Well, it’s been a while since I did any work but I did recently replace the spark plugs in the Malibu. Car has just over 125k on it and I guess it’s recommended to change them every 100k. Shop wanted $300 for it, I bought everything for $100 and got to spend some time alone with my thoughts, I’ll take it.
First things first is the engine compartment. Here’s what I had to work with. The engine in this car is rotated so that three plugs are in the front and three are in the rear:
The air system is in the way for the front three so I had to remove that:
Got that out of the way and was able to access the front plugs. I’m also changing the wires out since they’re 10 years old. Here’s where they attach to the coil packs:
Everything is pretty well laid out and identifiable. If you’re replacing wires the stock ones probably have numbers on them to identify the cylinder they belong too, like mine did:
The next part is straightforward, but for me it was a little difficult. Pull the boots off the plugs and then remove the wires from their coil packs. Also unscrew the spark plugs so you can replace them. The front three were easy, but the back three were a pain, you’ll notice how clean my engine cover is after I was wiggling around on it trying to leverage the wires off the plugs:
My new wires didn’t have cylinder numbers on them so I paired them up with the old wires so I would get the correct lengths on the correct cylinder when I reinstalled:
I also put labels on them in case they got kicked around or moved before I was ready for them:
My camera didn’t want to focus, but old vs. new:
Here’s two reinstalled and about to put the third. They were way under there. For the back three I was working completely on feel alone. One note, don’t try to just screw the plug in, if you screw the threading up you’ve got a big problem. I turned the plugs backwards until I could feel the thread seat and then tried to screw them in. Start slow and make sure the threads line up!
Blinker fluid – helps with electrical connections n stuff:
Got the wires reinstalled with the dialectic grease on them and made sure they were organized back into their brackets:
And we’re done! Car started right up, my mpg seems to have gone up by about 1. It doesn’t feel any different when I drive it but it was something fun to do and now I don’t need to worry about it in the future.
Possibly up next:
I had a guy offer me a free Yamaha Maxim 650. If I pick it up I’ll have a new project bike on my hands since I had to scrap the VFR.
