Giantkiller

Earlier I poster the same title but wrote "7th gen"...typo, my bad. Anyway, hope I didn't mess anyone up, or cause them to hold their breath too long. This A.M. at 8, began the plug swap. Wrapped it up by 11 A.M. The job wasn't too bad. I've heard the horror stories and the thought of doing it myself was a little intimidating. Partially removing rain guard on the L/H side (facing the motor from the front) will give you a little bit more room to reach behind the plenum. Just take your time, and study the plenum, and anything attached to it that will have to come off. That's where most people will have issues, removing the plenum. There is a bracket on the R/H side (facing the engine from the front) with two 12 mm bolts that will have to come off. All of the plenum mounting bolts are 12 mm as well. Easy access to these bolts is accomplished by removing the large "intake tube" leading to the air filter box. The other issue will be on the left-rear side (again, looking at motor from the front) two small wire harnesses attached to the plenum via a bracket. Not enough slack in the wires to facilitate plenum manipulation. They have to be detached from the bracket, or remove the bracket from plenum. There is another small bracket, inboard of the two small wire harnesses that will also have to be removed. Then two 1/2' hoses and the plenum can be manipulated enough to access the three rear plugs. The plugs are 9/16. Everything went back together in about 20-30 minutes.
Any questions, just post'em, and I'll do the best I can to help you out!

po8pimp

confused on what this thread is about.. Congrats on changing your spark plugs. However if this is an attempt on a spark plug writeup, it needs work. There is a very detailed writeup on the spark plug replacement floating around. Add that link to your post and then your experience would make this post a lot better and more informative. Oh and welcome to the forum.

http://forums.maxima.org/6th-generat...ark-plugs.html Here is an original thread on this.

Giantkiller

Well, I'm a aircraft mechanic for the military by trade, with over 27 yrs experience. I have performed all levels of maintainence on the C2-A, E2-C, T-39, UH-1V, UH-1H, and the UH-60A,L and "M" models. I have also replaced several engines in several different types of my own vehicles in my life time. I could have gotten all techinical and stuff, but seeing how one post said to "drain engine coolant," (for the spark plug replacement) I decided to keep it simple. I'm guessing the trouble, or lack there of in working on your vehicle depends on your level of expertise and experience. I did however take several pix that I can post just in case my thread wasn't clear enough. It's just that my computer iliteracy my hinder my posting of them I'll work on that if anyone thinks they can use them. If you were refering to my "experience" as in how the job replacing my plugs went...it was unremarkable and pretty straight forward. My apologizes as to the subject of my thread confusing you. I thought the title of the thread would have explained that. (R&R=remove and replace...military acronyms...sorry)
Thank you for the warm welcome!

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

Who the hell drains the coolant to change spark plugs?

NIKV69

The shop manual tells you too. Though you don't have to. I think I lost 5 drops of coolant when I disconnected the hose.

Terrentius

Did mine yesterday. It took 2h and 20min. Plugs gap on old plugs has widened to .044. Mileage on the plugs = 98k.

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

I believe that's the gap that's required.

Terrentius

Yeah, I know. It's kind of a pickle, though, for the FSM says .043 (EM-39), but the manual also says that you're to install platinum and iridium plugs (EM-39). No straight answers! Anyhoo, 98k on plugs is well enough, so I just changed them out.

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

Yeah, it's 1.1mm which is like .0433". So, makes sense, even though all the spark plugs specific for Maximas state a .044" gap.

Terrentius

And literally no perceivable difference. She is a little more spirited when I tramp on her, but nothing earth-shattering, that's for sure. That said, old ones are out and the new ones are in, so I shouldn't have to be too concerned with them for a few years now.

Giantkiller

My plugs had 107,500 miles when I replaced them...other than being a little discolored they looked fine. I tried to find something wrong with them visually, but could not. I'm assuming that the the plugs were beginning to break down internally as I was losing power and the car was beginning to show carbon on the exhaust tips. Air filter was changed at this time as well.
As far as the "drain engine coolant," that was from a post I had read earlier, and that a more "senior" forum member directed me to because he was of the opinion that the thread I had posted about the job was lacking. I can understand why some manuals would instruct you do do that, but I didn't think it was necessary. The plenum is substancially higher than the cooling system proper, and most if not all coolant will drain back into the coolant system shortly after engine shut down. (especially if you have NOT been using your heater) There is a host of things your "supposed" to do before vehicle maintenance, disconnect the battery, chock the wheels, ect...depends on your skill level, the orientation of the surface the vehicle is parked on, and what your doing maintainance on. I simply chose not to.