My brother in law was visiting, and he also has a 4runner (his is a 99). He told me that his 4runner wasn't running so well, so I suggested that we change the plugs and clean the throttle body. While changing the plugs, I noticed that there was a lot of resistance unscrewing them. Once the job was finished, I then noticed that 3 plugs were NGK and 3 were Denso; just the way the 4runner came from the factory. No wonder his 4runner was running rough. It went 131,000 miles on the original plugs! The old plugs looked really worn too. It's not all my brother in laws fault, though. He bought the truck used with 100,000 miles on it.

 

Check the timing belt, too!!! If they didn't replace the plugs, they likely didn't replace the timing belt.

 

He recently had the oil and air filter changed. His brakes need changing, though. I'm going to help him do that in 2 weeks. I'm sure his timing belt is the original. I did tell him to have that changed real soon; It's more work than I care to do. I hope it doesn't snap on him soon.

 

He needs to get all his fluids flushed and replaced.

 

I'd kill for a photo of the center electrodes on those plugs.
Mine were football shaped after 50,000 or so.
Kenny S>

 

thats a few to many miles on those plugs...I had a 96 mustang gt i bought of a family friend...car ran like crap a few months after i bought it...found the original plugs with 175K miles in the 4.6...the plug gaps were 2-3 times the original size. I got a pic some place....idiot

 

hehe mine when i changed the plugs i think they had like 70k miles on them still was runing good

 

i just changed mine, i dont think they have been changed for a while. The wires came out in a few pieces each.

I had noticed recently that my car ideas a tad rough, so i decided to change plugs and wires.

This is what my old ones looked like, and i think the worst part about it was pulling them out and reading champion on the side of the plug

They were gapped at .055 a little off from the .032 on the 2.7

 

I found Autolites in mine, the dealership put them in right before I bought it.

 

autolites??? toss them out and get ngk or denso.....

i ran over 60k miles with my factory plugs with no issues. i changed them bc i was getting nervous lol plus my idling wasnt great. fixed it right up. i need to replace mine soon again. coming up on 30k miles on the current OEM's

 

Had my factory plugs on my Celica (2000 GT) about a year ago, 137,540 on the factory OEM plugs. My milage had slipped some down to 33mpg around town. After, it went back up to 35 and I get around 38 on the highway ... now if I could only get my truck to get that kind of milage!

 

i tossed the autolites and put oem plugs back in it.

 

I just pulled the original plugs from my 01 with 148000 on them. worn but it still idled and drove great