Kennyr44

This thread inspired me. I got my new plugs at Advanced auto today. Oem plugs $100. I will put them in next week. Football takes precedence. I also ordered a transmission filter and gasket kit from Amazon and bought a case of ATF from a Toyota dealer. These and the water pump I already did are just foreplay leading up to control arms I'm going to get to someday.

dlbuckls10

Useful information but I think I'll let the dealership change my spark plugs.

Doublebase

Football is number one, I agree. I'd never attempt to do any car repair over watching football.

As for the plugs, I'll tell you what, I don't know if it was my tools or what, but I had a really hard time keeping my spark plug socket on to the extension during this job. A real hard time. The tubes the plugs are in are tight...I kept loosing the socket down there and then I couldn't get the socket off the plug when it was installed. I wish I had a welder, I would have welded the socket to the extension.

Good luck with the rest of your repairs.

Doublebase

It looks like your valve cover gasket is leaking - those spark plug tubes have a little round rubber gasket on them that is supposed to prevent oil from going down them, and it looks like yours have failed. I had a little in mine, but not as bad as that. Those seals are a very common problem with all cars now, the only problem is I've never heard of anyone changing the valve cover gaskets on the LS460, so you may be heading into a little bit of uncharted waters. I'd say it would be pretty straight forward, but you have two high pressure fuel pumps that are on those valve covers that need to be removed. Be careful when doing this, you have to make sure that fuel pressure has been removed before you do it. I guess you could remove the fuses to the electric fuel pumps and crank the engine for a while to try to get all the fuel out of the lines, but you had better look the procedure up.

How many miles are on the car? If you don't want to tackle the job you could probably find a independent shop to do it, because I wouldn't take it to Lexus...they'd probably charge you close to $1,000, when in actuality it should probably be $300.

Kennyr44

There are tricks that mechanics pick up or figure out. I will report back after I do the job. So there are spark plug sockets that are attached to the extension. And extensions that quick connect to the socket. I have all of these but sometimes they are too wide to go into a thin hole. If thats the case you have to get creative. You need to have the socket just barely hold the plug so it will easily release when its tightened. So a worn out rubber or whatever inside the socket will be loose enough. Also you could use electrical tape or gorilla tape on the extension to the socket. Plenty more tricks of the trade.

roadfrog

Not sure if I mentioned it in my DIY or not, but I used tape to hold the extension to the socket. As for getting the socket out of the hole, I used a pair of very long nose pliers or a magnet on a long flexible stem. No issues whatsoever.

Doublebase

I had some issues with the spark plug socket I was using during the time, it was new and the rubber gripped the plug a little too tight...leading to all sorts of problems. I tried taping it, but it still wouldn't let free of the plug. I ended up just using a regular socket when putting the new plugs in...and used the sparkplug socket removing them. Those tubes are tight too, when I was installing the new plugs, I needed to use a skinnier socket because the socket wouldn't travel down as the plug was being screwed in.

If I was using the proper tools from the beginning, the whole job would have been much easier...so it was my fault I wasn't.

roadfrog

Well the good news is you're probably good for the remainder of your ownership and won't have to do it again.....or you're now a pro and can now get it done in half the time if you do. LOL

Unsober1

Hey Kenny, when do you plan on doing your plugs ? We live not to far apart. I'm current at 75k miles and have been thinking about doing mine. Maybe we do both at the same time ?

Kennyr44

Let me do mine first, I work better taking my time alone. We should for sure meet up, Ill have you over here and you can see my shop at my house. Maybe we can do yours then if I didn't get too pissed off doing mine.

Kennyr44

I installed my spark plugs today. It took 2 hours and was not too tricky. As mentioned the engine has to be preyed away from the fenders a couple places to get the coils out. The battery and tray removal isn't bad. So $100 for the oem plugs at Advance Auto with their online coupon and I think 2 to 3 hours labor is fair. $100 to $140 labor rate depending on the repair shop. So $325 to $550 is the range. Anything over that is stealing.

Ascari_2

Rather than prying the engine away from the frame, I would suggest what the manual says and removing the O-rings that are set within the cam covers around the spark plug tubes. This has two advantages. First, if you use a pry bar you will almost certainly put markings into the frame where you rest the bar. While this might not be a concern for some, I did not want my paint damaged. And second, it significantly eases your ability to get the plugs in and out, and provides added room for using the wrench extensions. In total, I would say it adds an extra 5 minutes of work to the overall process, so really not even a factor.

Nospinzone

Ah, I was wondering about that. I see that two members here posted that they had to pry the engine. It didn't seem to me that Lexus would allow that to be part of the procedure. I was thinking it might depend on what tool set a person had that could eliminate the need for prying the engine.

Now we know, thanks!

Ascari_2

All I did (as suggested by the manual) was tape the end of a relatively wide flat-head screw driver, so as not to scar the aluminum heads, and gently pry the rings off. There are at least two slight indentations under the rings at the 3 and 9 o'clock position which allow you to get the screw driver under there. That's really all that you need to do.

roadfrog

FWIW, prying the engine away from the frame did not leave any marks or damage anything and the amount of prying for those one or two plugs is minimal (maybe a 1/4"). Very little effort or force is required.

Good to have an alternative though.