Our car is at 120,000 miles and that's the recommended interval for changing the spark plugs. The local garage (not dealer) is doing the rest of the maintenance but they want ~$500 to change the spark plugs. Do you have any recommendations for me changing them or advice on who to go too?

 

Spark plugs are what, $13 a pop? Times 6 plus an hour's labor? You are getting ripped off. My recommendation is to try another garage.

 

even thought it can be done in an hour i belive that one time my dealer told me that normal rate is 2 or 2.5 hrs labor for all 6 plugs

i paid like 260 dollars for 6 plugs to be done at the dealership because the tech only bills the time he works on my car
they understand i go there because of the customer service i get and quality of there work and they want to keep me as a customer and understand that i am not rich

 

Usually runs around $500 at dealer. Toyota quoted me around that. I might just take it to the dealer if the indy mechanic is charging the same.

Also its pretty common for the connecting clips to break when changing them. And definitely use oem plugs.

 

the OEM spark plugs is Denso FK20HR11. you can buy them anywhere, and they last for 120k miles. Please don't think about how much the mechanic will charge for labor. Please about he does it in the right way or not (also in a reasonable price). I know a mechanic who changed the spark plug on a 98 Honda Accord and he did ruin the whole cylinder head because he did over torque the spark plugs.

 

Just a little FYI here. Same engine

 

You all have pretty much hit on my concerns. While I could easily change plugs on older cars this one has me concerned as techs are even quoting 2.5 to 3 hrs. This is still our primary car, and I'd like to keep it that way for a few more years, so while I'll call around sounds like that $$$ is expected. I guess the saving grace is only every 120,000 miles! Thanks

 

The 2-3 hour labor quote is due to the rear bank of plugs 1-3-5 that are hard to reach and upper intake (surge tank) has to be removed in most cases. That's not that bad and the job can still be done in under 2 hours. The tricky part is that I found on my ES is that clips and wires were brittle, I guess due to heat cycles and age, so I ended up with 4 coil connector clips broken that had to be repaired and one broken wire at the cam sensor connector. So if one is not good at these misc repairs that can add hours to the plug replacement, then one should take it to a shop as a precaution and headache preventative

 

Given that difficulty to reach the rear ones, you may as well replace the coils and connectors at the same time. It is far worse on the RX350 as you have to remove the intake manifold!

 

Replaced plugs for the 2nd, and most likely last, time 2 weeks ago. Both times I went with NGK LFR6AIX-11 - currently $25 on Amazon for all six plugs. Both times, I replaced them at night after the wife went to bed. It's really not that bad but it takes 2-3 hours cause of the stuff you have to move out of the way for those rear 3 plugs. Some claim to have replaced them without moving anything - just reaching back there and using the right combination of extensions. I can probably swap coils that way, but I can't see removing the plugs that way due to the wiring harness that gets in the way.

This second time, I replaced the PCV valve and the PCV hose, as well as the next longest hose that was stiff as a stick and broke in half when I tried to bend it. Those hoses go right over the middle of the engine where it gets pretty hot. Wouldn't be a bad idea to replace the PCV and related hoses the first time.

You're going to see that 120K is a bit too many miles to replace the plugs in that the ground electrodes will be worn down with gaps close to .060; OEM gap is .043. I would replace the plugs at no more than 100K.

 

I replaced the rear 3 plugs with only removing the strut bar but consider myself lucky not to have broken anything in the process. Not fun at all.