How to Replace Spark Plugs 2003-12 Toyota Matrix

Okay friends, one of the first things we need to do is get under the hood. Once you're under the hood, just make sure it's not super hot because we don't want to deal with a hot engine. Go ahead and remove this cover right here by removing your 2 10-millimeter headed nuts. Okay, there should be one right here, ours is missing. Go ahead and carefully lift that up and set it aside.

Awesome. Now that the cover is off we have a clear view of our ignition coil harness right here. We need to go ahead and squeeze on this tab right here and try to draw it off. If you can't squeeze hard enough, go ahead and use a pocket screwdriver, come right underneath this ear, carefully lift it, and then draw this away. Every time I remove an electrical connector, I always look to see if there's any funny colors, if there is it's probably corrosion and that's going to cause restriction. This looks good. Let's set it aside.

The next thing we're gonna do is remove our 10-millimeter head bolt right here. Set that aside as well. Go ahead and grab onto the coil, twist, and lift. Underneath where that coil was is where you gonna find your spark plug. You gonna need a 5/8 socket that looks like this and you want to make sure that it's a spark plug socket, the spark plug socket's going to have a little rubber gasket in there and it's gonna hold the spark plug. Go ahead and put it right down in there, turn it counterclockwise and remove the spark plug. There it is, friends.

Now that we have the spark plug out, I always like to take a peek right along the electrode area just to make sure there isn't any buildup. If there's buildup that could indicate that there's an issue going on inside the engine. This one actually looks pretty good. Now it's gonna be time to install our brand new spark plug. Go ahead and put it into your spark plug socket. Make sure it doesn't fall out. The last thing you want is for it to fall out and potentially damage the electrode area. Go ahead and carefully put it down in here. And you always want to start this in by hand. Go ahead and screw it all the way until the bottoms out. Now we gonna go ahead and make sure we torque this down. Has a crush gasket on it and you want to torque this to exactly 13-foot-pounds. To install the coil, I always like to put a little bit of dielectric grease right down inside this area here. It's going to keep the moisture away and of course along this area right there, also to keep the moisture away. Right in there. Along here. You don't need very much. Go ahead and set that down on there and press it down onto the spark plug. Let's put our bolt in there. I always want to start these in by hand of course. Now snug it up. Just bottom it out. Give it a teeny bit more. That's good. If you want to use a little bit of dielectric grease inside of your connector, we'll call it your prerogative. Aside from that, go ahead and press it on, listen for a click. Give it a nice tug, make sure it's secure. We would just do the same down the line. Now when you get down to this portion of this, you're probably gonna see that these black pieces in the way. There's a 10-millimeter bolt here and a 10-millimeter headed nut right there. We're gonna remove the pair of those and then you can lift this up and out of the way.

All right, now that we have everything nice and securely connected, we have this back on there as it should be, let's go ahead and put this cover back on. Line up the holes with the studs coming off your engine. Put on your nut, and then of course snug it up. Do the same to the other one if you have one. Okay, friends, the next thing that we need to do is carefully start up the vehicle. We're gonna come right back out here and we're gonna watch the engine. Make sure it's not shaking around. If it's shaking around, you have a misfire, there's a possibility that maybe you didn't plug something in. Aside from that, shut the hood, hop back in the vehicle, make sure there's no check engine light, and take it for a road test.