Yep thats the way to get it out! neg terminal first and tuck it out of the way. Good advice about water in the plug wells, especially no 1, front of car is no 1,it fills with water and eventually the water can capilary up the rubber boot and short that plug. This has a strange effect on the start cycle. Also take your plugs out every year and check/clean them. I know there are arguments re applying anti seize to the threads but do! use the alloy version rather than the copper slip as the copper can degrade the alloy threads in the head. Or use a graphite grease as there will be some graphite lube left even after the lube element has been burnt off. A previously fitted plug needs only hand/wrist pressure to tighten and a new plug you will feel the crush washer collapse and then a couple of degree's. Yep the duratec has tapered seats, just added this for those who are reading this and have the other type! If you are not sure use the advised torque setting which is very low so don't go cranking them up tight with your 1/2" ratchet wrench!
Spark plugs, well I've tried the fancy and expensive iridium plugs and the copper core..... v...cheap and quite frankly there's no performance difference and although they are supposed to exceed 100,000 miles they don't fare well in the duratec head so I change out the copper set every year and I find that the best way to go. Each to their own but when you've seen how the old plugs look when removed I'd rather be sure I'm on new plugs.
Fly by wire throttles usually have three positional potentiometers and if you get throttle issues it can be a dodgy one of those. Older variants can just have two fitted, not sure where the GDi is here but two can give strange throttle variations especially on start up.
Thank you Sewin, all well and duly noted. I plan to pull at least plug #1 to see if water has flooded the "valley of death" and caused corrosion. Any guidance as to specific plugs (model numbers, etc) in the event replacement is required? (Sorry if a silly question -- I haven't changed a plug since fussing around with a Honda mini bike 45 years ago...)
