How do I change the rear spark plugs on a 2005 Toyota Sienna?

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You don't. at around 100000 miles take it into the dealer and have them change the plugs. Otherwise, I suspect they are reached from underneth as were the plugs on my 94 caravan 3.3, actually quite easy to get out if you have it on a ramp and you're on a creeper.

Reply to
dbu,.

I actually did this a couple of months ago on my 98 Sienna. I found that it was not actually all that bad once I figured out the trick. If you have arms of girth then you will have greater difficulty - mine are of 'normal' girth (whatever that is). No parts (manifold or cowl) removal is needed.

It is a feel thing and a not-out-of-the-ordinary tool thing. Do it one plug at a time, from pulling the wire to putting the wire back on, then move on to the next. You need to remember where that hole was. Don't pull off all of your wires and expect to find things again.

I just used a regular ratchet, a 6" straight extension (I might have added another 2 or 3 incher but I do not think so), and a spark plug socket that actually holds the plug securely. Without that holding power of the socket there is no chance. No bendy joints were needed at all.

The easiest one to get at is the one on the driver side, so do this one first to get good at it. You cannot see anything so you are going by feel and you do not want to lose your place. Pull off the wire with your left hand and the extension and socket in one piece in your right hand, both hands back there, keeping your finger over the plug tube. Now lower the socket and extension down and engage the plug snugly. Now go get your ratchet and connect it to the extension. Turn the plug loose, remove the ratchet out of the way, then lift the extension out with the plug carefully and slowly so you do not drop it back down in there. Removing the ratchet from the extension is the key here, and you will be able to angle it all out OK.

Now when putting the new plug in you really really do not want to be crossthreading this at all. I figured that I had one shot. So I stuck the plug into the socket/extension and lowered it very carefully down into the tube. When I hit the bottom I rotated it anti-clockwise for a bit to ensure that I had it all level down there and I felt that little bump where the thread found its new groove. Then I spun the plug in by hand until hand-snug. Then I attached the ratchet to give it that final snugging. Then the ratchet was removed again then and the extension/socket came out.

If I am remembering it correctly, the center one was the one where I had to reach in the most, so do that one last. The whole job for these 3 plugs took me about 15 minutes (including trepidation time). Good luck and let us know how it worked out for you. Tomes

Reply to
Tomes

WHAT!!! This is a problem?? On my old '90 Mercury Cougar, the passenger side three on the v-6 took literally hours to replace, thanks to the designers putting all the air conditioning crapola butted up to the engine on that side. I might as well have been blindfolded to do the job, because it was all by feel. Ah for the good old days when one could SEE all the spark plugs and where the wires went. I recall fondly an old Rambler '60 station wagon I had briefly which had so much room in the engine compartment, you could likely have used it as another trunk!

Reply to
mack

My old Gremlin (the original Tomesmobile) was the same way, loads of room to futz around in there. Oh for those days...

My point here is that this is _not_ a problem. It can be done, and it was done, just with a little patience and feel. I, like the OP, did think that it was a problem until I found out that it was not really. Tomes

Reply to
Tomes

Good old days? On late '70's V8 Chevy Monzas (and their clones), the engine had to be pulled to change the back plugs. A friend made the mistake of buying one of these. When he found out it would be a couple hundred bucks (in 1983 dollars) to change all the plugs, his solution was to skip changing the back plugs.

The RWD Volvos, the 240/740/940 series, were like that. Big engine compartment with a dinky little 2.3L I-4 sitting in the middle. That was one of the things I liked about Volvos.

Come to think of it, my '00 Rav seems to have a reasonable amount of space around the engine (but, then again, all I've done is look - there's been nothing to fix, so far).

Reply to
DH

You mean they couldn't be changed from under the vehicle either?

Reply to
dbu,.

If I recall the story correctly, the old Monza's engine had to be loosened up on its mounts and slid forward about two inches to change the plug at the rear, tucked into the firewall. Great GM engineering that. I imagine more than one owner said "You have to do WHAT?"

Reply to
mack

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