Step 1) Open the bonnet, pretty easy to do but some cars are different from others and sods law yours will be the hardest to fin if you haven’t done it before. Remember most French made cars have their catches in the passenger foot well.

Step 2) So you have managed to open up the bonnet and you are now looking at the engine. If your car has 4 cylinders, access to the plugs will usually be from the top of the engine, V6 and V8 engines will usually be a slight sideways angle.

V6 and V8’s are more difficult to work on than 4 cylindered engines because there is less room under the bonnet and the whole job is a little fiddlier.

To locate the spark plugs is different depending on the age of your car; however most should have a type of HT lead leading to them. They will have a round rubber seal on the top of the engine, this is to keep out moisture from entering the cylinder.

Step 3) You are now ready to pull off the HT leads and gain access to the spark plugs underneath them, but not so fast. It's important that each HT lead fits back into the cylinder it came out of. This is because it need to fire the spark plug in a certain order for the engine to work, get it wrong and your engine won't last long. So best thing to do is to pull out one HT lead at a time.

The HT lead should just pop off with a little bit of a pull, although the spark plug should be still sat in the bottom of the cylinder.

Step 4) Now attach your socket wrench to the top of the spark plug and turn the wrench anti clockwise in 99% of cases. The plug should now become loose. Hopefully the plug will stay in your socket and come out when you withdraw the wrench. However sometimes it stays at the bottom of the cylinder, to get this out you will need a pair of needle nose pliers or a magnetic rod that will lift the plug out. Magnetic rods can be bought online for a few pounds and are worth their weight in gold for car repair work.

Step 5) You have now removed your spark plu from the cylinder, it's important that we check it for signs on how well or how badly your engine is running. Doing this can save you a lot of time and money if you are planning on keeping your car for the future.

This is how a spark plug should look after being removed. White which fades to grey with minimal carbon residue on the electrode.	This plug has been used to long and the electrode has been worn. No need to take action, however shorten the time between changes in future.	With the white insulator being cracked, it shows that your engine may is running too rich or the gap between the electrodes is wrong for your type of engine.
This spark plug should cause you alarm, it is covered in oil and oil should not be anywhere near your spark plug. It shows oil is getting into places it shouldn't be. Possibly a sign or gasket failure, worn vales, worn piston rings. You must investigate further with professional help. Ask for help		Excessive carbon, this indicates it's not been able to burn the fuel mixture, possibly weak current reaching the spark plug.