Spark Plugs And Ignition Coil Please Help Me!

[L.E.X.U.S.]

I own a 2000 es 300, recently my car has been shaking rapidly whenever i am idling or come to a complete stop, also it make a puttering noise when i accelerate. I took my car to the local Lexus Dealership and they did a diagnostic test on it, and said that my 5th spark plug is bad and the ignition coil is too. They wanted to charge me $600!! to fix it. I figured I would do it myself, i found the front three spark plugs, but i cant find the back three. Also, im not 100% sure how to change the ignition coil. If anyone has unfortunately ran into this problem and knows how to fix it, please help me.

Thanks a lot!,

Chris

[George_Jetson]

Right at the top of the page is a sticky for service manuals. It would probably help to download one. But basically as you can see, the front bank is very easy to access, the rear bank is located under the intake manifold plenum

[homemechanic]

if the mechanic is changing out all six spark plugs and ALL six ignition coils for $600 total, that's not bad at all.

Coils = $60 each + tax

Plugs = $7 each + tax

looking at 1.0 to 1.5 hours of labor

i had the same problem 2 months ago. an ignition coil went bad. i decided to change out all six, just like you would change the spark plugs.

[yeskay]

how did they diagnose that the 5th coil and sparkplug is bad? i would recommed buying the oem part and get any automechanic to install since the rear plugs aren't easy and may require special extensions.

[homemechanic]

took me 1.5 hours last time to do plugs and coils. . . i was a bit slow anyway

coils from Autozone = $60/each + tax. . they are Denso stuff . .OEM

the back probably took the majority of the time .

buy a full set of extension before you start the job. you sort of need to figure out which extension to use as you go along.

[L.E.X.U.S.]

if the mechanic is changing out all six spark plugs and ALL six ignition coils for $600 total, that's not bad at all.

Coils = $60 each + tax

Plugs = $7 each + tax

looking at 1.0 to 1.5 hours of labor

i had the same problem 2 months ago. an ignition coil went bad. i decided to change out all six, just like you would change the spark plugs.

Its only the 5th ignition coil that's bad so that's the only one they would be changing, if it was all 6 then i would definitely have it done for $600. Did you do it yourself when you did yours?

[L.E.X.U.S.]

took me 1.5 hours last time to do plugs and coils. . . i was a bit slow anyway

coils from Autozone = $60/each + tax. . they are Denso stuff . .OEM

the back probably took the majority of the time .

buy a full set of extension before you start the job. you sort of need to figure out which extension to use as you go along.

thanks for the advice! to be honest i cant even find the back three spark plugs.....do you know where they are located?

[yeskay]

plug 5 is to the right side at the back if you stand in front of the car. if you haven't replaced a spark plug before i suggest using any auto mechanic for a nominal fee. it is possible you might trip into the fuel injector connections while reaching/replacing the back plugs.

[homemechanic]

Ok. . $600 to troubleshoot and replace a coil is definitely a rip off. I would file a complaint w/the Bureau of Automotive Repair or something similar in your state.

Here is a scenario at a Lexus dealer with the most expensive labor in the US (the West Coast)

Troubleshooting - Diagnostic (1.0 hour labor) = $170

Replace ONE coil (0.5 hour, but they round the time up to an hour) = $170

A new coil = $100 (at the very most)

total= $440 and this is the worse case. Most of the time they wouldn't even charge you the labor for coil replacement. One hour is probably sufficient to troubleshoot w/a scanner and replace the coil.

[L.E.X.U.S.]

Ok. . $600 to troubleshoot and replace a coil is definitely a rip off. I would file a complaint w/the Bureau of Automotive Repair or something similar in your state.

Here is a scenario at a Lexus dealer with the most expensive labor in the US (the West Coast)

Troubleshooting - Diagnostic (1.0 hour labor) = $170

Replace ONE coil (0.5 hour, but they round the time up to an hour) = $170

A new coil = $100 (at the very most)

total= $440 and this is the worse case. Most of the time they wouldn't even charge you the labor for coil replacement. One hour is probably sufficient to troubleshoot w/a scanner and replace the coil.

yeah i was shocked when they told me $600...but i fixed it yesterday and it came out to a total of about $300 it wasn't that hard to do, it was just hard to get to the back plugs.

[jcatlanta]

yea I just did the same thing to my car. Replaced all spark plugs plus coils 2 and 3 after the sensor reported misfiring within those banks. But for some reason, the sputtering and jerky vibration at idle still continutes on top of it hitting 3500+ rpm when driving at 70-80mph. Any suggestions?

[MAKS]

I ran into the same problem with my 2000 LEXUS ES 300. The local car service center gave quote for $1200 for changing the coil and sparkplugs. On seeing your thread, it looks like they quoted $600. May I know which location you were changing it. I am from Thousand Oaks, CA.

Please help me.