How To: Spark Plug Change (1 GR-FE)

I had some free time tonight, so I decided to go ahead and get it done. Thanks to the great photos and write-up, and the extended swivel socket for the spark plugs, it went very smoothly. It took about 1.5 hrs working carefully. Better than I anticipated for the first time doing myself. It feels great to save $250! Thank you everyone for sharing your knowledge on here.

Old plugs had been in for about 45,000 miles. They didn't look too bad though.

 

That's about what mine looked like with ~117,000 on them!

 

Those do look pretty good. Have you had one change before this?

 

Yep, this is the second change. The last were changed when they had around 45,000 miles on them also.

 

Thanks very much for the tutorial Chris, I changed my plugs today for the first time. I just have one question though, I accidentally at first set the torque wrench to 12 lbs instead of 15 lbs. When I realized this I loosened the plugs again and re torqued to 15. I also ran into an issue with my socket getting stuck on the plugs periodically and wouldn't come out with my extension, when this happened the only way I could get it out was loosening the plug again. Do you think the fact that i had to loosen and re-tighten the plugs could cause issues? Thanks

 

I should also mention the truck seems to be running just fine, I'm not sure if I'm just paranoid.

 

I've gone back several pages in this thread, but not to every single page.

Does the original writeup at the beginning closely match the 3rd gen plug change procedure? Or is it a totally different animal?

Thanks

 

Yeah actually, I think your right. Haha.

 

Hi everyone. I recently followed this guide to change my spark plugs in my '12 Tacoma PreRunner v6 and now my trucks CEL and TRAC OFF light came on and the engine runs rough. Shakes the truck at times and idles rough. I have reseated the wire harnesses as well as the VSV connector. Still has the CEL and TRAC OFF light on. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

*Edit*
So once daylight broke I started taking everything apart again and inspecting each plug. Turns out I also received a brand new spark plug that was cracked at the insulator. Thankfully I held onto the old plugs and was able to pick what appeared to be the best one and put it back in so I could make it to work today. I'll have to get another new one and replace it as soon as I can.

 

Just changed the plugs in my 2015, with 32,000 miles on her. The plugs didn't look bad at all and probably could have went another 20,000 miles with no trouble at all. However, the plugs threads were dry and they came out hard the first turn or so.
I'm glad I changed them now, and put new plugs in with never-seez on the threads.
The originals didn't have never-seez, and would have been a bitch to get out farther down the road.

 

Changed my plugs again. These probably have about 35k on them.

Passenger side

Driver's side

The one on the right looks to be in rough shape. It was the one closest to the firewall.

 

That one doesn't look good at all. What is going on with it?

 

It came out the easiest, so maybe I didn't tighten it enough when I put it in? Didn't cause any problems though.

 

Drivers side closest to firewall always looks worse than the others on these engines. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Thanks for this write up - I've had my Taco for almost 40K, and been noticing lower MPG than I did when it was new (to me). I've probably had the new OEM plugs in my tool box for a year, and been procrastinating. Dunno if these will help the MPG and sometimes long starts I've been seeing, but couldn't hurt.

Good news - The effort went quickly - less than 2 hours, including reading this thread, getting my tools out and such. Next time will be much shorter now that I've done it once.

The plugs in the truck - all 6 were the Densos, so it had plugs done at some point in its life. Every old plug I pulled out was gapped between .068 - .072 - assuming due to wear? The elctrodes were worn at an angle too, so the effective gap is bigger than what the gauge can read. None had any suspect signs of weird engine conditions. Driver's front coil was a true PITA to get disconnected - a hook tool and flat screwdriver helped release the clip.

 

Never worked on my car before. Did this in a little over 2 hours. Probably spent 45 minutes on the driver side front though. If I was a smarter person it would have been a lot easier. So glad I didn't pay the $200 to have it done.

The Densos gapped at about .48-.49 and the NGK at about .50-.52 after 39K miles.

 

Feels good, doesn't it?

 

Feels great! Gonna start doing all the maintenance myself. Put the saved cash into mods.

 

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