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Well crap. Ran into a not uncommon problem. The 3UZ engines are notorious for the valve cover gaskets over time softening which reduces the tension of the seal. Pulled the front passenger side ignition coil and it was full of oil. Like I said, not uncommon for high mileage 3UZ's. What I will do is re-torqued the valve gasket cover and move on untill the timing belt. At which time I'll just get them replaced then. 😔 Its easy to miss when she runs so well and that whole side is pretty much covered.
Stupist bolt ever. All the way in the bottom bolted to the inner fender where it sits in everything. Forever...LOL. You have to remove the battery tray to get the rear most coil pack out on the passenger's side. The battery tray has three bolts in its bottom. One of mine is shot. I'm just letting you guys and gals know what you might expect from what would normally be a simple job. Our cars are older and sometimes things just aren't that simple.
LUCKED OUT! 🥳 The battery box does NOT have to come out. Just the battery. Anyway. Done. All eight plugs are in. The retorqing of the valve cover will have to wait until the A.M.
What did I learn? First. Only use good parts. Because you won't want to do this every 30k Miles! And as always, you get to be the inspector. See what might be or is failing and plan for the repairs instead of getting caught out. Like my "ignition coils being cracked up the side of the body and the oil leaking into the tube. I personally think that I am looking at a new set. Thank goodness it's just an indicator and not failed.
That's it for me. Eight Spark Plugs, a set of wobbly extensions from harbor freight, 7/8 spark plug socket, 10mm wrench and sockets in 3/8" drive, needlenose pliers and a Phillip's screwdriver. I think that's all my tools used today. Tomorrow morning I'll finish retorquing the valve cover and put her back together and go for a drive. Top down of course.😁
DONE. Three bolts on the valve cover were loose, only two where at torque specs. Re-torqued them all and she is back together getting ready to go on the test run.😁 Unless anything unforceen comes up, this thread is done. Just a day in the life of spark plug changing on the SC430.
Awesome job Paul, thanks for the nice detailed writeup.
did you try to get the bolt out of the battery tray?
if you had success, might I suggest coating it with never seize…then it again, probably better to leave it along, it might twist the head off.
Thank you Sir and no, I did not get it out but still want to. The 10mm head is completely rounded off. A 9mm is too small. Tried a 10mm 12 point socket but it just needs some work. Spray it down with some penetrating oil and let it sit I guess. I dont have a cordless drill otherwise I would just drill it out and retap it. Any other ideas?
And just as a side note, my "average miles per gallon" on the Multidisplay used to jump around considerably. Now even though the display still updates every 10 seconds, the displayed average is much more stable. Just an indicator. Two downstream sensors last weekend and new plugs this weekend. I did something!😏
07-02-22, 05:12 PM
Spark plugs 2002
