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Spark Plug Change

11K views 35 replies 19 participants last post by  Cayman Ed  
#1 ·
Hey guys and gals, I have a question on the above. Miles vs years, I'm in month 15 and a proud owner of a 2014 981CS w/ PDK and with only just under 15k on the clock. The car had only one (had it shipped) previous owner located in Cali.

Okay, factory scheduled maintenance shows spark plugs are due to be changed in addition to others things. I took care of changing the fluids myself, the question is the plugs! I realize fluids may and can break down over time ( brake fluid showed good after test ) but spark plugs? My Jeep Wrangler shows to replace via mileage not time.

What say you?

Thanks!
 
#2 ·
I faced this same scenario. My concern was not plug wear, I was confident they were good. My concern was the amount of time said plugs were screwed into aluminum heads. In the case of the 987.2 it's too far a journey to pull them, check them, and put them back and since labor was free I replaced them. I found each plug to be easy to remove, there was no evidence of galvanic corrosion or any seizing. My car is garaged and dry, I only mention that so the condition of the plugs can be related to storage conditions. It's a personal judgement call. If you decide to change them, make sure to have a variety of long and short extensions and a universal elbow. I would also recommend you make sure you are as absolutely square on each plug as possible, be gentle, start every plug by hand with the proper extensions omit the elbow unless there is no other way and make sure it turns easy and without any binding before finishing the tightening procedure. I could not always accommodate the torque wrench given space considerations, I was taught to "snug" plugs, that's what I have always done and I've never had a problem. Good luck with your servicing.
 
#8 ·
~34K miles and 8 years on this one. It was the worst of the batch.
I hope you made note of which cylinder that 1st plug came from. There's something going on there. BTW, I waited until 8 yrs and 60K miles before replacing my plugs. And they looked like they could go another 60K. Very little difference between the six.
BTW, I saw reference to also replacing the coil packs (since you're already there) but if the car has been running perfectly and you're only replacing the plugs because you are worried about them seizing, I see no reason to replace them pre-emptively. Why waste over $300 on a < $100 (already pre-emptive) job? If you later develop misfires from a cylinder, the code will tell you which one. It is pretty easy to just replace that coil pack. It is relatively easy it get to replace a coil pack.
 
#12 ·
Glad the job went well. (I don’t consider changing coils a waste of $300. I see it as preventive maintenance on an item that can fail. Certainly your call. ).


Shawn in VA (USA)
ELCID86, with all due respect I see where you're coming from logically, however there is no line item in the maintenance schedule for replacing coil packs. As a auto enthusiast, in my years working on various makes and models. This a replacement, if the component is failing or has failed!

IHMO
 
#27 ·
ELCID86, with all due respect I see where you're coming from logically, however there is no line item in the maintenance schedule for replacing coil packs. As a auto enthusiast, in my years working on various makes and models. This a replacement, if the component is failing or has failed!

IHMO
Based on my experience - if it was a Japanese car I'd agree - but every direct ignition Euro car I've owned has at some time or another had a coil fail. Last time I went to change plugs on my '11 Cayenne Turbo - every damn coil had a crack down the length of the coil, leading to a rush trip to pay dealer prices for 8 replacement coils. That was at 80,000 miles (40k change interval on the turbo..) My general policy is - they're probably fine for the first plug change and not worth purchasing to install, but for the second plug change (80k) - I want to have the coils on hand. And even if the old ones look good - I'll install the new ones figuring they should still look good at 160k miles. Peace of mind is sometimes worth a bit of money..
 
owns 2009 Porsche Boxster Base, PDK
#13 ·
Understand and TEHO. I’d rather not be sidelined waiting on parts and have to screw around with getting to the front two coils again so chose to replace them while doing the plugs. (Also did on my E46, VW GTI, Golf TDI, etc.)


Shawn in VA (USA)
 
#15 · (Edited)
Mileage and/or wear have nothing to do with the need to replace spark plugs! The overriding factor is time. The threads of the spark plugs are plated with an anti-seize alloy but if you don't change em on the recommended schedule, there is a very big ri$k that they will seize in those aluminum heads. If that happens, repairs are $ugly$ and can get very expensive!

My '17 911 Turbo just had its 6 year maint which included Porsche recommended spark plug replacement.

And for ZERO labor charge, I also had the plug coils replaced, since my Tech was already there and pulling them off to replace the plugs.

I might have been able to avoid the cost of buying the the plug coils, but I'm old enough (78) and have been around long enough (Porsche owner for 53 years) to have read and heard about people avoiding plug coil replacements soon having plug coil failures shortly after plug replacements.

