ACDELCO iridium spark plugs after 100k in Chevy Volt

[zyxelenator]

My 2014 Volt recently rolled over 100k. After reading many posts of gen 1 volts either getting major battery section failure around 80-120k or clocking over 250k without any problems and just basic maintenance, I checked battery cells state in special app several times and have decided to keep it and run it longer. Especially with todays car market(event thought I were recently offered couple grands more than what I paid for it in 2017). Anyway doing lots of maintenance today, oil change, drive unit(planetary gear-set tranny)fluid change, cabin filter,(engine air filter looks practically new, I think I changed it around 75k). Anyway my last item was spark plugs change. Everything oil related went smooth, all bolt took almost no effort, but as always-last item on the list can go sideways and can make you car disabled for couple of days. The way coil pack rail sits on this engine, you can grab it only from one side to start pulling. As I can see on volt specific forums now, outcome is very common. It was very snug there, I had to wiggle it and pull really hard. As a result contact spring tube snapped off on cylinder #1. Boots sat in valve cover also very tightly, and at that point I did not care much, so half of them got torn while I pulled them out with pliers. Cylinder #2 had something leaked into spark plug well and it was especially hard to pull out boot from there. While all other wells are sparkling shiny inside, that one has some white rough varnish and spark plug itself got corrosion on it. Spark plug electrodes look like they could of go another 50k easily(car had probably less than 50% on engine running in all those miles, 117 lifetime mpg as on now). Those plugs have laser iridium NGK part number on them and say made in Japan. New plugs that went in are also ACDELCO, but just say made in Taiwan. Amazon messed up big time delivering NGK plugs with same part number as OE 2 times already. For whatever reason they shipped all 4 in separate envelopes, and they came at different days. 4th envelope was not sealed all the way, so it had a small hole and it fell out. Contacted them, replacement envelope came 2-3 days later. Now it had small crushed spark plug box and cardboard ring inside, with no spark plug… contacted again and second replacement is still have not shipped out… so after couple of days waiting for order to be fulfilled, I pulled a plug (pun intended) and ordered from rockauto, even with one day of ground shipments delay it came pretty fast…additionally there is $3 rebate per plug on acdelco brand. Just ordered exact same Delphi coil pack rail from them and 4 NGK boots with springs, as it does not look like those coil packs come with springs(not pictured, not in the description).

 

[SteveG4]

Wow. 100K miles, eh? Not bad at all!

 

[atikovi]

Wow. 100K miles, eh? Not bad at all!

It's a plug-in hybrid. If it was run 50% in EV mode, the plugs would only have 50,000 miles of wear.

 

[tyman]

Those look infinitely better than my Silverado's at 102k...

 

[zyxelenator]

It's a plug-in hybrid. If it was run 50% in EV mode, the plugs would only have 50,000 miles of wear.

correct, maybe even less. I don't have chevy app access anymore, so can't tell % of runtime on gas. But with my current driving pattern engine starts maybe a couple of times per month for like 30 mins. When I used to daily drive to the office, it would start at the last 3-4 miles of a round trip, sometimes I would have enough charge to get home, depending on how hot it was and how my GPS took me around traffic jams. My record at that time was a little over 2000 miles on 1 tank when we happened not to take any longer trips out of town.

 

[MolaKule]

It appears they have very little wear and the fuel delivery is about right. The center electrode tip has receded very little.

 

[zyxelenator]

It appears they have very little wear and the fuel delivery is about right. The center electrode tip has receded very little.

The condition of the plugs above tells me, I probably will not be changing plugs on that car ever again. If I do happen to keep it around that long(maybe passing it down to a family member), I would just wait until I start getting ignition-related codes. That may not happen until the car has 250k on the clock...if it survives until that milage. With such low mileage per year nowadays, many other things may start failing due to age.(plastic/rubber and more importantly traction battery, which is 6k for a rebuilt unit as of today. I always plug it in, so it conditions the battery as it is programmed(I can hear the cooling system kick in the hot garage, hopefully, it will last a long time. I still get around 10kw used, those are 10-10.6kw used energy before the engine kicks in per charge, new out of factory)

 

[14Accent]

Love seeing a post about another happy Volt owner. I bought my previous '13 Volt in '18 with 124k miles on it for $8,500 from a dealer out in the country. It was a 2 owner, Iowa kept car that had come in on trade. Iowa meaning ZERO rust. I sold it with over 160k on it and replaced nothing but the front wheel bearings, tires, and spark plugs while I owned it. It was a wonderful car.

