BEST WAY TO USE THE WEB FOR MAINTAINENCE AND TUNE UP SPECS:

Question #1:

The wife has a 2014 RAV4. My calender says that I need to inspect and (possibly) change the spark plugs.

So....I go to Google and type in: 2014 RAV4 spark plug gap and installation torque.........and I get a ton of ads, some wishy washy forum opinions, and some generic specs from spark plug manufacturers. I tweak the entry for different search engines and Youtube. Nothing useful.

I ended up going to the Library, and retrieving the info from Alldata.

What would the hive do in this situation?

Question #2:

From past experience: (215 Aluminum Buicks), I do not believe that 70K miles or more is a useful change interval for spark plugs. I am currently inspecting plugs every 2 years/24K miles. Does anyone else use a shortened inspection/change interval? What interval do you use, and why?

Thanks to all,

Rog

I use....  whenever the car throws a code for misfires.

I was under the impression that plugs were supposed to last around 100 k as part of the emmissions system controls.

If talking about rotary (I know you're not), then throw this put the window and replace them every 10 starts.  Haha!

2007 rav4..  120K miles on it..  Burns 1-1.5 qt's of oil per 1k miles.  Still on original plugs..  No codes thrown by misfire.. no change plugs.

Best source of info I've found on these cars is rav4world.com 

1) Get yourself an ad blocker.

2) Plugs are cheap, changing them certainly won't hurt.

100k miles is pretty normal these days.  You are far more likely to crack an insulator than you are to find anything weird by checking them every 24,000. 

Would the RAV4 owner's manual have spark plug information?  I imagine these days you have to download that as well, but at least any information in it would be right from the horse's mouth.

https://techinfo.toyota.com Pay the fee, download everything.

Plug gap is usually on the emissions sticker under the hood. Or, ask the parts store when you buy the plugs. The specs are usually in their computer. 

Torque is as tight as I can get it with 3 fingers. Use anti seize. 

I change them when they start to misfire or never, whichever comes first. Modern cars with modern plugs don't need to be changed often. I don't inspect, gap, or clean them. Ever.

I usually replace them at 100k miles except on my track car.  On my track car I usually replace them every other season, that's usually driven as much by me having them out already for maintenance.

For opinions? Platform-specific web forum.

For facts? Factory service manual.

I started rebuilding the engine in my F150 without an FSM. Went nuts googling torque specs for every fastener, finding conflicting info and not knowing what was right.

Ordered an FSM, saved a ton of time and have no doubts about what I'm doing.

Thanks to all!

Gonna raise my inspection/change interval by 2x.

Rog

id be surprised if the spark plug gap wasnt called out in the specifications / service / maintenance section of the owners manual

If you’re using Google on a non-google browser, that could be part of the problem.  They change how they search based on which browser you have.

duckduckgo is a good alternative for Firefox/IE users.

manuals are still the best solution for a lot of this information, but often searching for the engine type instead of the vehicle can yield different or more positive results.

wvumtnbkr said:

I use....  whenever the car throws a code for misfires.

That's a good way to eat coils, though.

I was under the impression that plugs were supposed to last around 100 k as part of the emmissions system controls.

Not quite.  The service interval is generally "X miles or as needed, whichever comes first".  Have replaced plenty of platinums at 70-80k due to the gap being too wide to reliably fire.