying bend over...........

 

I agree with indexing. Anyone try using open plugs like Brisk?
https://youtu.be/9PJweiCRFoU

https://youtu.be/TvlN5PAYCak

 

It's actually quite common. Even those with the traditional single ground strap (the top prong), you can look close and often see a small cylindrical shape there. With iridium plugs, you generally have something similar to what you see in the OPs picture short of the multiple ground straps.

For the OP, yup lots of people that work in that environment don't know really what they are looking at. I would like to have seen your plugs after cleaning though.... that picture appears to have the iridium tip slightly eroded. Also, the plug change is to maintain your emissions warranty.... At least in the US.

 

I should have taken a pic after cleaning. Was definitely gentle with the brush at the actual tip as to not mess with the gap. I found out a bit later after the good folks (parts dept) at Toyota dealership told me that the iridium plugs are changed out at 180,000kms and, (service advisor) change out is either 50,000kms for “older models” and 180,000kms for newer but then didn’t know what the 2017 was using... I checked with Toyota Canada website for service schedule on the iridiums and they list changing them at 96,000kms or 60,000 miles. (That actually makes sense

 

110k is a long time on a set of plugs. I would swap them out, but get them from Napa or O'Reilly. Probably $7 each. Iridium plugs come pre-gapped because it's easy to mess up the electrode when gapping them.

 

OP is in Canada.

OP, what dealership did you go to in Calgary? (so I can avoid them) I usually to to Heninger for my parts, and so far no issues.....

 

The correct plugs specific to this 3.5 V6 engine have a .032 gap. I put the wrong plugs in the first time that had a .040 gap, but make sure you get the same stock plugs. Think I paid $12-$16/apiece from Summit racing

Made a big difference

 

What is the correct part number for the iridium plugs?

 

2GR-FKS engine (6-cylinder V type, 4-cycle)
DENSO FK20HBR8

Gap: 0.031 in. (0.8 mm)

 

I'm not too saavy...yet. What difference does it make that is noticable to the driver? I know what they're for, but I can't figure out how you would be able to tell the difference between low/hi quality spark plugs.