No guts, no glory! I wrestled all the complete brake parts onto all 4 corners of my car a month ago. My ribs hurt for 3 days and the little cuts on my hands took 2 weeks to heal, but “oh!” what a feeling of satisfaction on week three! I’m resisting getting older with all the power I can muster for as long as possible.
CSA 
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You and me both. But you’re way ahead of me, and I salute you.
As a former dealer mechanic I’m going to disagree with the premise that all dealer mechanics are gougers, know less than the independents, and that they’re always higher priced. Not always. There’s too much generalizing going on.
As a former dealer mechanic I can unequivocally state that dealer mechanics constantly run into issues caused by independents and DIYers. There’s a lot of WTH were they thinking incidents…
As for the plugs mentioned in the topic an independent should not have a problem with a job like this.
Some other jobs; maybe there will be a problem.
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My Bad
Brake jobs are not a problem. I’m not crawling under the car. In fact I just did TWO brake jobs in the past month. Rear brakes on my HL and all 4 pads on my sons Mazda-3.
It’s the crawling on a creeper or on the concrete for any length of time I hate.
Not a problem, Mike… Life is good, I’m totally gruntled!
I’m glad I’m not the only nerd who uses the word “gruntled” in conversation. 
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OK, the dealer sent a flyer with a coupon that takes fifty dollars off the cost of the plug change. The new price will be about $410 + tax.
The engine is running well. Gas mileage is normal. The car (2011 Toyota Venza) has gone about 85K miles, and the last two years I’ve driven only about 4K miles a year (no daily commute).
Before I have the plugs changed, I’m wondering:
- Will the plugs seize if I leave them in too long?
- Could one of them break, with pieces falling into its cylinder?
I’m a believer in preventive maintenance, but also in IIABDFI.
If it were your car, would you change the plugs now, or wait until 100K miles?
They can seize, yes, but in my experience it’s pretty rare for them to do so if you change them right around 100k miles or when your owner’s manual says to (in your case, 120,000 miles), whichever comes first.
Yes, spark plugs do sometimes break and send pieces into the cylinder, but if you’re worried that the mechanic will break it, that’s not a huge concern. They remove spark plugs a lot and are usually pretty good at not breaking them, and if they do break it and cause damage inside your engine, they’re on the hook for that, not you.
If it were my car, I would wait until 100,000 miles.
If it were my vehicle I would wait until 150,000 miles to replace the spark plugs. I have removed spark plugs from hundreds of Toyota 2GR engines, they don’t get stuck, break, wear out, misfire etc.
At 4,000 mile per year it will be 8.75 years before your vehicle reaches 120,000 miles when the spark plugs should be replaced, will you still own this vehicle then?
1 Like
Nevada, you’re the guy I was hoping to hear from, one who’s got tons of experience with my situation. You’ve saved me four hundred bucks. Many thanks.
Shadowfax, thanks for your input too. Useful, as always.