Hi there

Wondering, does anyone have any instructions for changing a 1.6 petrol 1998/1999 spark plugs. (detailed). i took the engine covers off and the ontop of the engine is what appears to be a air flow pipes/air intake to the engine, with 4 tubes. All connected.

I have a hayens manual, but it nothing like the what I have, and yes the haynes is for the right modal.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

I'm going to second this post. I'm having exactly the same problem all the way down to the Haynes Manual being not much help.

Any help would really be appreciated!

Thanks

 

Hey guys,

I've only seen the newer year engines, but the "tube" on the newer engines is the separate coil for each cylinder, and the spark plug is at the bottom. Yours may be completely different, so don't mind me if that is the case.

If it is the coil, you have to be careful removing it in order to not break the attachment point. There is a special tool (cheap) at ECS Tuning to safely remove things.

 

as kgw stated, probably just the coils. I've got a 2000 A3 1.8T, very easy to change plugs. Just pop the cover, remove coils (wires first) and you're in. Found something for the 2.0T, its about the same just each coil induvidual for me.

http://oooo-a3.blogspot.com/2007/01/...placement.html

 

Thats not much good to be honnest and doesnt address the problem. On a normal a3 you would just pop the engine cover off then under it you have a black cover with one bolt. Under this are the leads under 4 2 screw attachments. This is not the case.

However I did mine yesterday. This is basically how to do it.

Take off both engine covers (big one and small)

Remove 2 screws connecting the two halfs of the air manifold (whcih are horizontal). On each site there are 2 plugs, lever there out with a screw driver.

Now on the bottom half of the manifold there are 2 nuts, undo these.

Then procede to undo the other 6 allan key bolts.

Get a flat head screw driver and place it between the top hald and bottom half of the manifold and gently prise them appart. (it was quite easy, but you just have to pop the clips)

Now the bottom half of the air manifold is free. It will have quite a few wires and pipes attached. I only removed 1 pipe and one wire. I did not remove the whole thing fully as I did not need to, just loosened it off. - however if you removed the whole thing it is easier to get to the plugs.

The spark plugs are attached to the wires with a silver cover on them (the spark plugs attachment). To take these off just pull them from the metal bit.

I started from right to left doing one at a time.

when removing the plugs make sure you hand screw them back in so you don't cross thread the engine cylinder.

I used bosh super 4 plugs. The only plug I had a problem with really was the second from the left, simply because I did not fully removed the manifold I found it hard to start threading it in due to lack of hand space.

Only do one plug at a time as each spark plug wire must go to the correct plug, otherwise it will screw up timings.

The whole process took me less then a hour and I had not done it before. If you are in the Guilford/surryt area Im happy to assist more.

 

first off,on the 1.6 engine,you only need to take off the engine covers and thats it,the sparks at cylinders 1 and 4 are handy to get to as they are sticking out at eirher end.

-remove heat shield by pulling up with a pliers(dont squeeze too hard incase you damage them) you can use a flathead screwdriver to lever them out from bottom if needs be.sparks at 2 and 3 are a bit awkward,but if you can do one you can do the other.

- you will need a 16mm deep reach socket to get at the spark and an extension bar for sake of ease,when doing 1,2 and 3 you will need a knuckle joint so you can manoeuvre around and undo the pllugs.

- use a hoover to clean out the bay so no dirt gets in!!clean the heat shields on inside and the leads on distrubutor cap(don't mix up what goes where)

-place new plugs in ang screw by hand until tight then use ratchet or torque wrench to finish them off.replace engine covers et voila.it took me about an hour and 10 mins as i didn't have a clue what i was doing.

 

Each model is different but I managed to do it without taking the inlet manifold off.
I have a 2004 A3 1.6 Petrol. Access to the spark plugs is very restricted. On other makes it may be non existent. The service history has no details of spark plugs ever being changed. Don’t know how spark plugs can last for over 10 years. I’ve had the car for 3 years and did not change due to restricted access.
Anyway, what you need is very slim and long pliers. The ones I used had a 45 degree bend on them. A 90 degrees bend on the end could be better. The HT leads have metal bases. They have a slim neck with a fatter top. Slide the pliers through the very narrow access gaps and pull on the Necks of the HT leads. Once off you should be able to slide in a spark plug socket to remove the plugs with a ratchet. You may have to use a bendable universal joint to help with the very restricted access.
With the right slim long pliers that have a bend on the end you can save yourself much time by not removing the inlet manifold section!