Changing the spark plugs without taking off wiper blades on 2010 Prius.

Welcome to Prius Chat .

The time required to remove the windshield wiper cowling is about 15 minutes. How long would it take to jack up the Prius and do what you’re suggesting?

While the clips can be a bit fiddly, it is still easier than dropping the engine down.

Good luck with your plug swap .

 

Assuming you have a floor jack and 2 stands, it would take about 2 minutes to jack the car up and put jack stands under each side, no? Has anyone tried this I wonder? I don't have new plugs yet, but may try when I get them.

 

While the jacking of the car is a short period of time, the associated tasks would extend the job time.

 

Jacking up the front of car and putting it on safety stands does not change the engine to cowl clearance. I think cowl removal is the only way to go. Have you watched @NutzAboutBolts video on this? It's a doozie, but the only way.

 

You guys are all correct, jacking up the front end does NOT increase the cowl clearance! I figured out how StanleyCip and one other guy on the Youtube videos were able to remove the coil packs though without removing all that stuff on their Gen3s. They appear to have a different shallower cowl, and no sound insulation over the engine. Perhaps they have the elusive Prius 1? Not sure, but I did indeed have remove all the stuff on our Prius 2010 to do the spark plugs. Went fine, but crazy dumb to have to do all this just to change plugs! The good news is that it's not often required, mine had 133k on it and the plugs really didn't look too bad!

 

That rings a bell: there was another thread, same subject. Someone posted pics, and it was as you said, the cowl and/or insulation was different, more clearance. Japan spec maybe??

 

There was a mysterious thread where somebody wondered what was all the fuss about getting to the spark plugs, who turned out to be driving a RHD Prius. On further inspection, it turned out the RHD model actually doesn't have the big double-jointed windshield wiper (why? I thought that was supposed to be needed for wiping a bigger arc of the windshield, surely RHD doesn't change that? beats me), and the cowl is way shallower without it.