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

Changed my platinum plugs in the 2000 Northstar caddy at 140-150k miles looked ok, zero change in performance. Pretty amazing

 

[zyxelenator]

Changed my platinum plugs in the 2000 Northstar caddy at 140-150k miles looked ok, zero change in performance. Pretty amazing

I know older plumber guy with ford truck, I think f 250 and engine that is known to have problems with spark plug removal. He refused to touch them until he will start problems with spark. If I remember correct he finally did pay someone to change it around 190k.

 

[zyxelenator]

Love seeing a post about another happy Volt owner. I bought my previous '13 Volt in '18 with 124k miles on it for $8,500 from a dealer out in the country. It was a 2 owner, Iowa kept car that had come in on trade. Iowa meaning ZERO rust. I sold it with over 160k on it and replaced nothing but the front wheel bearings, tires, and spark plugs while I owned it. It was a wonderful car.

What did you replace it with? Recently I were thinking of selling it, right before warranty expired, since lately I drove Mitsu in my sig a lot with family and dog onboard mostly. After running some errands around for half a day in Volt, I caught myself thinking while driving that it is smooth, drives straight, no weird noises or vibrations, turning on sport mode and stepping on it put a grin on my face. Not comparable to modded with very stiff suspension, loud growing and popping exhaust turbocharged Fiat 500 toy that was able to run on e-85, that I had years ago, but still, that instant torque put smile on my face. That changed my mind back.

 

[14Accent]

What did you replace it with? Recently I were thinking of selling it, right before warranty expired, since lately I drove Mitsu in my sig a lot with family and dog onboard mostly. After running some errands around for half a day in Volt, I caught myself thinking while driving that it is smooth, drives straight, no weird noises or vibrations, turning on sport mode and stepping on it put a grin on my face. Not comparable to modded with very stiff suspension, loud growing and popping exhaust turbocharged Fiat 500 toy that was able to run on e-85, that I had years ago, but still, that instant torque put smile on my face. That changed my mind back.

I didn't really "replace" it, at least not yet. I've always tried to have 2 vehicles as a safety net (I'm a single guy with no kids, so the second car is purely for convenience), and for most of my time with the Volt I had either my previous Grand Cherokee or my current GC. I only used the Volt in snow free months, otherwise it sat in the garage hibernating.

Other than the economy, I don't really miss it. It was a wonderful car, and I'd get another one in a heartbeat. However, my 22 year old 250k mile Jeep serves me just fine while being MUCH more simple than the Volt. The Jeep is actually MORE comfortable on long drives, it's got better visibility, and I don't have to ever worry about finding parts for it. As great as the Volt is, specifically the 1st gen, it's a unique vehicle. Unique vehicles use lots of unique parts.

Case in point: the coolant pumps used for battery cooling and cabin heat in electric mode. They can be VERY hard to come by, and are a common failure area. Things like that make long term ownership difficult. Whereas with my Jeep, I can spend $3 to visit the pick n' pull and source any part I need and then some.

 

[zyxelenator]

I didn't really "replace" it, at least not yet. I've always tried to have 2 vehicles as a safety net (I'm a single guy with no kids, so the second car is purely for convenience), and for most of my time with the Volt I had either my previous Grand Cherokee or my current GC. I only used the Volt in snow free months, otherwise it sat in the garage hibernating.

Other than the economy, I don't really miss it. It was a wonderful car, and I'd get another one in a heartbeat. However, my 22 year old 250k mile Jeep serves me just fine while being MUCH more simple than the Volt. The Jeep is actually MORE comfortable on long drives, it's got better visibility, and I don't have to ever worry about finding parts for it. As great as the Volt is, specifically the 1st gen, it's a unique vehicle. Unique vehicles use lots of unique parts.

Case in point: the coolant pumps used for battery cooling and cabin heat in electric mode. They can be VERY hard to come by, and are a common failure area. Things like that make long term ownership difficult. Whereas with my Jeep, I can spend $3 to visit the pick n' pull and source any part I need and then some.

That is very true. Another reason they are totaled very often, even after what seems to be fender bender (especially if it was hit of the side with on board charger), and yeah seats are not comfortable for long drives in then(heard that Bolt gen1 is even worse). I get your point of spare car, we could of get rid of one, since we both work from home now, but in situations like that, with broken ignition coil, that would suck to take baby with car seat to doc appointment and other errands in uber…

 

[14Accent]

That is very true. Another reason they are totaled very often, even after what seems to be fender bender (especially if it was hit of the side with on board charger), and yeah seats are not comfortable for long drives in then(heard that Bolt gen1 is even worse). I get your point of spare car, we could of get rid of one, since we both work from home now, but in situations like that, with broken ignition coil, that would suck to take baby with car seat to doc appointment and other errands in uber…

Funny you mention the accident repair angle... I actually encountered that with my Volt. What started out as a relatively minor fender bender turned into almost $7k in repairs due to part cost. And that was long before all this shortage nonsense.

