Bocatrip

I currently have 118,000 miles on my 01 LS430 which runs perfectly smooth, and accelerates fine. I understand the plugs for our cars cost a little more than regular plugs. What should it cost for labor (considering some plugs are harder to pull) to change all the plugs? I can purchase from Lexus or at a competitive site and bring the plugs. For whatever reason, I was told the passenger side was hard to change. What am I looking at for labor and/or parts to change the plugs? Of course I'm only going with OEM plugs.

Bocatrip

Come on.. You guys know!

airchomper

The plugs don't actually cost much more than other cars. Iridium plugs cost about the same for everything.

Please, for the love of money, don't buy them from your Lexus dealer. Retailers offer the exact same plug from the exact same manufacturer.

The O.E.M plugs are Denso SK20R11's.
The NGK plugs I used are NGK (4589) IFR6T-11.

Only use NGK or denso. They're both about $7-$8 per spark plug.

Denso plugs are great. But I grew up looking at the NGK sticker on my dad's tool box, so I buy NGKs. I don't believe the spark plugs perform any differently, but I think NGK puts slightly better anti-size plating on the spark plug (DO NOT PUT ANTI SEIZE ON YOUR LS430's SPARK PLUGS).

I'm not sure I'd trust a Lexus technician to do it right and it's a simple enough job that what you want to find is someone who is conscientious and works on import automobiles. Any BMW/VW/Mercedes mechanic would know about the way you bring a Denso or NGK plug up to torque.

I'd call around and go with the a shop that quotes you an hour of labor. And then I'd ask them if they'd promise to do a careful job, show you the 8 plugs they took out, and put dialectric grease in the spark plug boots for an hour and a half of labor.

If you have a good independent mechanic for your jag, they'd know how to do it. English cars have the most temperamental ignition systems ever so the only way to do the job on an english car is to do it right.

JffGRY706

I paid $51 for 8 plugs and $90 for install. worth it

BradTank

I did a write up if you want to tackle it yourself. It's a pretty straightforward job

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...with-pics.html

I think a Lexus dealer would be around $500 in parts and labor when I got a quote, which is absurd. The plugs themselves are around $8 a piece, so like $64 in parts. I would only do the stock plugs.

A fair price would be 1-1.5 hours labor plus the cost of parts, so around $200 parts and labor

JffGRY706

I believe the $90 was I hour, and only denso iridium. ask for old plugs just to look at...interesting

JffGRY706

I was told only 1 plug is hard, passenger side closest to firewall, but I am no mechanic

jimbosr1

all that is required to remove that plug is two extensions and a swivel attached to your ratchet.you can do it!

airchomper

Only denso iridium?

But there's at least two denso iridum plugs. The SK20R11s that the cars came with, and the ultimate-super-special-awesome IK20s. And you could probably use different heat ranges (and you should if you drive on the auto-bahn or idle your car all day).

And then there's a few NGKs that work (again, not even getting into plugs with different heat ranges).

And platinum spark plugs would perform well, they just wouldn't last as long. So why would you say that only denso iridiums should be used?

Do you have a guide to inspect the old plugs or do you just pensively examine them and think about the 2 million or so sparks that the plugs created? It's really tough to read spark plugs and figure out the health of the engine. I couldn't see anything in my plugs, and I brought them to a dude who runs a tuning shop who decided that they were fine (with 75k miles of wear). Reading plugs is one of the most esoteric shop skills. Don't expect to get anything useful out of it with an engine that's running well.

JffGRY706

I used what came in the car because they worked very well. go ahead and put 75,000 mile plugs back in your car. do what you want.

BigBruiser

JffGRY706 is correct. Passenger side nearest firewall is cramped but a swivel socket makes it happen.
+1 airchomper.

Bocatrip

Stripping threads is always the thing to watch out for. Being very careful and only hand threading the new plugs when installing. If you are not doing it yourself make sure you have confidence in your tech so there are no issues. Also, I would only go with the OEM plugs. I'm sure they can be purchased for a fraction of the dealer's cost.

deadguy

I did not have those tools and had to remove the battery to get that back plug out. It was a pain but I was able to get it done.

warminwisc

Neighbor charged me 25 bucks I bought plugs

ceedub53

New NGK plugs cost me $56 and I installed them myself. Passenger side toward the back was the most difficult, but I did the whole job in about 2-3 hrs. I took my time as I didn't want to cross thread the new plugs. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being tough, I'd rate the spark plug install at "4". Just take your time if you decide to do it.