How to Change your Spark Plugs on Audi Q7, and save yourself some serious $
 

How to Change your Spark Plugs on Audi Q7, and save yourself some serious $ from the stealer.

1- This is how I did it, do it at your own risk, you need to be mechanically inclined and have lot of patience and time on your hand.

2- Make sure to set you light combination switch to the off position (0)

3- Remove Keys from ignition

4- Get a stool or a short ladder, you will need it to access the last 4 cylinders no matter how tall you are

5- You can either purchase the spark plugs removal tools for around $90 or improvise; you only get to do this once every 55K.

6- Make sure the engine is cool to the touch, otherwise don’t bother, wait till the morning.

Tools needed
1- Screw driver pick

2- Long zip tight x 2 (12 inches long at least)

3- Socket ranch with a long reach extension, and a spark plug socket (socket has a rubber sleeve to keep the plug in the socket as you remove it

4- A 4 feet long screw driver to help you to un-wedge the coil on cylinder 5 and 6, or anything long enough to give you leverage that you can slip underneath the plenum

5- Anti-seize thermal grease

6- Spark plug gapping tool

7- A set of NGK Iridium laser spark plugs with the proper heat range for your climate.

8- Shop light

9- Wd-40, or other cleaning solution, etc.

10- A friend to fetch you cold drinks ;-), since wife or significant other won’t allow you to grease the walls with the crud from you second love of your life (they still get jealous!!)

1- Remove the Coil plugs, look at the picture closely; you need to thread the pix in the proper top slot to release the plug. Otherwise you will break the coil plug and then end up going to the stealer anyways. Remove all 6 or 8 plugs so you get ready for phase II.

2- If you didn't purchase the coil removal tools, use the zip tights, slide one on the front of the coil and one of on the back of it

Pull firmly straight up, some will come right off, and some will be almost glued to the spark plug

3- Use a long screw driver to help loosen the rear coils, I wrapped the screw driver in scotch tape so it wouldn't dent the plenum or anything else, we just trying to get it lose and don’t want to damage anything else in the process

4- With Plugs and coils out of the way, it’s time to clean the cylinder hole before you pull the old plug. The cavity is deep and it most likely has accumulated debris over the 55K miles that the Q7 has been driven. You can use compressed air, or other non-water based cleaning agents if you would like. Remember we don’t want to get debris into the engine nor liquid pollutants at this point. I used WD-40 and wiped cleaned everything with a rag. I made sure the cylinder hole was shining before I attempted to un-thread the old spark plug.

All nice and clean

5- Un-thread and remove each spark plug, take your time and don’t overdo it, if they are too tight, drop couple of drops of synthetic engine oil into the cylinder hole use the same grade as what the engine is running so you don’t pollute what you have down there later on.

6- Lubricate the new plugs with Anti Seize grease, be generous but make sure you don’t get to much to foul the electrode, attach the new plugs firmly but don’t over tight them as you risk breaking them into the cylinder. Again we are trying to save the $750, and not pay them another $2000 for a screw up.

7- Clean or replace the coils before you reattach them, they are bound to be dirty if you washed your engine at the carwash; they also have a reputation of going bad screwing up your MPG. There’s a TSB for them, so if you under warranty see if you can get them swapped for free.

8- Plugs the coils back, clip the caps on, remove all tools and drinks from engine bay, and give it the old turnkey a try. Hopefully you double checked all cables were snugly in place and nothing was left lose. If you didn't break anything in the process you saved yourself a bundle. With no help it took me 2 hours all in all. Had I had a better coil removal tool it would have taken me less than an hour.

9- Next I did swap the air filters with K&N rechargeable filters and the cabin micro filter from amazon, took the Q7 to the dealer for an oil change and I marked my 55K done!

Nice post, but be careful with antisieze on plated spark plugs. It acts as a thread lubricant and can cause the installer to over tighten the plug. Here's a TSB regarding same from NGK: http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/pdf/tb-...1antisieze.pdf

21 ft. lbs worked for me. I used this since my brother's A4 and my A6 used the same spec.

Good TSB to know thanks! I don't torque the plugs at all as I had a bad experience many years ago with the then the new split-fire plugs which turned out to be a real downer. They were so cheaply made, the ceramic broke in half during installation on 2 of them in my old 300Z. One I had to drill out, wasn't fun.

Cheers.

Great DIY, but why didnt you just change your own oil?

Thanks :-)

The oil change is not worth the effort in my opinion, in my case the state inspection and yearly oil change are due at the same time, you couple that with a free 27 point inspection, ELSA code dump and a free car wash, it is a real bargain and an excuse to go look at the new models :-)

What's the size of the magnetic socket to pull the spark plug out? Is it 5/8 or .75?
Thanks

I believe Holley makes the APR ignition coils for our cars.

Anyone have info on these spark plugs for the S5? NGK R7437-8

NGK's catalog does not show 7437. The "-8" is likely for V8?

I search and got the plugs part number from: https://ngksparkplugs.com/en/part-finder
and then ordered on Rock Auto. You can google up a 5% discount code as well.