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You know that nice, fresh feeling when you change your spark plugs? Maybe a lil performance & MPG boost? Well, if you’re daily driving a 4 cyl that only takes 10 min to change the plugs and specifies to only use $2 copper plugs… Why not change them every oil change or two? Do spark plugs degrade enough in 10k to realize even a slight boost from new ones? Is it possible that would boost MPG by enough to justify $1/1000 miles (around .5-1% MPG gain)?
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stiv625 stated: Do spark plugs degrade enough in 10k..
I don’t know but…A friend (he says he’s a friend) …lol… brought me his ’99 F150 4.6L engine with 237K miles on it with original factory install spark plugs and asked me to install new ones.
The reason…no shop would ever give him a quote for changing spark plugs…so he just left them in.
The next day or so…I may start the job…either replacing spark plugs or engine heads.
I think by the time I get done with this one…he’ll wish he changed the spark plugs every 10K.
man i see no harm in it my spark plug changing interval in my car is about every 75,000 and 100,000 miles and those back cylinders are a little bit tricky but not a big deal, for my car i see no real point in changing the plugs that frequently, but i wouldn’t mind changing them ever 30,000 miles, a fresh set of plugs sure makes the engine happy.
Don’t waste your time or money. If you want to do good preventative maintenance then do things like fuel injection cleaning, throttle body cleaning. Use a drip can to run some cleaner through a vacuum line to clean the back of the intake valves, look up 3 step fuel cleaning. things that do make a good difference. Save your money for replacing your air filter. once you start putting more miles on then do your plugs, change your fuel filter, flush your coolant and things like that.
have you personally seen the effects of someone running a cleaner such as seafoam or barrymans combustion chamber cleaner actually clean valves? and when a set of plugs for your car cost 8-10 bucks and its so easy too change them i see no issue changing them every 2nd or 3rd oil change honestly. i mean a cheep oil change will cost you 20-30 bucks.
I went ahead and put in new ones after about 9k miles this weekend. The electrodes had just a bit of wear but they were pretty clean. I don’t know that it really made much of a difference, I did a couple other things this weekend (including seafoam & marvel mystery oil cleanings) and the net effect was a smoother idle. For $9 and 10 minutes though… I’m going to change them every other oil change (16-20k). But yeah I did a tune-up for a friend with a 3.8L Taurus a few weeks ago and jeez… that was fun. I wouldn’t blame someone for leaving plugs in for 100k with some transverse V6 engines.
just food for thought, yes spark plugs wear out, but really (i never say always) you won’t have issues with them until they’ve been in there for a while. I will give you a thumbs up for replacing them rather then cleaning them. And as far as the cleaner goes, absolutely it makes a difference. One thing that an engine produces that you can do nothing about is carbon, the whole point of the intake cleaning, injector cleaning, butterfly blade cleaning, is to remove carbon build up that can be problematic in the future. And or used to remove carbon build up that has already become a problem. Remember as well, every time you change plugs you run the risk of damaging head threads, I don’t say that because I don’t trust you, but the more the shops that don’t know what they’re doing, or trying to be fast, not letting the engine cool first, no anti seize, etc. Again food for thought!
True, but they come out like butter after just a few months. Its when the original plugs are in there at 247k it gets hairy 😉
New plugs once a year with coppers won’t even exceed $200 over the life of the car. Most single repairs are that much in parts alone these days…
ooh yes cleaning the throttle body makes a difference as well as the IAC. dong a proper fuel injector clean makes a nice difference as well and yes seafoaming can make somewhat of a difference for heavily carboned engines but caution must still be taken and it really isn’t the same thing as a proper fuel injector cleaning method, thats what really works.
Most of the plugs I change are coming out because they are so badly worn or burnt that I’m surprised the car still runs. Same said for caps/rotors and wires. They’re being changed because it fixes a problem, not for maintenance reasons.
That being said in my own car they get changed along with a cap/rotor every 2 years on average. More or less when I put 50,000km. Wires I check resistance before I replace. I never let any component in the ignition system get to the point of it has to be changed purley because my car is a picky little old lady that likes everything in place and orderly. Picky enough that the couple times I tried a “high end plug” it basically told me to eff off and liked the WR7DC $5 Bosch copper plugs it came with best.
The only problem I see with changing plugs so often is aluminum heads where owners frequently strip the threads. With a little knowledge and care this is completely avoidable but those two qualities aren’t always available.
put a little oil on the threads, use a torque wrench 🙂 TROLOLOLOLOL i don’t have too worry about that, the heads in my engine are cast iron!
[quote=”13aceofspades13″ post=100906]put a little oil on the threads[/quote]
That’s a no-go in my book. Oil cooked on a hot surface makes what? That’s right, CARBON! Try anti-seize instead.
actually in my shop and some of the studying i did said not too use antiseeze because if any gets on the electrodes it can cause missing due too the fact that it has graphite in it which is sort of a semi conductor… but then i will have others say too use anti seize CARBON! is better than RUST, or CORROSION!
i have used oil on spark plug threads FREQUENTLY and have had no issues with carbon at all… in fact my instructor who was a dealership mechanic for chrysler and was a master mechanic sertified through ASE preferred using oil over antiseeze because once again the antiseeze can get onto the ground or center electrode causing gap issues.
if you use anti-seize correctly you should have no problems, use a small amount on the threads only and when you turn it in it will seep into the individual threads. You run into problems when you have techs who glob anti-seize on there, due to lack on knowledge. Also if you are ever worried about a stuck spark plug and getting it out if its turning but fighting you, crack it loose, squirt some WD40 down the well and rock the plug left and right at about an 8th of a turn. very little movement, until it starts to loosen up. If it continues to fight you, stop for the obvious reasons.
1. Let the engine cool.
2. pull old plugs.
3. Gap new plugs.
4. thin layer of anti-seize on the threads
5. torque to spec.
6. di-electric grease on plug boots.
if you do this correctly you will never have problems when changing plugs.
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