Changing Spark Plugs

[NViejeP]

What's the difficulty of changing spark plugs? My car currently is getting horrible mileage and i'm thinking its either spark plugs or the O2 sensor.

I'm thinking about doing the spark plugs by myself. How hard is it? What exactly do I have to do?

Just for the record I don't really have any car maintenance experience. I just installed an amplifer in my friends car so I'm capable of doign stuff, just don't really have too much experience.

Thanks

 

[racefan_67]

do a search on this subject...there's a few good threads with pics that will walk you through it....have fun!

 

[greasefingers]

Your O2 sensor should be fine (in theory). It is a fine-tuner however. It is only used when idling or cruising at constant speed. I would suspect that cleaning your MAF first and of course if your plugs are older than 30 k miles then replace those.

 

[NViejeP]

I bought the car used at 68k miles. I'm not sure when it was serviced last. But I haven't gotten it serviced as of yet. I'm at 70k right now.

I was going to clean my MAF, but I was leaning towards the problem being the O2 sensor or the Air-fuel ratio sensor in california because someone I was talking to, had the same mileage as me approximately, and changed his o2 sensor and voila, it fixed it for him.

 

[greasefingers]

Definitely replace the spark plugs and clean the MAF. Then re-calculate the mileage and go from there. There is nothing special about replacing plugs. Just take your time when starting the threads of the new ones, in order to avoid cross-threading.