dave said:
The back 3 are a bear. Looks like the intake manifold has to come off.
Has anyone done this ? Or...do u suggest leaving to a professional
mechanic ?
I'm assuming a 2.7L - the 3.5's are kinda new to need plugs yet...
I've done it on both of my santa fe's (01 @ 82k, 03.0 @ 48k), its not
hard...
Step one: release the intake air hose clamp off the throttle body.
Step two: pull all the electrical plugs off the manifold. The
pull-clips are easy for disassembly - I suggest vice grips to control
your cursing during reassembly. The plugs around the throttle body and
Step three: pull the crankcase vent hose and the other small vaccum
hose. Do note I didn't tell you to remove all hoses. There are two
hoses for the throttle body warmer (yep, those hoses have antifreeze
running through them, odd stuff eh?). I leave those alone...
Step four: There are three bolts on the back of the intake. You'll need
a small rachet and a reasonably sized socket for this. One of them is
kinda hard to get at. The 12th time I dropped it reassembling it and
had to chase it with a magnet, I decided 2 bolts was enough to hold it
together back there
Step five: Remove all the obvious bolts on the top of the manifold.
Step six: Start slowly lifting and working the upper manifold. It
should be easy enough to move at this point. If you work slowly and use
your eyes you'll quickly find anything else that needs to be removed
(theres always a sneaky connector). You won't be able to move it far,
just off the mounting studs. At this point you should be able to pivot
it out of the way enough to get at the plugs.
The first time I did this I had no instructions and it required about
two hours. Last time I changed plugs took just over half an hour (with
the help of an air rachet) so this is by no means a hard job.
The next question is - what spark plug?
JS
