the_3d_man

I've been fairly happy with my Continental Extreme Contact DW (The summer tires). They have lasted longer than normal for me and they have good grip wet and dry. Not quite as grippy as the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS D3s I used to run, but close enough for the amount of tread life I've gotten out of them and reasonably priced.

Since I haven't seen any pics (and I took some when I did my plugs) here is the process I went through to remove the air pump duct to get to the driver side plugs. (not that it matters since everyone here seems to have an '05) Start by removing the cover. It pops on with a plastic clip and may or may not have a screw of some kind in the front. http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/b425/the_3d_man/Spark%20Plug%20Change/IMAG0349.jpg I find that removing the air pump makes it easier to take the duct off. It's just three 10mm bolts and a plug. http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/b425/the_3d_man/Spark%20Plug%20Change/IMAG0351.jpg http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/b425/the_3d_man/Spark%20Plug%20Change/IMAG0353.jpg http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/b425/the_3d_man/Spark%20Plug%20Change/IMAG0354.jpg See that clamp way down there? It's really easy to get it off if you have hose clamp pliers. (I can take a pic if anyone wants one) http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/b425/the_3d_man/Spark%20Plug%20Change/IMAG0358.jpg Note that there is a bolt holding the duct down. You can see the mounting point here on the pic below. http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/b425/the_3d_man/Spark%20Plug%20Change/IMAG0359.jpg And there's the coil packs. Hope you have girly hands http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/b425/the_3d_man/Spark%20Plug%20Change/IMAG0362.jpg

Now that I think about it... It's entirely possible that's not that screw that is normally there... But hey... it works! (the cover will stay on just fine without a screw in there)

http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/b425/the_3d_man/IMAG0423.jpg http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/b425/the_3d_man/IMAG0426.jpg

The passenger side rear plug is the hardest to get to. There's like 1 inch between the frame and the coil pack. I mean that... I don't know why everyone says the driver rear is the hardest. To get the passenger rear plug out, you have to feed the spark plug socket in, then the extension, then the wratchet, then back everything out till it's loose, then pull the wrench out while you have room, then unscrew the plug the rest of the way, then pull out the extension, then pull the plug out... And to unscrew the coil pack bolt you have to use your thumb and side of palm, it takes forever. I hate that plug.

Really...? If you're gonna take the time to do it, you really should do it right. Use the correct plugs. They don't require gapping normally, but if you decide to do it anyway, I suggest using a chainsaw. It's a much better tool for that than a hammer .

Goodyear Eagle F1 GS D3s - 215/45/17 I've had these tires for about 10 months now and around 17000 miles. As far as grip and handling go they have been the best tires I've ever had on any car. They have incredible stopping ability and they corner absolutely beautifully. I have no problem gunning it out of any turn and just letting the car sling shot me out of the turn. With the stock RE92s I found myself on several occasions scrambling to get the car back in a straight line after such a maneuver. I have only ever had these tires break loose on me when I was trying to get them to. A quick counter-steer gets the car back in line and glued down again. They are amazing. They also have been pretty impressive in the rain. I haven't had any problems with hydroplaning and they still stop and corner pretty damn well. They are a bit noisier than most tires but I don't mind. I have notice a little bit of tramlining but it's not horrible. (There's a certain section of highway that always gets me on the way home from work) Now the bad part. In 17000 miles I have had some interesting wear patterns develop. On all 4 tires the center of the tread has worn down past the wear bars, but the outer edges of the tires have a little less than half the tread left. I know what you're thinking. I am running too high of pressure. Nope... I have been running about about 35psi front and back. The whole time I've had them. I know a lot of people on here run much more than that too and don't have this problem. I can't complain too much since I got 17000 miles out of a high performance tire, but still it's bothersome. I don't think there's an alignment issue or anything going on here either (besides I don't think it would have caused all 4 tires to wear in almost the same way in the center). I really don't know what caused it. If any one else has had these tires I would like to hear if they had a similar experience. Edit: I was wrong I actually have had them on for 17000 miles (I just went and looked at the receipt for them). So actually not too bad. I can't believe I've driven that much in less than 11 months. Damn...

Ok... so after searching the forums I see that it's an air pump that's only on 07+ years. For reducing emissions on cold starts. What a load of crap. Apparently this is what makes the car sound like a diesel for a few seconds after startup too from what I read... that's another question I had wondered about for awhile... So... I guess I need to get a damn extension tool (i have no idea what they are called) to squeeze the clamp open and pull the duct off, so I can maybe get a socket wrench in there to get the coils off. Maybe next weekend...

This car I believe either originated in South Carolina of Georgia, I forget which (i looked at two). I don't think it's cali spec. It's an 07 5MT. What can I say... I've never had a car that had stuff on it I couldn't identify. I can only guess that it has something to do with emisions maybe... I dunno, I have not seen it on any of the people's pictures with older years so I can't see that it's needed lol. I was getting so freakin pissed trying to get some pliers in there to get that duct off so I could get to the already impossible to reach coil packs.

Well I tried to change the plugs. What a freakin disaster. I couldn't do the driver side plugs. There is a stupid piece of plastic duct that blocks access to the coil packs and it's held in place by two clamps. The bottom one is impossible to get to. I tried every angle possible and wound up giving up. I don't have the patience. I got the passenger front plug in. That's it... What a pain in the ass. Also the freakin Oreilly by me didn't have any 1/4" drive 10mm sockets, and as everyone said, and I had hoped wasn't true, the 3/8 socket wouldn't fit in there to do the passenger back. What the hell is that duct and blower thing? I have never seen this on another car before, turboed or not. http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m196/julieroxbill/IMG_3785.jpg What is this thing? ^ http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m196/julieroxbill/IMG_3781.jpg And has anyone else had to deal with this dumb duct? on top of completely blocking access to the rear plug/coil pack it keeps you from pulling the front coil pack out once you have it unbolted. Is this something that's on 2007s and later? http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m196/julieroxbill/IMG_3787.jpg And here you can barely see the clamp that holds it in place at the bottom that is impossible to get to with a pair of pliers. http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m196/julieroxbill/IMG_3775.jpg And here is what my front passenger plug looked like. I don't think it was too bad. Oh and also I found that bolts holding both the front coil packs on were finger tight... scary. I love finding crap like that.

ILFR7H Plugs are in fact gapped to .020 maybe .022" I doubt that there is anything special about these plugs that allow you to run less gap than normally needed. So these are NOT just longer lasting replacements for the LFR7AIX which come pre-gapped to .032" So, does anyone here know more about this than I do? Should I attempt to gap them to .028" or so (even though the box says not to)? Or should I just go get the damn LFR7AIX plugs?

I am having some doubts about putting in these plugs now. I couldn't find my wire gapper so I went and got one of those cheap round gappers at Oreilly (all they had). According to the gapper I got these plugs all came pre-gapped to .020... So for starters I don't trust this gap gauge, but also am worried that these plugs may not be the best. NGK website does not list a gap size for these plugs but states that you should not gap them. And if I go get a decent wire gapper now the car will be hot again... I think I will just wait till next friday when I have off and time to fix it if they don't work right.

From what I can tell the ILFR7H are simlply longer life versions of the LFR7AIX. The dimensions all match the stock spark plugs but these are one step colder. I am sure that these will be just fine. In my experience the laser welded plugs are high quality and work well. They are btw the stock plugs for Evos according to the application finder on sparkplugs.com. That doesn't mean they won't work on our cars.

Yeah, I'll look into it a little more. Hopefully they work. Will be pissed if they don't.