The harness is held by a large metal bracket. Use a flat head and push upward and pull forward. It pretty tough but once you have it out you can see how its held together. The 4th picture with the the red circle shows the metal bracket.

Thanks! I actually just muscled it off. What a pain! Thanks. Number 6 was a pain in the ass!

at what point are we supposed to do / expect spark plug replacement? Didn't see it in the manual.

Great write up.

I used it today to change my plugs.

I found it best to remove the lower air filter housing.

It just sits on 4 grommets. (Just let the upper hang there.)

I couldn't get the plastic engine cover off without doing this.

It took a lot of effort to loosen the spark plugs.

About a million times more than the amount of torque to tighten them.

So I used a small amount of aluminum anti-sieze on each.

Number 6 is a real B****!!!!

The spec was on my spear plug box. It was right next to the gap spec.

22 lb/ft. Or is that ft/lb

Yeah, many thanks to OP for the great write up. It helped a bunch in replacing spark plugs on my E70 today.

Regardless, you still need to learn few things through experience. It definitely made it easier after removing the lower air filter housing.

I used scrap 3/4" copper pipes as an extension to loosen the spark plugs. It was pretty easy with the extension.

Also, I did apply "dielectric silicone grease" to prevent rubber boots from seizing onto the spark plugs, however nothing on the threads.

Applies the silicone grease onto the threads of the hex bolts holding the engine cover. I had more trouble with those than the spark plugs. Unlike OP, I could not detach the wires above the engine cover. Those were seized shut, any hints on pulling them out?

Anyway, took 2+ hours. I planned to spend <1 hour originally.

I did this on my 08 E70, but it was impossible to get to #5 and #6 without removing the microfilters housing and the plastic casing that runs along the top of the firewall. Overall it took about an hour.

Couldn't have agreed more. After spending hours trying to sneak between the bulk head and the engine itself, I finally figure this out. Still recovering from the sore back and wrist I got when attempting the sneaking action.

I did mine about 4 months ago, and made a fatal error... the new plugs were gapped to about 0.040" and I figured since it must be a high energy ignition system, that should be fine. Couldn't find a gap spec anywhere online, so left them there. Started and ran ok, until you put your foot in it, and then, major bucking from misfiring. Long story short, because it's a turbo, something closer to 0.025" seems to work much better. Ard may have better info on this than I do, but I settled on 0.025" after having the plugs in and out about 3 or 4 times. I did get to the point where I could change all 6 in about an hour. Practice makes perfect! Or at least faster.

Changed my plugs and all the ignition coil packs today - thanks for the great DIY. Judging by the condition of the plugs I don't think they've ever been changed - 107k miles on vehicle currently.