This past weekend I did my first spark plug change on my CTTS. The existing plugs, the factory Beru plugs, had about 32,000 miles on them. Since spark plug technology has evolved since the early 2000's, when the Cayenne Turbo was developed, I thought I'd give a more modern plugs a try and went with the NGK Iridium iX plugs in one heat range colder.


The good news was that all cylinders were burning quite cleanly on an engine that just passed the 100,000 mile marker :





It's interesting to see the deposits, though, that build up on the plugs after 30,000 miles of use. The shop manual specifies 40,000 miles as the change interval, but these were ready for replacement:



Beru makes a couple of small tools that I found very useful in doing the work. The first is a wrench locating tool that keeps the spark plug wrench properly centered in the spark plug holes in the cylinder head so you don't accidentally break the plug:





The other useful Beru tool is one that enables you to easily insert and start threading the new plugs. You slide one end of it onto the plug and start threading it until it's ready to be torqued.





The one thing that was typical in working on the Cayenne, but frustrating nonetheless, is just how much disassembly you must do to perform fairly simple maintenance tasks. For the plugs, we're talking about de-mounting the secondary air pumps, the design covers, the torque arm and its bracket, and so forth. Just so you can access the plugs. Still, well worth doing your own plugs to make sure they're done right and correctly torqued.

One last note: the "020" version of the coils that were installed almost two years ago are still going strong. No signs of any cracking whatsoever on visual inspection. I might do a preventative refresh during the next plug change, but it certainly was not necessary this time.


So anyway, nice to have the engine purring like a happy kitty again. So smooth.

 

Yeah, it's a pain. I ended up actually breaking one of my covers. But it's the one all the way in the back on the passenger side. When I went to dyno the car that actually made it easier to get to the plug wire to hook the dyno up. And since it's under the air pump you can't even see it.

Good job!!

 

Yeah, you really have to fiddle with the passenger side design cover to squeeze it under the air pump bracket while threading it through the torque arm bracket to get it back in place after you're done and buttoning things up. It took me a few attempts, but I finally got it back in place without cracking it.

 

Oh, and as for helpful tools for changing the plugs, I bought a magnetic spark plug socket years ago for working on my 308. It works great but it looks like the tools you found are easy too.