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Sort of a half-azzed rant, here.

Gal-pal has a 2007 Sentra 2.0L with 110k miles on it. She decided she wants the plugs changed. About time, so figured I'd take about 30 minutes out of one of my off days to do that for her. She can drive my GTO to work the next morning. The GTO never gets driven hardly, so I.....
-Aired up 2 of the tires(flaking chrome causes air leaks at bead on two).... then aired up the other two.
-Charged up the battery
-Vacuumed the carpet and treated the dash/seats.
-Organized the trunk to fit her volleyball gear bag (can't have it messing up the seats)

Anyway, this is about a Nissan Sentra 2.0 plug changeout.
So the next morning, I do other things, eat lunch with my Mom and a cousin, then hang at Mom's a while.
So it's about 2 hours before she gets home from work, so I decide to go home and do the changeout.
Pop the hood and I can't see any plugs, wires, coil packs.... 'nuthin'. Hmmm....?
Google to the rescue. Guess what? YOU HAVE TO PULL THE INTAKE TO GET TO THE COIL PACKS/PLUGS! Really, you do.

It threatened rain, and I didn't really want to mess with it after that......... play with it tomorrow, maybe. 100k miles.... probably take it to a shop for the timing belt replacement..... they can do the plug change then.
NOPE! Google says it has a timing CHAIN! Good for 300k+ ....... virtually no breakage of that chain unless the oil pump goes out.

So...... didn't take me too long. Plastic intake with 8 or so bolts. 4 in the throttle body and two hose clamps on the TB/filter hose. Then each coil pack has a bolt.... but a spark plug wrench won't go down the 6" deep hole to the plug. Gotta use a thin walled 14mm deep well. OK.... that's loose... how do I get the stupid plug out of the 6" deep hole through the valve cover? My trusty extendable magnet, of course!

Sheesh, that was quite daunting a first, but it really wasn't too bad. Modern tech is great... (Clean Fuel injection. Engine Management Systems, 100k mile plug changes, etc).... but I wonder about user friendliness on the drawing board. Remove the intake..... REALLY?

Not so much of a rant...... but just puzzled by some of this stuff. Buddies at work are talking about Ford Diesel's needing the cab removed just to service the injectors and such..... REALLY?

Coil Packs/Plugs with arrows..... Clam-shell intake (circled) completely covers the plugs.

Nearly every time I take my truck in to my guy, he has a Ford P/U body on the hoist chassis on the floor! He says it saves about 8>10 hours to pull the cab! so that saves the customer $500>$1000 on an engine service. (I believe this covers some of the turbo work too, it is against the fire wall under the dash/cowl). And you thought changing plugs on A V8 H-Body was bad! Harry

I have heard(and seen) many similar horror stories about what should be routine service procedures on newer vehicles.
Cadillac Northstar V8 starter- It's UNDER the intake manifold completely inside the engine. Many hours and a bunch of gaskets to swap one. At least the bolts are never rusty....
Ford E-350 diesel serpentine belt replacement- Remove front bumper, grill, A/C condenser, rad, fan & shroud.
Cadillac SRX headlight bulb- front bumper cover must be removed to get headlight out; no access from under the hood.
Almost every V6 FWD car- Removing the spark plugs from the rear 3 cylinders requires the removal of the intake manifold and/or having an extra elbow surgically installed in the middle of your forearm. Or you can ask an orangutang to assist you.
And my personal favorite(from personal experience)- 1999-2006 GM truck heater core replacement- 8+ hours labour to remove the whole dash from the vehicle, including the steering column. And the A/C must be recharged after. And NAPA listed 2 different cores; I thought I would be smart and have both on hand. Neither one would fit. Had to go to GM and pay 2x as much for an OEM heater core.