 

[nthach]

As great as the Volt is, specifically the 1st gen, it's a unique vehicle. Unique vehicles use lots of unique parts.

GM, as well as the other Detroit 2 traditionally stocked only enough parts to fulfill basic and emissions warranties. The Japanese usually have long parts availability for many things - though Toyota just NLAed the HV battery packs for the 2nd gen Prius(or made it dealer-only ordering vs. online ordering). Honda seems to be bucking that by making many parts NLA lately.

I drove a second-gen Volt - I liked it, GM got the recipe right but it’s a loss-leader against their SUVs and trucks. And it was a weird mashup of US, German and Korean engineering - platform was Opel-derived, GM Korea and Detroit contributed to the powertrain, it doesn’t use a hybrid drive unit like a Toyota-based hybrid, but a very specific 4Lxx with a very powerful electric motor. The Volt is basically a range-extended BEV without the sacrifices BMW did with the i3.

 

[brianl703]

seats are not comfortable for long drives in then

I drove my 2013 Volt from here to Chicago and back (about 1500 miles round-trip), seats were plenty comfortable for me.

 

[brianl703]

Case in point: the coolant pumps used for battery cooling and cabin heat in electric mode. They can be VERY hard to come by, and are a common failure area. Things like that make long term ownership difficult. Whereas with my Jeep, I can spend $3 to visit the pick n' pull and source any part I need and then some.

Hmm, when mine failed, which was due to some sort of electrical problem on the circuit board of the pump, all I did was go to "gmpartsdirect", navigate to the page where I clicked "order", put my CC info and address in, and it showed up on my front porch a few days later.

Back then, as now, there are also used ones listed on Ebay.

 

[zyxelenator]

I drove my 2013 Volt from here to Chicago and back (about 1500 miles round-trip), seats were plenty comfortable for me.

it is not horrible, I think the longest roundtrip trip I took it to was from Louisville KY to Detroit (actually stayed in a hotel on the other side of GM HQ, didn't realize where I'm booking) and from Austin to south Padre island, close to the Mexican border. The lower back pillow made it much comfier for me. Let's say it that way BMW 5 series and MB S class seats are much better on long trips, like from Louisville to Toronto and back or a 3000mile trip to and around FL and back. Fiat 500 sport seats were slightly better for me on a similar 3000+ mile FL trip. Maybe as a European, I fit better in euro car seats The best one I remember was a customer's Lexus IS300, back in the time I worked in a tire shop, and it fit like a glove without any adjustment( I was skinnier back in that time also )

 

[cb474]

My 2014 Volt recently rolled over 100k. After reading many posts of gen 1 volts either getting major battery section failure around 80-120k or clocking over 250k without any problems and just basic maintenance.

I think it's pretty well understood at this point that it is time and not miles that determines battery failure. With the early Priuses, you saw all these posts about how someone went 200K or 300K miles and the battery was still fine. But these were heavily used cars that did it in short periods of time. Beyond ten years, battery failures started to happen fairly consistently, regardless of miles. So I think this is why you see such widely varying reports about how many miles people get in hybrids and evs, before they have issues. I think it's hard for people to wrap their mind around, because we're so used to thinking about wear and tear on cars mainly in terms of miles.

 

[zyxelenator]

I think it's pretty well understood at this point that it is time and not miles that determines battery failure. With the early Priuses, you saw all these posts about how someone went 200K or 300K miles and the battery was still fine. But these were heavily used cars that did it in short periods of time. Beyond ten years, battery failures started to happen fairly consistently, regardless of miles. So I think this is why you see such widely varying reports about how many miles people get in hybrids and evs, before they have issues. I think it's hard for people to wrap their mind around, because we're so used to thinking about wear and tear on cars mainly in terms of miles.

Right, seems like the majority of problems are with very early Volts, 2011 and 2012. The amount of charge/discharge cycles play a role too. A smaller 13kw battery will be charged and discharged much more often than a full BEV with 60+ kw pack. On the other hand, those who drive them as hybrids and barely use batteries may see longer life in places like CA. In places like AZ and TX, not plugging it in and letting the battery cool itself while parked will probably kill it much faster...