Should I replace my spark plugs?

I bought my 08 with 74K miles on it in January. I've got a lift and a CB antenna on top and although that drags me down, Im getting like 14, 16, MAYBE 18 MPG. I think that changing my sparky's out may help a little.
Either that or replace my o2 sensors.
What do you guys think?

I know I'm gonna get shitty MPG's but I think I can feel like she needs something.

Also I should add my truck has a slightly shaky idle, It got better after I cleaned out my throttle body and MAF but now it's hear to stay...

 

Anybody with experience in this field here?

 

Anybody with experience in this field here?

 

If they haven't been changed I'd do it, I think it's every 30,000 miles in the maintenance guide. Mine was done at 32,000. I'm at 37,000 now so you should check and see if yours was done at 60,000 miles.

 

You are right about to that point where the vehicle needs a tune up and some parts need to be cleaned and or replaced to keep it running at it's optimal AFR. My suggestion:

Clean the MAF
Change out the plugs, it's easy enough and you are at mileage, why not.
replace the O2 Sensors (only upstream!) They have a much higher rate of duty then the downstream after cat converter sensors.

do all this and report back.

 

I do the MAF and throttle body clean regularly. I will def replace the spark plugs but thanks for the info on the o2 sensor, I didn't know If replacing only the top would leave me wishing I did both. Good stuff to know.

I'll let you guys know...


BTW New question:

Are the laser spark plugs worth pursuing? I've heard mixed reviews...

 

If you are looking for the longest lasting, get iridium, shit is supposed to go til 100k easy. I have seen it before myself. If you are looking for optimum and cleanest burn possible, good old coppers are up to the task, oh and they are cheap.

Yeah, truthfully if you gotta ask at any point if you should replace something like these items you probably should. The rear sensors last forever and a day. Every once and a while they do malfunction but if they do they'll toss up the CEL (MIL, whatever)

 

Cool shit man. Thanks. Another question for ya,
My GF had the Chech engine light on in her older camry. I replaced her upstream 02 and it went away, stopped rough idling etc. 2 days later it's back , though not with the idling (to my knowledge)
You think her o2 lower really went bad coincidentaly that fast or maybe I didn't fix the right thing?

 

What kind of o2 sensor did you use? More importantly, what year is the camry? I have had issues with bosch oxygen sensors on toyota's and honda's where as when I replaced the sensor with a denso it magically went away. Gee I wonder why (denso is a OE supplier for both manufacturers, Bosch is not). If I recall correctly it had something to do with the proper resistance of the sensor and the Bosch one being too high where as the denso one was just right. You might want to pull a plug also.

The process you always must take when diagnosing a check engine light is not addressing the codes right away, you should always write them down or print them but erase then re-drive the vehicle until it comes back on (typically the monitors have to finish depending on the type of problem) so that way if you have multiple codes the root of the issue causing multiple codes will give you a better area of where to start looking.

 

May be time to do mine too.

Brad, if you get a hold of some OEM plugs, let me know. We can do a plug change party

 

do regular maint stuff..air cleaner, and spark plugs..clean MAF.

see what happens. not so sure i would simply change the O2 sensor as a guess. i use stock NGK coppers or DENSO..no iridiums. what came out went back in. sure i have to do a change every 35 -40k..wtf. it is easy. i get nervous when spark plugs stay put for a long time. i have a fear of a seized plug.

 

Seized plugs are a pain in the ass. For the ones really jammed up all I do is rotate them back and forth until I can get some spin out of them, then I'll apply some sort of spray lubricant wd-40 silicone spray, anything and just keep going with my back and forth so I don't jack up the threads.

 

I swear I've seen a post (or two, specifically from Chris4x4) on the best spark plugs (and oil filters, as well) are the ones from Toyota...

Aside from that, I would highly suggest looking and seeing if there's any gas stations near you that sell non-ethanol gas... www.puregas.org is a great reference to use, and you can use the KLM link at the top to open up a map on your Android (and I'm sure iPhone as well, but I gave up my iPhone a year ago so I can't comment on the wonderful new Maps app) that shows all the stations and just how close you are to them. I've been using Non-E for about a year now, and regularly get a couple more MPG using the Non-E gas.

 

you're lucky. in my life "seized" means..no movement. if i get rotation,, i dont think that is seized. i've never had a situation where i can get rotation and still be seized..

i begged a guy to leave me out of his spark plug change..2002 ford F150..nope..seized..threads came out. i almost cried. then the towtruck showed up. it was horrible.

 

I fixed the link for you.

 

My rationale has always been that if it is made of metal, it is fixable.

I've seen everything from frozen tight plugs to ones that just require a little finagling to get them to move that's when I use my method because if you don't do that and just keep trying to turn, that's when you pull threads and damage stuff.

I've worked on enough cars in my lifetime to see all the pain in the ass situations you could think of.

 

Silicone spray on a spark plug thread? That may not be so good for the O2 sensors. I'd stick with a simple oil.

 

It's to keep the surface slick. I'll reach for any sort of lubricant available to me at the time so I'm just generalizing to what I keep around the most since I have found it very multipurpose. It's not going to harm anything. If you're really worried about a very minute amount of the spray running through your exhaust I'd say you have bigger things to worry about. Like engine blowby which gets you all that oil caked in your intake/valves/oxygen sensors/ etc etc. That lube you just sprayed in your spark plug threads will get ignited so fast upon initial start that there won't even be a trace of it left let alone give the sensor a chance to even know it was there.

Keep it slick, a little spray will do, what i'm saying is don't bathe the plug.

Oh yeah and one more piece of advice for those with difficult plugs. Try removing them after you just ran the engine and its still hot.

 

Much appreciated.... I forget there's hyphen

 

I have found over the years that the NGK spark plugs seem to run the best in Toyota vehicles. I recommend the platinum tips. They are good to 100k, and are less expensive than the iridium.