This is not a good area to get cheap on!!

Got it?
 
#16 ·
Eh, I disagree that plug #1 is a concern. Conventional wisdom has always been that light-to-dark chocolate brown on the insulator is ideal, and that's pretty much what you have there, albeit a bit darker than the others. Don't look for trouble, let trouble look for you. :)

It's hard to say what to do about the coils. It is true that these parts are probably running too hot in the 981 for longevity's sake, given the absence of heat shields (and never mind the popularity of unshielded aftermarket headers.) It is also true that they are subject to the same bathtub-shaped reliability curve as almost everything else, where brand-new parts are inherently less reliable than parts that have been in service for a while.

And while it feels good to have the latest part # revision in place, it is also true that most part revs are made for the sake of either component availability (read: they couldn't get one or more parts that the engineer originally preferred) or cost reduction, not for the sake of improved performance or reliability.

I will probably do the coils next time the plugs are changed, since they'll be 12 years old. But it's far from clear whether that's really the best move from a reliability standpoint, given that my car has the stock headers and isn't tracked.
 
#18 ·
Hey guys and gals, I have a question on the above. Miles vs years, I'm in month 15 and a proud owner of a 2014 981CS w/ PDK and with only just under 15k on the clock. The car had only one (had it shipped) previous owner located in Cali.

Okay, factory scheduled maintenance shows spark plugs are due to be changed in addition to others things. I took care of changing the fluids myself, the question is the plugs! I realize fluids may and can break down over time ( brake fluid showed good after test ) but spark plugs? My Jeep Wrangler shows to replace via mileage not time.

What say you?

Thanks!
I was in a very similar situation a few months ago with my 2013 Boxster with 22K miles which never, as far as I can tell from the records, had the spark plugs changed. I went ahead and did it. Good news is that none were seized and none looked too ratty. I did learn a couple of things I'll pass on in case you do the job yourself. I'm sure you've read and seen vids of the collection of extensions and u-joints you need to do this job. One thing to look out for is if your spark plug socket has an insert to hold the plug in place, make sure it does not hold the plug too tightly. If it does, when you replace the new plugs and pull the socket off the plug, the insert may stay on the plug (ask me how I know). Another fun trick is that your extensions may pull apart leaving the socket on the plug. I found an old socket insert that had lost most of its grip to solve the first of those problems. I also duct-taped the extensions together to improve the chances of them not pulling apart .

A final comment is to say that the little torx screw that holds the coil pack in place has a real fine thread. With that, difficult access and a little lack of patience it's easy to cross thread it when putting the coil pack back on. The screw is steel and the head is aluminum so you do not want to mess up the threads in the head. Take care to make sure those little screws go on straight and easy. Otherwise with some patience I'm sure you'll get it done. (BTW I did not replace the coil packs and have had no problems).
 
#22 ·
Porsche's "no anti seize on plugs" policy seems like a money-making scheme for its dealers. Often the common rationale for changing plugs is not due to ware, but to ensure that plugs do not weld themselves to the aluminum heads. Aside the unlikely issue of anti-seize interfering with conductivity of a plug, the whole thing appears to be circular logic.
 
#23 ·
So I just got the maintenance from the previous owner that I tracked down. Great guy. Turns out he did the spark plugs at 30k and I did them at at 34k. So plugs with 4K miles on them come out pretty easy. Also explains why they looked perfect. No big deal it was an easy job. But it shows that carfax does not get all the maintenance. He did all the work at Porsche Bethesda but none of it showed up. I even called them before with the vin to find out but they would not let me know anything other than. It was serviced.
 
#24 ·
So I just got the maintenance from the previous owner that I tracked down. Great guy. Turns out he did the spark plugs at 30k and I did them at at 34k. So plugs with 4K miles on them come out pretty easy. Also explains why they looked perfect. No big deal it was an easy job. But it shows that carfax does not get all the maintenance. He did all the work at Porsche Bethesda but none of it showed up. I even called them before with the vin to find out but they would not let me know anything other than. It was serviced.
[emoji50]. Dealers are so anal about that. Just redact the name and address or tell me what was done! [emoji1751]


Shawn in VA (USA)
 
#25 ·
I did my plugs and plug coils at 20,000 miles, but it was at 6 years. Mileage is not the deciding factor. It is age in service that determines when plugs should be changed. And there are many reports of plug coils throwing error codes after a plug change. The labor is already paid for in changing plugs, so installing new plug coils at that time is cheap insurance against plug coil error messages.
 
#28 ·
Absolutely replace the coils when you change your plugs. Only makes sense - they are in a very heated enviroment and they degredate over time.
 
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