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      06-30-2013, 10:22 AM   #86
L4ces
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Drives: 2008 E92 M3 Alpine White
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: NJ - NY

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2008 M3  [0.00]
Son of a beyatch. Had an appt scheduled but money if all things was a factor with me deciding on doing this myself. 10 minutes on the first 3 passenger plugs and going into 20 minutes on the one in the back. And it's humid as heck.

Edit1:
PITA plug is done. Got pics and tips to add after all is done.

Edit2:
Plugs done.

Edit3:
I dropped tools into the engine bay 4 times from the passenger side. I was worried that I would have to remove the tray under the motor but I learned that stuff in the tray was reachable. Either I pulled it out of the tray with my finders with rubber gloves for grip, or moved it enough for it out to the ground (I couldn't see the bottom well and didn't know that there was such a hole). easily. It wasn't easy to see this without the car jacked.

As others have noted, the passenger PITA socket was a PITA. It was difficult to concentrate my strength through my fingers at such a weird angle. What I did was use the Coil Pack Removal Tool - By TxStig with a socket extension inserted between the gap of that tool for leverage, to distribute the force and have more to grab on.

In addition, I made use of the flexible grabber tool (forgot the formal name). Since, I had cheap sockets connections, there were a few times I had trouble getting the spark plug socket out of the hole and sometimes it wouldn't even hold the spark plug (in the rear part of the engine is where I had trouble), so I used the flexible grabber tool.

Problem encountered to watch out for.
On the driver side rear I used the smaller of the 2 extensions to begin removing the spark plug and quickly realized that it wasn't long enough so get it out of the hole so that I could use the longer one was the problem. I couldn't manage to connect the longer to the one in the hole because the combined lengths were too long for the space that was available (the brake line and another rigid line constrained the space. Eventually got it out using the small extension joint socket.

Edit:
Forgot to mention, unlike a few others, I noticed the restoration of power (difference was like turning on M mode); my exhaust not was different (I forgot how unique the AA sounds.. the howl); revs smoother and faster therefore throttle blips are crackle more.

Last edited by L4ces; 06-30-2013 at 06:28 PM..
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