I'm going to replace the plugs and wires in my 2000 this coming weekend. Other than an oil change, this will be the first time turning a wrench on the car. How tough is it to change the plugs? I've heard easy and diffucult opinions on the job.

Would it make any sense to clean the throttle body while I'm inder the hood? Any other thing I could be doing? The car has 49K miles and I doubt much has been done to it.

 

If ya got some what small hands, then the plug change should go well without and special attachments.. I didn't have to remove anything or get any special wrench attachments, besides the usual extensions.....

Oil change.

Possible diff oil change, changed mine at 20,500mi and the oil was black as tar.........

Check wheel alignment.

Possible replace headlamps bulbs, our headlights are bad enough, add in the aging of the bulbs and the natural tendencies for lamps to get less bright over time, you might be in for a surprise with just a standard bulb change......

 

The spark plug change isn't too bad. #7 (Drivers side rear) is a pain to get to if you have big hands but have patience. Put some anti-seize on the threads of the new plugs before you install them.

You can clean the throttle body if you want to; I doubt if it's necessary at 49K. Sea Foam deep creep works well for this.

You might consider seafoaming your car before you change the oil to get all the carbon out of your motor. Pour a bottle of sea foam into your gas tank pour 1/2 bottle into your crankcase and suck the other half of that can into the top of your block via the PCV line on the front passenger side of the motor. Tip: jam a funnel into the pcv line and pour 2/3 of the half bottle of sea foam in VERY slowly so you don't stall your motor. When you get to the last third pour it in fast; you want to stall your motor on purpose by flooding it so that the fluid can soak your block. If it doesn't stall out run around and turn your key off quickly (or just have someone else sitting in the car in case). Then let your car soak for at least 45 minutes (a couple hours is better) and start her up and watch the smoke show. Change your oil within 50 - 200 miles of adding sea foam to your crank case (so doing this right before an oil change is ideal).

Trans and diff fluid are pretty easy to change and will make a noticeable difference in the way the car drives.

If you have a manual trans bleed your clutch. If you have a remote bleeder line installed do it that way (the right way) or if you don't you can use the Ranger Method (run a search for this). You cannot bleed your clutch via the bleeder valve on the slave cylinder without dropping the drivetrain which is a huge amount of work...

You could also bleed your brake fluid at this point if you're looking for something to do. The proper bleed order on 97-00 C5's is: RR, LR, RF, LF. Investing in a motive power bleeder (about $60) is a great idea if you're going to do this.

If you're going to change headlight bulbs take a dremel and modify your bulb housing (very slight change and easy to do) so that a 9005 bulb will fit in there instead of a 9006. You won't believe how big a difference this makes in light output.

Run a search on all the items above; there is plenty of info on all of them on this forum.

 

Thanks guys