i was stressed over replacing my plugs recently. last time they got swapped, i paid 182.50 for nissan to do it and they did NOT have to remove plenum. it took them 45 minutes. That was in 2010- yes i still own the xterra. still, i was nervous as it was time again this past winter. They were in there like 11 years so i thought i'd have issues. I didn't-mostly. Read below-
here is how i did it without removing anything besides the coils and plugs:
i already had most of the tools needed-
spark plug socket with magnet- that's important.
wobble extension kit from amazon- like 25$- that's important
3/8" ratchet
3/8" swivel- that's important
torque wrench- i think that's important
10mm small wrench
parts-
plugs- oem ngks
dialectic grease for boots of coil that fit over plug
new coils (the hard 1 made my decision to buy new ones easier as I really didn't want to ever have to repeat working on that one- at least not for another 10 years.
so here is what i did-
so..... I did this after thr truck sat 24 hours since i last drove it, so cold engine.
I did the drivers side 3 first starting with the one closest to the radiator and worked my way back towards firewall.
the 1st two came out easily and smooth. zero issues. the one closest to the firewall was very snug and after quite a few turns it started to come out easier. it was dirty. the threads. around the base of the ceramic. i put the new one in and it went in very smooth. thankfully. i will get back to this one in a minute. This side took me like 20 minutes.
i then did the passenger side and started to use compressed air before removing the plugs due to the one just mentioned being so dirty.. the rearmost one was first and it came out easy. it did have a little oil on the area around the base so it looks like i have the common valve cover leak. as long as it doesn't cause a misfire, i am ok with that for now.
the next one, middle pass side, came out smooth and was clean. i left it's coil off as that is needed in order to do the "hard" one under the intake.
the hard one- took me like 2 hours. the main issue there is the coil bolt is hard to get to. i used a 10mm wrench and jsut loosend a little at a time and was able to squeeze my hand from the front of the engine up into that area to sort of help things long. got the scratches to prove it. I did use my magnetic tool thingy to pull the bolt up through the intake opening so i wouldn't lose it once it was loose enough. Getting the coil out is fun. But i watched a video on how to do it and just remember, when you install coil, the top of it goes in first up under the intake into position- you install is coming from the left.
the plug was easy to remove and install with wobble extensions. i have no idea what these were before doing this and now i do. it's just an extension that has two stop points, one allowing you to create and angle as needed. this came in handy. i was able to torque that hard plug using the womble and between the two plastic sides/tubes of the intake. i remember 11 years ago when i checked the dealers work, that the torque was sort of hard to figure out due to coming under the intake and making s turns. Not any more.
once the pass side was done i decided i would go back, remove that dirty plug and try to suck out anything that fell in there. i made a sucker tool using my shop vac and some clear vynil hose i had laying around. stuck it down the hole and moved around some. didn't see or here anything but i prolly would not if it were small. put the plug back in and it went in smooth and torqued good at 18 ft lbs. like the first time i did that one and the rest.
started the truck in garage and ran for 15 minutes as i cleaned up some. no engine codes or lights.
so the plugs were not even close to be stuck in the head after 11 years- that one was dirty for some reason- maybe the coil wasn't sealed down right way back?
so that's it. I wrote a howto here i believe a while back too.
If you can change oil, you can do this. Just expect it to take a couple hours and have a good safe place to work.
I will say that i decided to replace the 6th plug coil as it was hard to get to but i decided to do this a few days after this job once i got the new part. i figured it has 150k miles on it and i'd rather replace it in my garage versus on the side of a road in the dark. I did end up punting and replacing all the coils. why not. The hard coil to get to took me 10 minutes to swap oout as I already developed a technique on getting it out.
There is 0 reason to remove any hoses or the intake UNLESS you want possible complications. I'd rather keep it simple and this job is IF you know the little tricks. There is a good video out there i watched. I think my howto has a link to it.
good luck!!
