How to Replace Spark Plugs 2000-04 Ford Focus

Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

In this video, I'm going to show you how to replace spark plugs in this 2001 Ford Focus. First thing we're going to do is remove the spark plug boot that goes next to the wire to the plug. So you just grab this, pull up on this, and this is a sealed system. In here, the valve cover kind of seals, but there is still some dirt in there where the plug is, so I am going to use some compressed air and clean out the dirt, because we don't want any of that falling into the cylinder when we're doing this job.

I'm going to take my spark plug socket—it's a 5/8" spark plug socket. There's a little rubber grommet in there that actually holds the spark plug in, and I'll use an extension and a ratchet. We'll remove this one. Once you loosen it, you can generally do it by hand. I'll pull it out. There's a new plug.

You want to keep in mind that when you're looking at these plugs. You want to compare the lengths of them. So the fact that this plug has more threads doesn't really matter, because the base of the plug is right there at that lip. So that lip and that lip line up with the plug, which is good. The other thing you want to do, is generally the plugs come pre-gapped, but we're going to double check them.

Take a gapper here, and the plug gap on this is .05 inches, so that is right there. That's good. You can also, if you don't know where the gap is, check under the hood. Generally there's a tag, and it says where the spark plug gap is. This is 1.3mm, which ends up being .05 inches.

And we're going to install that plug into the socket, and see it won't fall. Slide it into the hole carefully. Start tightening it up, and we're going to snug it up with the ratchet. Once that's snug, I can torque it with the torque wrench.

We actually sell these torque wrenches at 1AAuto.com, and I'm going to torque these plugs to 11 foot-pounds and pull the socket out. You can reinstall the wire, just slide it on, push it down, and we'll move on to the next one. You'll do the same. Loosen this one up. One thing we forgot, just want to double check and see if there's any debris in there. I'll take my blow gun, and just blow it out. Get some of the dirt out of the way, pull the plug out, and install the new plug.

I already pre-gapped these. Snug this one down. It's snug so now we'll torque it to 11 foot-pounds and reinstall this number 2 wire. Go on to number 3, pull that one up, get the compressed air, blow it in there, take our plug socket and extension and our ratchet, and pull this one out.

Keep in mind you can look at the plug. This plug's actually got some oil in it, so this valve cover is leaking a little bit into the plug area. That maybe we may need to address that. Also, you can check the plug and see if there's any oil on the plug or any fuel.

If it's extremely white, then it's burning coolant. It's black, you'll be burning oil. Looks good right there. Install this plug. Snug that up and we'll torque it to 11 foot pounds. Looks good.

Install the number 3 wire, and then pull out number 4. There's a bunch of debris in there, so I'll blow that out. Try not to let any in or there will be extra stuff getting in your way.

I want to remove this number 4 spark plug, and as you can see there's still oil on this plug just like the other one. That's coming from the valve cover gasket.

Install the new plug, this one is gapped as well, snug this down, snug. Torque this one to 11 foot-pounds, that's good, and install spark plug wire number 4. You're good to go.

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