I need to change the spark plugs on my 2000 maxima gxe. Does anyone know a helpful guide and what a reasonable price for a shop to do it is? Also, how do I know if the coil packs are going bad too?

thanks,
scheibler

 

coil pack barley ever go bad as far as changein pulgs ots easy remove the cover bolts on the fron head it should be hex style bolts bout 4 of them if i remember im to lazy to go look..lol and the back ones are easy gotta have a nice lone ext to get to them they can be access threw 3 holes on the back of the plem

 

Prices vary shop by shop, no way to give an estimate on that.

It's easy; 4 4mm allen head screws on the coil pack cover (front only), one 8mm head bolt per coil pack (6), 6 5/8" spark plugs. Need one allen key, one 8mm socket, one 6" or 9" extension, one spark plug socket, one ratchet (in appropriate drive for above sockets/extensions).

Takes 15 minutes, one of the easiest things you can do.

Holy hell...

 

i wouldn't say it's that easy.. if you never did it before, it might take you some time.. getting to the back plugs might be a bit of a female dog, but it's doable.. i did it in maybe an hour, hour and a half my first time

 

this is easy on a 3.0. start doing it and it will all make sense.

 

Here's a link for removing the coils (the first thing you need to do). After that, the plugs are underneath the coils. They're way down so you can't easily see them. I'd give it 2 hours the first time you do it. And make sure you have all the right tools including a magnetic part finder since you're sure to lose the coil bolt into the engine. You'll know when you have a bad coil because the CEL light will go on and throw a code of 1320.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=338587

Oh, and those clips at times aren't very easy to come off as the picture shows. I've ripped up my thumbs trying to get the clips off before.

 

The front 3 are simple. The rears are a pain, atleast for me. The middle rear and driver rear were the worst ones since I had such a hard time getting the coil off the plug. There was no room for my fingers and then you have to break the suction between the plug and coil so you have to pull kinda hard on the coil w/ hardly any grip on it.

Don't forget to clean around the area by the coil before you take them out to prevent any dirt falling into cylinder, and also use the antiseize on the plug threads and dielectric grease in the coil. There's a sticky on it somewhere, I believe.

Oh, and you might want to remove a couple of those brkts near the rear coils since they were in my way and it helped a lot to just pull the brkts for access.

Don't overtighten the plugs, either.....get the correct ft-lbs on them!!

 

"coil pack barley ever go bad".... Seriously? You haven't noticed the dozens of posts and stickies on the board about coil packs failing? all the posts about gray dots and ohm meters?

 

If you can't use your common sense to replace the spark plugs on a 3.0, just take it to a shop and pay whatever they ask lol...

 

The most common failures of coil packs are not from the year 2000. I think the most common failure is from the 02, with the VQ35DE if I'm not mistaken.