Plugs at 128K

No, not my car. Jesse's '05 Prius. This afteroon we changed his
transaxle fluid and spark plugs.
.
The transaxle fluid change was pretty straightforward, and what
came out still had enough pink in it that we figured it must have
been done at least once in the past and it probably wasn't worth
bothering to send in for analysis. Not like his previous car!
Three and a little over half quarts of WS back in, check level
at the hole, and that was just about right.
.
We've all heard the warnings about plugs freezing into the head
via dry metal-to-metal contact in the threads and being very
difficult to remove by 100K if they never have before. With a
certain amount of trepidation, I braced myself and started applying
wrench. I could tell within the first few degrees of motion that
they were quite dry, and carefully worked them back and forth a
little, almost like you do when tapping threads in a machine
shop, just to make sure they wouldn't gall. I gradually worked
them a little farther out on each swing, until it felt like they
were turning more freely. All of them underwent this gentle
treatment and all came out fine. The new plugs went in with a
touch of anti-seize so they'll be much easier next time.
.
The wear on the electrodes of the old plugs is sort of interesting.
All four look exactly the same, and while the 'trodes have
clearly worn down a little they aren't in completely decrepit
shape. I'll do some pictures later; the camera's at the factory
repair center getting its zoom return spring fixed for the
*second* time because Ritz screwed it up on the first attempt.
Mini-moral: don't trust anyone but Canon themselves on that
sort of thing, as third-party camera shop repair facilities
employ bozos and take three times as long on the job.
.
This is the first time I went after plugs without removing the
whole cowl above, and while I couldn't see down the holes it's
clear that there's *just* enough room to get a standard mid-length
extender down there with the plug socket and use it to draw out
the plug and tilt the whole mess out just past the edge of the
cowl. Like it was all designed that way, or something.
.
_H*