Tuesday when I started my car to head to work, it was running very rough. It had sat in the driveway for about a week during the Christmas break, since I took the week off.

I figured it might be just some dirty gas, so I poured a bottle of gas cleaner in and headed off to work. It was a rough ride all the way there, and the ride home was ever worse – like riding a bucking bronco!

The Chevron station where I usually get the oil changed was willing to pull the code for me (there are a lot of quick lubes that are happy to do this to gain your business… please, thank you, and a smile go a long way). It was P0304 and they said it meant cylinder #4 was misfiring.

They suggested new plugs and wires, so I headed over to Napa and $65 later was on my way home with a new set of wires and Autolite platinum plugs.

The job itself required only my regular rachet, a spark-plug socket, a 6-inch extension socket, and a small 2-inch extension socket. I didn’t have to remove any fender wells, hoses, belts, etc.

First I sprayed every plug with WD-40 and let it soak for a few minutes while I got my tools together. Then one at a time I replaced the wire and plug on each cylinder, being careful to hand-thread them each back in and then tighten just about a quarter-to-half turn or so after that with the rachet.

The spark plug wire set came with a small tube of silicone that was just enough to coat each plug and wire end, so don’t waste money buying a separate tube.

This was a relatively easy job that took about an hour, and I was taking my time. Definitely something you can do yourself and save some money.