Spark plugs are a pain to remove

[dandan1]

So I'm going thru my rounds of maintenance items including replacing the spark plugs. I'm not sure what the previous owner did but for the life of me I couldn't even get them to budge a tiny bit. I even tried a break bar but stopped because I was using too much force and was afraid something might snap so I stopped.

I went down the line and tried every plug and each one of them were as stiff as a rock.

And yes I'm using the correct spark plug socket. Any advice?

[LJ851]

Work out?

You could try to spray some penetrating oil down the spark plug openings, but i'm not sure it would get past the spark plug crush washers.

Good luck

[dandan1]

Haha, I'm not small by any means and I just didn't want to over muscle anything. The breaker bar that I was using was about 2ft long so I know I had enough leverage, but the damn plugs just wouldn't break loose.

I thought about spraying some PB Blaster in there, but wasn't too comfortable with the idea of getting that kind of liquid stuck in the hole.

I'll have another go at it again tonight after dinner and see what happens.

Ggrrr...

[devon.818]

dont be like the guy who broke one off in his cylinder head, he kept asking if he could just "drill it out" without removing the head....good luck lol

[acolella76]

I had the bright idea to let a shop diagnose something wrong with my car one time. Three days later they called me and told me it was the spark plugs so they charged me $115 for the plugs and installed them. Tried to get them out a week later to run a compression test and they gorilla torqued the shit out of them it seemed. They came out just fine eventually... when I pulled the head.

[dandan1]

Ugh great. Why do people need to torque these down with titanic force, even the box says 21ft/lbs.

According to my previous records the plugs were changed at a local BMW dealership so hopefully they knew what they were doing.

[paperplane94]

More breaker bar...

[paperplane94]

Also go buy a threadchaser before you find out they are stripped.

[dandan1]

More breaker bar...

That's exactly what I did. Used a different bar to use and carefully loosen them. Wasn't so bad once I managed to get the first one done. Took my time and everything went smoothly.

The ones in the car originally were Bosch Platinum Super Plus and the new ones are NGK ZGR5As. Car is running beautifully (not that it wasn't before) along with new distributor cap and rotor which was also done today.

Also go buy a threadchaser before you find out they are stripped.

Thankfully I didn't need to go there.

Thanks for the help guys.

[Hey_You]

Hope you put some Anti-Seize on the new plugs

[dandan1]

Hope you put some Anti-Seize on the new plugs

Of course, I do things the right way around here. Lubed up the plugs on both ends.

Next up, fuel filter, spark plug wires, ICV cleaning, ellipsoids, black door panels, injectors, chip, better seats, Z3 short shifter, suspension, wheels... I should start a maintenance/project thread...

[MR 325]

Most likely they weren't overtorqued but were just seized. Whoever did it last time skipped the anti-seize. :)

FYI though, you're not going to hurt anything is PB Blaster gets in the spark plug hole.

[dandan1]

Most likely they weren't overtorqued but were just seized. Whoever did it last time skipped the anti-seize. :)

FYI though, you're not going to hurt anything is PB Blaster gets in the spark plug hole.

That's what I was thinking too, the lack of anti-seize caused the difficulty. But not anymore since I did it the right way this time.


Also, good to know about the PB Blaster!

[Madhatter]

Its amazing the difference it makes.