Freaking SCAMMED!!!!!!!!!

[Daniel644]

So 5 ish years ago (late september early october 2012) I ordered this order for my firebird as I was having a misfire on my 3.8 v6




Due to the pain in the ASS it is to do plugs and wires on the pre 2000 3.8's (as some of you know i'm sure) I opted to pay (the ONLY time i've paid a mechanic for a spark plug job) a mechanic to install them (which was an insane price, but it's what it is based on the book time to do the job) and when I picked it up he talked about how big a pain it was to do them and how the cylinder 6 plug wire broke and all this other crap like he likes to do, well I recently had the fuel pressure regulator fail again and this time it fouled the cylinder 6 plug so I get up under there and pull the number 6 plug and THIS is what I find, so I pull the next easiest plug (front passenger side) and again



Not even the freaking plugs I brought, who knows if he even actually replaced the plugs, teh AC Delco's have Stamped, Made in USA-10 and Made In USA-08, these very well could be plugs installed by the previous owner when he installed that motor with dates like that, so now here I am having to do it all over again.

 

[Mooseman]

Well, don't go back there. Hard to prove anything now. Not the first time I've seen this on PITA jobs. That's why I do all my own work, even on PITA jobs. It's hard to find good honest mechanics.

 

[Daniel644]

got 5 of the 6 plugs swapped i'll let the other 3.8 owners guess which plug is left to do.

 

[Daniel644]

and it's finished, all plugs swapped, took one person coming from the top and me underneath to guide the socket into place with a REALLY Long flat head screw driver but we got the last plug out.

 

[Sparky]

I found a trick how to get the #6 plug out on my old 98, but I have relatively long skinny fingers which helps. That log manifold design sucked.

I have headers on my 99, go figure it makes the #4 plug a bit irritating to do. Oh well.

 

[Daniel644]

I found a trick how to get the #6 plug out on my old 98, but I have relatively long skinny fingers which helps. That log manifold design sucked.

I have headers on my 99, go figure it makes the #4 plug a bit irritating to do. Oh well.

6 was EASY, it was the first plug I did, the trick there is to seat the socket all by itself then slip a box end 3/4" wrench over the end of the spark plug socket (since the spark plug socket allows a wrench on the end) 3 and 4 where the hard ones because the spark plug boots didn't want to come off and it was real hard to get in there to pry on them, I probably spent more time getting the boots off those 2 then changing the 4 other plugs, I did all 3 of the driversside from underneath I used an extension on a ratchet for the front 2 and the same trick as number 6 for the back on that side, did the front passenger from the top and seated the socket on number 4 then got underneath and guided the person above how to get the ratchet in place then used the really long flat head to get the ratchet to link into the socket extensions, number 4 was the only one I really needed help for, the boots for 3 and 4 may have come off easier if I took the heat shields off, but the bolts where rusted on so I gave up on that Idea.

for number 1 I reached up from underneath infront of the k-member while looking up from below, number 3 was a matter of a 3" extension on the socket and fitting it between the o2 sensor and exhaust, 5 was like 6, honestly the only hard part was getting the boots off and back on all the way.

 

[Bow_Tied]

I trusted a previous owner on my '99 Jimmy that he had replaced the plugs ("ya it needed those for the emission test"). They were really bad and caused the coil to burn out stranding my family on the side of the road. I feel your pain.

I don't have a 3.8 in anything, sounds like you needed long extensions or access to blinded areas. One trick I found when I needed a really short extension on my ratchet was to a a 3/8 ratchet, a 3/8x1/2 adapter, then a 1/2x3/8 adapter to a 3/8 socket.

 

[Daniel644]

I trusted a previous owner on my '99 Jimmy that he had replaced the plugs ("ya it needed those for the emission test"). They were really bad and caused the coil to burn out stranding my family on the side of the road. I feel your pain.

I don't have a 3.8 in anything, sounds like you needed long extensions or access to blinded areas. One trick I found when I needed a really short extension on my ratchet was to a a 3/8 ratchet, a 3/8x1/2 adapter, then a 1/2x3/8 adapter to a 3/8 socket.

I actually had 1 or 2 super short extensions which where like those adapters in how short they where but weren't adapters, some plugs took a combination of 1 or 2 of those plus a 3" extension, others took a box wrench on the end of the Spark Plug socket and another part took a swivel, it was basically all over the place. kinda missed my hondas after doing this plug job 4 times as hard (ot atleast 4 times the amount of time) as doing the inline 6 on the trailblazer and that includes taking everything off you need to take off to get to the plugs on the trailblazer.