I detest thee, cylinder # 1...

[krewat]

... and the coil boot you contain... with a passion...

Swapping plugs today on my 2018 - has a whole 3000 miles on it. (not going to mention WHY I'm swapping to SP542 plugs)... damn coils (well, really the boot) would not let go of the plugs...

Finally got them all loose, except for #1. #1 decided it wanted to hold onto the boot - forever.

My endoscope came in handy, that's for sure...

Damned boot came out in pieces...

Funny thing, all the tools I had were to no avail... except a pair of needle nose pliers I got from my father (who would be 117 years old this year - yeah, he was 63 when I was born), that date back to the 1930's...

Finally got the boot out of the hole, and all the plugs swapped... the wife is like WTF? It's brand-new!

Ah, the joy...

 

[NoSlo]

I curse the oil pressure sensor. After waiting for a cold engine, draining the coolant, removing the EGR protection tube and EGR pipe, heater core hoses, etc, there's just no friggin way to fit a tool on the thing and turn it. 26mm? Hours gone, put everything back together and go shopping for tools to improvise and modify and try again some other day...

 

[Zpak]

I just put 542’s on my mine a few days ago. I kept losing the rubber boot from the spark plug socket on the new plugs during insertion. Thank god for long hemostats. Them plugs are deep in there.

 

[krewat]

yeah, I know I have a hemostat (surgical clamp) but could not find it for the life of me. Gotta order another one (or two) from Amazon

 

[krewat]

Another interesting thing - stock plugs were gapped around .030-.031

 

[luigisho]

yeah, I know I have a hemostat (surgical clamp) but could not find it for the life of me. Gotta order another one (or two) from Amazon

I got some from Harbor Freight a few years ago. Cheap like $5-6

Here's one https://www.harborfreight.com/10-1-2-half-inch-jumbo-curved-clamp-65711.html

 

[Tbird6]

If you had these it would be MUCH easier to use and prevent damage to hoses or other rubber parts.
They are call compound hose pliers. Be sure and get the compound ones because the extra joint allows you reach into really deep area's and grab stuff.




They have helped me a bunch!
.
.
.

 

[Johnbigdog]

I just put 542’s on my mine a few days ago. I kept losing the rubber boot from the spark plug socket on the new plugs during insertion. Thank god for long hemostats. Them plugs are deep in there.

I found some dielectric grease around the porcelain will help with keeping the rubber in the socket, and the porcelain slip in and out of the rubber.

 

[Lostneye]

Swapping plugs today on my 2018 - has a whole 3000 miles on it. (not going to mention WHY I'm swapping to SP542 plugs)

Could it be

I found some dielectric grease around the porcelain will help with keeping the rubber in the socket, and the porcelain slip in and out of the rubber.

Same here.

 

[Zpak]

I found some dielectric grease around the porcelain will help with keeping the rubber in the socket, and the porcelain slip in and out of the rubber.

It’s funny, I actually looked for some as I was starting but I couldn’t find any. Most likely the little packet fell behind the bench. Nothing returns from back there... nothing.