w7slr

OK, so I inherited a 2009 GT. It has 11k miles.

After reading about the plug issue, I am somewhat confused.

The label on the drivers head cover reads 9S-873-AA (which I thought meant old style)

The boots below the coils are all brown, and the coils are labeled as 8L3E (which I thought meant new style)

The door label says the car was built in 7/08

I do not know when the actual engine was manufactured.

Any suggestions as to what I have in there?

NJ3

The TSB states that if the car was built "before 11/30/07". I would suspect someone changed cam/valve covers for some reason. There's an outside chance the engine could have been replaced with a bone yard engine. The only way to be sure is to remove a spark plug.

808muscle

Before you go and try to yank them out, please spray some throttle body cleaner in there and let it soak for at least a half hour. Then give it enough pressure to just move it a quarter turn. Let the TB spray weep down and eat away at any corrosion for another 30 minutes. I did this and it still took 50lbs of pressure to get them out, but they came out all in one piece.

w7slr

I didn't think about the possibility that the covers were replaced.
When I took it in to the dealer due to the seat belt warning light always being on (switch under the drivers seat was faulty), I asked them to tell me the plug type.
The service guy was gone for some time and returned and stated that he was 'almost' sure they were the old type.
Ugh! I guess the only true route is to pull one.
Guess I will follow all the info in the TSB and this Forum and take one out next weekend.
Thanks Guys.

808muscle

You can do it, just follow the tsp and take your time.

Diabolical!

Dealership mechanics usually don't know crap. It's a 2009 with brown boots. There is no spark plug issue. They will come out with no trouble. The problem spark plugs are in the 2005-2007 models.

itsgeorge

I have a 2008 GT. I bought the car brand new.The date on the door says it was built on 11/07. If you look at the sticker on your valve cover by the bar code you will see 3 groups of numbers. the center group on my car is 051107. I was told this is your engine build date. I have 15000 on my car and this plug thing has me really pissed.I would try to pull them but don't have the cash to cover things if they break coming out. Then I found this link www.toptiergas.com/ . I think after reading this I will switch to a high Detergent Gasoline until its time to replace the plugs. Think about it if its a carbon build up then this should prevent this from happening. The car runs great and the plugs are good to 100K. Also BP is not on the list, strange.

RAT281

you have the new design. go by the numbers on the coil boot

itsgeorge

I am fairly sure I have the old design, But this is the first I have heard about #'s on the boots. Could you help me out and let me know which numbers designate the old and which designate the new design? Thanks.

w7slr

I think I found this elsewhere on this forum.....I think 8L3E were brown and were the newer style. 3L3E are black, and the old style.