DIY spark plug replacement

They say "Necessity is the mother of all invention", perhaps Necessity had another child named "DIY"!

In spite of being somewhat of a "car-guy", I must admit I don't have much actual hands-on experience up to now, as most of the tinkering and mods are done by the professionals, of who I make a quick shout out below:-

- Desmond's team @ KL Auto (and various subcontractors) - just about everything else

- Leon's team @ Quicksave - tires and rims

- David Low @ Melaka - our trusted family mechanic for standard services and repairs

- GS Tay Honda Muar - where my Honda Civic gets preventive maintenance work done (in spite of being well over the warranty period)

Now, back to the story....

I noticed that one of my cars was getting harder and harder to start, and lately, the engine sputters and dies off. This was happening at an increasing frequency (which was alarming and down-right dangerous). The first time this happened, I checked my ignition cables, and found that one of them was badly damaged, to the point where the inner copper core was visible. At this point, I would not risk driving any long distance until I fixed the problem. Not good - but fortunately, Desmond has a spare set and DHL-ed it to me. Changing the cables was fairly easy and straight forward. Of course, in order to avoid connecting the wrong cable to the wrong spark plug, do change one cable at a time, as I did.

Now, this time round, the cables were still good, but the familiar symptoms began to recur. As it was again risky to drive up to KL Auto for a check, plus we're in the middle of the MCO (Movement Control Order) lock-down, I figured out that it could be the spark plugs instead. Hopefully....

This time round, I tried something different. After extensive checking on spark plugs (believe me, there are many variations out there depending on your car, so getting the wrong ones would be disastrous), I ordered some through Shopee and waited patiently for them to arrive. A good thing that online shopping still worked, though the courier service was a little slow given the current circumstances.

When the parts finally arrived, I got out my tools and popped the hood. Though the procedure was easy, this was the first time I ever did it myself. Having taken out the first plug, I noticed 2 things. Firstly, the tip of the spark plug electrode was almost worn out completely. Instead of a cylindrical shape, the old plug was now resembling a concave cone (like the back side of a Herschey's Kisses chocolate). Secondly, from the screw threads right to the tip, the plug was blackened. This indicated that there could be something else wrong besides the plugs. Take a look at the photo below - the old one is on the left, next to the new one on the right.

Anyway, I managed to swap the old plugs out and screw in the new ones in under 15 minutes - being very careful to screw in the plugs so I won't damage the threads and also risk under / over tightening them.

Once done, I turned the key to on and then fired her up. I was extremely relieved that the engine came on and idled smoothly once again. My first DIY spark plug replacement successfully executed!

Though I knew there's more to fix than I could DIY, at least I got her up and running again. Will plan a trip down to KL Auto as soon as this MCO is lifted so the experts could take a look.