I'm not 19 anymore....

7:50 am - Thursday - May 11th - LPG&RVR - 41° F, 74% humidity, wind 0 mph out of the northwest....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2015 I rode my bicycle from South Lake Tahoe up to the Emerald Bay Vista Point at Lake Tahoe......↴

I've had the new NGK spark plugs for the VW for about 2 months now, and the new OEM Bosch ignition coils for about 2 weeks, so why am I procrastinating?  The weather Wednesday was ideal....sunny, and windless, so I thought why not raise that VW hood and get dirty.  In order to get at coils 1 & 2 I must remove four screws holding a bracket which sits on top of them.  Coils 3 & 4 can be accessed without removing anything.  I always start with a few tools which I believe I'll need to get the job done, and end up with a dozen, or so before the job is done....

.....to get at the spark plugs you must first remove the ignition coil which connects to the top of the spark plug, then, using a socket wrench, remove the old spark plug.  That was the easy part.  I then gapped the new NGK plug to .040, then screwed it into the #1 cylinder head.  Again, that was easy.  What was hard, and took me the better part of 45 minutes to accomplish, was to detach the socket from the new NGK spark plug.  There is this little rubber washer in the socket which grips the top of the spark plug so you can insert it down the deep hole, into which your big fingers will not fit.....

....each time I tried to detach the socket from the spark plug the extension would pull out of the socket before the socket would release.  I tried several different extensions hoping one would have a tight enough fit to pull out the socket, but was unsuccessful every single time.  Finally, it occurred to me that I should coat the rubber washer inside the socket with some 3 IN ONE oil, and that did the trick.  Once I figured out the solution to the problem the rest of the job went pretty routinely....

Half way done

All four spark plugs and coils installed

The OEM Bosch coil

....after installing the final plug, and coil I foolishly put everything back together before starting the engine to be sure all was working as it should.  My arrogance was soon rewarded when I turned on the engine and heard it misfiring....doh!  Was the 'Hockwald Way' about to intervene and abort what seemed to be a successful job?

With my tail tucked between my legs I opened the hood up, and once again removed that bracket which sits on top of coils 1 & 2, and began to check the plugs on each coil to be sure each was properly seated, and quickly found two which were not completely seated, so I made sure I heard the positive click this time, and then before putting everything back together, started the engine....SUCCESS!  No misfire, and idling smoothly, just as it should.  When will I ever learn?

Once I put everything back together, I turned my attention to the pile of boxes, old coils, shop towels, and spark plugs.....

....gathered everything up, and threw it all away.  Way back when I watched the YouTube video on how to change out the ignition coils the producer mentioned he had tried after market coils, but found they failed after a month, or so, and he recommended that OEM Bosch coils be used to avoid having to do the job more than once.  I wanted to get the bad coils replaced quickly, and bought whatever aftermarket coils were available at NAPA, and as you know, had one of the two coils I replaced a few months ago fail.  When that happened I was determined to find some OEM Bosch coils, which I did on eBay a couple of weeks ago.  They're about three times more expensive, but I hope will outlive me.  The original Bosch coils went over 178,000 miles before beginning to fail. Lesson learned....learn from those who have gone before you!

I guess I spent 2-3 hours in all taking care of this task...all I know is when I went inside to clean up it was approaching 12:30 pm, and time for lunch.

TLE and I took another of our 2 mile out and back walks improving our mph to 3.5, and covering the 2.03 miles in just over 37 minutes this time.....

....the rest of the afternoon passed quickly, and it was time to turn on the Sea-B-Que to grill some chicken thighs for our first outdoor dinner in 10 days, or so.  The clouds passing overhead were beautiful.....

......while we were eating I got a Facebook notification that the wife of a good high school friend had passed.  Both Susie and Randy were good friends, and I will always remember Susie from the last time I saw her in the late 90's....so healthy and vibrant.  Of course that was 25 years ago, and many of my high school mates have passed into the next life over that time.  It was kind of sobering to read the news, and really hit me hard.  Another stark reminder that I'm not 19 anymore....I'm almost 74 now, and my time on earth is finite.  I sometimes think about who will pass first....TLE, or me.  I wonder, briefly, on occasion what my life will be like without her...I really don't like to think on that too long.

Thanks for stopping by!