Spencer

"having an extra elbow surgically installed in the middle of your forearm. Or you can ask an orangutan to assist you"

Re: the first suggestion. Does that hurt, and how much did it cost? And the second is my usual technique, not as good as you might think, but it is always hilarious! I had a Tempo ~1993 [while down on my luck] and it needed a battery cable, 20 minutes right? NO 3 hours, and two pints (of Blood ) there must have been 10>15 bolts on 3 1/2 feet of wire. It was bolted to every bolt down one side of the oil pan, and three other bolts getting there! My Sonoma needs a rad flush, I can't see anyway at all to get to the drain or the lower rad hose without another meeting with "Dracula" this will be a 3 or 4 pint job with the creation of at least 6 or 8 totally new compound four letter words! Harry

Monza Harry wrote:Spencer

"having an extra elbow surgically installed in the middle of your forearm. Or you can ask an orangutan to assist you"

Re: the first suggestion. Does that hurt, and how much did it cost? And the second is my usual technique, not as good as you might think, but it is always hilarious! I had a Tempo ~1993 [while down on my luck] and it needed a battery cable, 20 minutes right? NO 3 hours, and two pints (of Blood ) there must have been 10>15 bolts on 3 1/2 feet of wire. It was bolted to every bolt down one side of the oil pan, and three other bolts getting there! My Sonoma needs a rad flush, I can't see anyway at all to get to the drain or the lower rad hose without another meeting with "Dracula" this will be a 3 or 4 pint job with the creation of at least 6 or 8 totally new compound four letter words! Harry

I had a coolant service done on my f150 and the rad shop cut the heater hoses and flushed it that way may be an easier option for you as well!

FYI, I didn't actually get the extra elbow surgery; the orangutan was able to reach the back 3 plugs. But I was unable to teach him to properly gap them......

Thanks for the laugh, guys. Much better now that it's all over. Actually wasn't as bad as I'd figured it to be. Just a lot of bending over the engine compartment for 25-30 or so fasteners to remove/replace and a few hoses/electrical connections. I guess it's just my expectation of simply removing 4 spark plugs and be done, that caused the semi-rant.

Speaking of gap..... the old plugs (110k) gapped almost a perfect 0.044"... and the center electrode looked perfect, slight wear on the outer. Hahaha...... crazy. Just a little white residue (assuming from the ethanol). They probably would have made 200k with a slight tweak in the gap setting.


A similar screwed up experience:
1998 Ford Escort ZX2. Oil filter location. That orangutan elbow would have come in handy on that one. Unbelievably difficult to reach. It was my 2nd wife's car. I changed it that one time..... afterwards, told her she could get it done at Wal-mart, Jiffy-Lube or never change it again.... didn't matter to me, 'cause I'd NEVER do it again!

'92 Ford Thunderbird SuperCoupe. 3.8L V6 with supercharger (superfun car). Not terribly hard to reach filter (like a Buick V6, right in front) but the oil that drained out of the filter ran down the "K" member into the crossmember and across the rad support. down the a-arms...... frickin' oil EVERYWHERE! On car and ground.

bugdewde wrote: but the oil that drained out of the filter ran down the "K" member into the crossmember and across the rad support. down the a-arms...... frickin' oil EVERYWHERE! On car and ground.

Dwight when I change my own oil, I take an Ice Pick with me under the car, and I decide where the oil will go, and I "Ventilate the S T out of the filter" before I try and pull it, as I too have had that experience. Trying to get the holes as far away as possible from everything but the catch pan, then the wind starts blowing like crazy! Harry

I'm personally affected by poor oil filter placement on my fleet of Saturns. Similar to Dwight's experience, the Saturn oil filter is on the back of the block directly over the right axle. It drips down the block, onto the axle, then onto the right side of the front cradle. Odd thing with Saturn; the left side of the cradle is notorious for rusting out, but the right side gets "undercoated" at every oil change.

I had a 01 Sentra with the 2.0. The plugs were not covered with the intake that I can remember. But my starter went out and I looked at it for about 20 minutes and then called a local garage. I could barely touch it with my finger tips, not alone get to the bolts without removing the exhaust manifold or the intake from the top. Just didn't want to tackle it at the time.
Also had a 01 Accord 4 cyl that had the oil filter located above the exhaust. Cussed every time I had to changed the oil.
I do something similar that MonzaHarry mentioned on the my Sunbird. I use a stainless piece of tubing that I sharpened to a point at one end and pop it through the oil filter and let it drain into the pain before removal. The header pipe is directly under it and makes a mess.
easiest oil filter to change was on a 91 Toyota Paseo. Pop the hood and shebang! Right on front of the block near the top.

My '09 GMC Acadia I had to pull the intake manifold to change the coil packs. Really wasn't that difficult. A few bolts and it popped right off. The coil packs and plugs are easier to change on my Acadia than the plugs on my '78 Starfire V-8, even with having to remove the intake on the Acadia.