Cylinder, coil pack or ignition cables?

[Burnerman]

As far as I know, the 5/8" size refers to American sizes......it will be around 15mm metric wise so it will still remove your plug.
You need a 14mm deep drive, thin wall socket - and a magnetic one pays dividends!
John

 

[timbook]

Thanks John. I'm a bit confused though. It really looks as though the 14mm socket won't get into the plug bay, even if it has a thin wall. The magnetic ones are a bit expensive. Maybe when I change my car I can get one of those. I was hoping to change car early in the new year. So we'll see.

 

[timbook]

Tried a thin walled Wrench. Still can't get the old plug out. Don't know if it's seized as it just seems to pierce and kill the rubber inside the wrenches. I've gone through 3 now with no luck. I'll either need to drop it in to be done or if I buy a magnetic wrench, will that work?

 

[Burnerman]

Are you definitely using the correct socket, Tim? Can you try it on one of the other plugs?
John

 

[timbook]

It worked twice before with the same size socket. The thing that is confusing me is that the 14mm normal sized socket, which is too wide in diameter to get into the plug bay is what the shops want to sell me when I tell them my car model and what plugs I use. And if I take a new plug and place it into the 14mm socket, the socket wraps perfectly around the metal 'hex shaped nut' part of the socket. But strangely, it was the smaller end of the sockets that I used previously, to remove the plug. They never reached around the hex part of the plug, but rather the rubber wrapped around the outer part of the plug and gripped it. I put new plugs in the same way.
So when I bought the thin walled plug, it wasn't wide enough to wrap around the hex part of the plug at all, but it was acting in the same way the older sockets did. Rubber grabbing the end of the plug and gripping it that way. Never reaching the metal hex nut. So I'm not sure now if the plug is seized or what to do in general!

 

[Burnerman]

Most bizarre! Just check out Laser Tools 4376 will you.....I probably didn't mention it before, but modern engines need 3/8" drive gear to get the plugs out - 1/2" stuff is just too bulky.
Its impossible to say if the plug is seized, but I'd doubt it - and if it was slack then there would be a pool of oil in the plug well.
I have noticed on some twin OHC engines that the plug hole isn't absolutely concentric with the plug itself - that's usually due to machining discrepancies between the rocker cover and the cylinder head, and maybe yours is similar. In my early days I ground down a socket for this very reason, and I think that was for the early Ford Zetec lump.
John

 

[timbook]

Thanks John. That tool looks interesting in that it can 'grab' the plug too. Might well be the answer!