ICE hours

bobber said:

someone posted a way to track engine operating hours by attaching an hourmeter to a sparkplug. I got the meter from Amazon easily enough, but where are the plugs!? (Sorry to be suchj a novice .. i'd recgonize them if i could see them!) .. what cover(s) need to be removed AND will that invalidate a warrantee? Good that the wire is just inductive ...

thanks

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The rectangular cover on top of the engine will just pull off of its little grab-tabs. I used the rightmost coil (of four) to modify. It can be removed with a 10mm wrench, IIRC, and then just pull it up and out of its hole that goes to the spark plug. Wrap the wire on the shaft as close to the top of the coil as you can, because when you push the coil back into its hole, the wrapped wires will interfere a bit with the coil top, trying to limit its seating back down prior to screwing it down. I just wrapped four or five times, and jammed it up to the top as much as I could, jamming the wires against the little tabs sticking down towards the shaft. I had to try it several times before I got it right. It helped me to tape the end of the wire to the coil's cap before wrapping it. Then I put a small piece of e-tape across the wrapped wire to hold it in place until I got the coil screwed back down. One of the threads on the topic has a link to a YouTube video showing a guy doing this very thing to his Clarity PHEV. It was very helpful, and gave me a lot of confidence to do it myself. I'm quite nervous working on a brand-new car, but I ususally do it anyway. (I embrace "nervous". It often stops me from doing stupid things.)

When I get some more time, I'll try to find that YouTube video again, and post it here.

Edit: Not on YouTube, which is why I couldn't find it. Duh!

Here it is: