I certainly appreciate the write-up on the plug change, certainly made the job go quicker! I am by no means a stranger to tools and an engine compartment, but this is the first 'major' engine maintenance I have really done in the 8 years/92K miles I have owned my car. I was having fits of misfiring whenever my car would sit for a day when it was cold and damp. The misfires would last anywhere from a few seconds to a couple minutes, so I knew I was in need of new plugs at a minimum.
I purchased up a set of Autolite Double Platinum plugs (APP3924) and a set of Napa Belden Edge wires (BEL 700063) and hit the garage. From my experience on my 2.5i there is no need to move the fuse box, plenty of clearance using (2) 3" extensions getting down and pulling back out. Taking my time and sopping out oil from two of the plug tubes it was ~1.5hrs, not too bad for a first time. Two of the spark plugs were shot pretty good as can be seen below. Measured gap was .085" on #1 & #4, while the gap was .046" on #2 & #3, kind of strange, but the way it was. I gapped the new plugs to .039", down from the .045" they came out of the package with. Little bit of anti-seize on the threads and in they went.
I checked the resistance on the original wires and compared to the new units, there was a slight improvement on the new units, as expected. The longer, driver side original wires measured ~14Kohm vs ~10Kohm for the Napa units. The shorter, passenger side original wires measured ~10Kohm vs ~7Kohm for the Napa units. What was nice is the Napa wires were all numbered just like the OEM units, so it was virtually impossible to mess that up.
Car fired on the first turn and ran quite well. Glad someone mentioned it was 'normal' for the engine to die when coming to a stop. Mine did this every couple of stops for ~18 miles, then suddenly kicked back to a normal idle level, so I am guessing that was the ECU going through its relearning procedure. Been fine since.
Two of the four plug tube seals are obviously shot, but that project will have to wait for a later date at this time. I had a good 1" or so of oil at the bottom of tubes #2 & #3, while tubes for #1 & #4 were completely dry as evidenced in the pics below as well (i.e.- threads).