Over torqued spark plugs by accident

$850 for a spark plug replacement is outrageous. I had a dealer do mine this spring (4.0L V6) for $400 and change. It's the labor. They only charged me $6.50 for each of the plugs. This is close to what you can get them online from a dealer through the Toyota parts online site, so it definitely wasn't a gouge job.

 

Yeah man seemed a little crazy to me. And honestly it’s a good dealer, never done me wrong. Wasn’t sure if that’s the inflation price or they don’t want to do it price

 

Thanks brotha

 

Good to know

 

Thanks for the advice! Plan on starting to change my oil. Bought my truck out of state so I’ve been paying my local dealer but want to start doing it on my own

 

You’re fine. These plugs have a long reach into the head, you’d need a lot more than 20# to do some damage to the threads.

 

Oh no! Anyways ...

 

Torque wrench on plugs" Do you use one on your oil filter too?
Never have, never will.
Oh and I use 10w30 oil too.

 

Touche

 

Learned from the best

 

I learned from my Dad and on a car that had crush washers. His rule was 1/4 turn after contact and to pay attention to what it felt like during that final turn and at the end of it. As time went on and I had cars with no crush washer, the final turn feel was essentially the same. I didn''t start using a torque wrench on plugs until I owned a couple of cars/truck with aluminum heads. He never did. He never stripped the threads on an aluminum head either.

I'm not surprised: He was Yoda when it came to this stuff. Forget Batman: Everyone knows Alfred did all of the wrenching on the Batmobile.

 

Unless they are plugs that are flush fit. Tighten to seat and then give it one small ugga, hold the second ugga. (Looking at you GM)

 

Have never come across those, just gasket and tapered, but I wouldn't be surprised/can't recall if some of the 50's and 60's Ford's and Buick's had them.

 

i only torque my lugnuts and thats because i want to keep the rotors true.

 

Yeah they are fun. When I first dealt with them I tightened, felt full stop and then wanted to keep going until I realized they weren't crush. Inspected one ready to go in because I wanted to see what the heck was going on then realized they didn't have a crush washer.

 

Don’t know the length of time between doing the spark plugs and your following project, but, your torque wrench should always be zeroed after use.

 

Don't torque spark plugs. Hand tight and a little more. I'd leave them as is, because if they break trying to losen them you've got a bigger problem.

 

i highly recommend the fumoto valve or similar, as well as the entire motivx tool kit with the funnel, and oil filter drain. the motivx filter wrench has it's enemies and fans over other variants, i don't have any problem using it...

biggest thing is to always remember to change the o-rings on the canister, and smear some oil(i use the old oil in the drain pan) on them to allow for installation. without oil on them, they go in tighter than a square tube in a round hole.

 

After working in shops/dealerships and seeing how few techs actually use a torque wrench in areas they should and just drive stuff home with an impact your likely fine. To many people run by the ugga duggah or goodntight methods these days. But yet I didn't see much for failures.

 

because cars aren't swiss watches.

it's either tight enough to hold, tight enough it should've held, or limp-wristed and was never tight enough to begin with!