[Shop-talk] Stuck Spark Plug

[Paul Parkanzky]

Are you trying to get them out on a hot or cold engine? Toss the ratchet
with the plug wrench and a pair of thick gloves (for the heat) in the
center console and next time he parks it after a nice long drive on the
highway have him try the plugs right away. That aluminum head will have a
much higher coefficient of linear expansion than steel so getting it good
and hot should give you a better shot.

-Paul

On Mon, Nov 10, 2025 at 11:59 PM John T Blair <jblair1948 at cox.net> wrote:

> On Monday, November 10, 2025 at 07:41:27 PM EST,  you wrote:
>
> >I am a big believer in impact wrenches, air or electric. It is that fast,
> hard whack they give
> >that actually puts less torque against the threads. Penetrating oil may
> or may not do
> >anything, but if you wanted to soak them down overnight and then hit it
> with an impact
> >wrench in the morning, I would not be surprised if they all came out
> without any damage.
> >
> >If they do not need changing at this point (new plugs can last 100K
> miles) you might just
> >want to leave sleeping dogs lie.
>
> Douglas,
>
> Currently that's what we are doing.  He got it back together as I was
> leaving.  He said he fired it up, and took for a test drive, no CIL, ran
> fine.  But this is something I've been afraid of
> with the cars going 100Kmi / plug change.  We really don't know how many
> miles are on these plugs as he's the 3rd owner.  I was figuring that if he
> was going to be in there, why not changed the plugs.  But when we ran into
> this problem he and I agreed, "if it aint broke, don't fix it".
>
> But I've got an 06 Scion xB with 64K mi, and a 12 second gen xB with 74Kmi
> and neither has had the plugs changed.  So I'm worried I may have the same
> problem.[image: Emoji]
>
> If we decide to get the plugs out in the near future, I'll keep you
> posted, but don't hold your breath.
>
> Thanks to all that responded.
>
> JohnT
>
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