Autolite Platinums in a Toyota?

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pbm

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Advance Auto has Autolite Platinums for 1.99 each till the end of the month. I was thinking of putting 4 into my s-i-l's Corolla. Has anybody used these in a Toyota and if so how did they do?
I put 4 into my brothers Neon last year and so far so good.
 
It is not the best plug, but it will do the job. The cheap and lasting one with slighltly better performance is denso platinum twin tip.
 
What year corolla, and how many miles?

If it's anything recent, it's probably a downgrade from stock and the iridiums they put in now are good for around 100,000 miles.
 
It's an 05' with 113K. She racks up about 30K a year and I assume the original plugs are still in it. I'm not sure of the maintenence history. She says she had it at the dealer a couple of times and spent close to $400 each time so who knows. I already changed the ATF (Mobil 3309) and plan on doing A/F, hoses, belts. plugs and wires in the fall.
 
I would stick with what the OEM ones are... Those Toyota engines can be quite fussy on plugs!
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Autolite makes a good plug, but I don't think it's right for your application even if AL spec's it for your application. JMO.

Spark plugs are a cheap part that get replaced only a few times in a vehicles life (now), so why screw around to save a couple bucks?
 
Originally Posted By: pbm
It's an 05' with 113K. She racks up about 30K a year and I assume the original plugs are still in it. I'm not sure of the maintenence history. She says she had it at the dealer a couple of times and spent close to $400 each time so who knows. I already changed the ATF (Mobil 3309) and plan on doing A/F, hoses, belts. plugs and wires in the fall.

Denso platinums can theoretically last the life of the car as long as the (double-platinum) tips stay clean and the plug isn't damaged in some way. I remember the factory plugs on my 1995 Acura Integra GS-R. I checked them after 50K miles and they were otherwise great with no gap erosion and absolutely clean platinum tips. They needed to have small platinum tips that get hot enough to self-clean but durable enough to keep from eroding. I decided to replace them after 70K miles, but there was no reason they couldn't stay in there other than I had some new ones. They used to have ads mentioning that they could theoretically last the life of the car.

What would normally come in a car like that? For something like a Corolla that should be easy to replace (I won't even try on a V6 or a boxer), if it comes with standard plugs I'd just replace them every 15K miles with cheap Denso U-Grooves or NGK V-Power. Those should be the factory plugs listed on the emissions sticker unless they're the platinum or iridium type.
 
I've used Autolites before, mainly in my Jeeps without any trouble. I've used the copper and the platinum. My opinion is that their platinum tipped plug may not go the full 100k miles but then again most of us here don't run the plugs that long anyhow. Pretty good value but there are better choices available. I think the only plugs I've ever had problems with were Champions and the stock Harley plugs (which were champions!).
 
My question would be:
How long do you want to go before changing the plugs again?

I use copper plugs for the performance aspect but I also change them every 25-30k whether they need it or not. I also pull them out and check the gap about every 10k
 
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Run what the car came with NGK/Denso. I had to confirm on my Toyota as the OEM shows both NGK and Denso as factory replacements.
 
NGK is the plug of choice for japanese cars, with Denso being the second choice.

That said, I have had great success with Autolites, and use them on my ford with COP ignition. Car came with double platinum plugs from the factory for "long life", but with regards to performance copper is still king. So I use autolite coppers on my car, and change them every 15-20k...I don't usually inspect the gap during this run, but when I pull them off they are ok. Stock gap is .55, but I run .60 on the recommendation of a good engine builder with knowledge of the Duratec i4 engines from ford.

I still have my factory plugs laying around somewhere...they were in good shape when I yanked them at 40k. I wouldn't of wanted to leave those in for the full 100k, would have been a [censored] to get them out. IIRC, Motorcraft plugs are autolites...at least in some instances. Autolite double platinums are specced as a direct replacement for the factory plugs on my car.
 
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Originally Posted By: pzev
NGK is the plug of choice for japanese cars, with Denso being the second choice.

That said, I have had great success with Autolites, and use them on my ford with COP ignition. Car came with double platinum plugs from the factory for "long life", but with regards to performance copper is still king. So I use autolite coppers on my car, and change them every 15-20k...I don't usually inspect the gap during this run, but when I pull them off they are ok. Stock gap is .55, but I run .60 on the recommendation of a good engine builder with knowledge of the Duratec i4 engines from ford.

Denso has a long relationship with Toyota as a spinoff company. Some even consider it part of the Toyota "keiretsu" (business group of interlocking companies). I've even heard of some Toyota V6s that came from the factory with one bank Denso and the other bank NGK.

GM had been buying NGK double-platinums for years and rebranding them. The factory GM plugs (don't know if they were ACDelco labeled or not) were the higher quality ones from NGK and are what allowed them to claim the 100K mile change interval. This - even when GM had its own in-house spark plug manufacturing.

Also - why are people calling them "coppers" as opposed to "platinums"? I get platinum or iridium used as a description of one the external electrode (or a part thereof) materials. However - supposedly the only copper in a spark plug would be in the core part of the electrode. The external electrodes are supposed to be some sort of alloy material that resists fouling to some degree (as long as it's hot enough to self-clean).
 
I call them coppers as thats what it says on the box :p. If I walk up to the parts counter and ask for some "alloy" plugs, I'm sure to get a strange look or two.
 
y_p_w said:
pzev said:
NGK is the plug of choice for japanese cars, with Denso being the second choice.

GM had been buying NGK double-platinums for years and rebranding them. The factory GM plugs (don't know if they were ACDelco labeled or not) were the higher quality ones from NGK and are what allowed them to claim the 100K mile change interval. This - even when GM had its own in-house spark plug manufacturing.






My Buick 3.1 came with AC Iridiums made by NGK. I changed them (to NGK Iridiums-virtually the same plug) at approx 75K when I did my precautionary L-I-M gasket change. By the looks of them they could have went another 75K.
I know that NGK (and ND) make excellent plugs but I guess I started this thread to see opinions of whether American made plugs had caught up. I guess the fact that AC rebadges NGK's says a lot...
 
Originally Posted By: pzev
I call them coppers as thats what it says on the box :p. If I walk up to the parts counter and ask for some "alloy" plugs, I'm sure to get a strange look or two.

Autolite calls theirs "copper core" on the box, and this is pretty much the standard these days. Personally - I don't think it's all that descriptive given than nearly all platinum and iridium tipped spark plugs also have copper core electrodes.

http://www.autolite.com/products/copperCore.php
 
Originally Posted By: pbm
My Buick 3.1 came with AC Iridiums made by NGK. I changed them (to NGK Iridiums-virtually the same plug) at approx 75K when I did my precautionary L-I-M gasket change. By the looks of them they could have went another 75K.
I know that NGK (and ND) make excellent plugs but I guess I started this thread to see opinions of whether American made plugs had caught up. I guess the fact that AC rebadges NGK's says a lot...

I thought the keys to the longevity (and price) of NGK and Denso platinums is that their electrodes used more platinum and the bonding to the main electrode is the best in the industry. The Autolite double-platinums only seem to have these little spots of platinum. The Japanese platinum plugs still have relatively small electrodes (to run hotter to self-clean) but not so small that they tend to erode. I remember the Japanese car specialist shop I use telling me about their experiment with Bosch platinums. Their customers were coming back reporting poor running engines. They found out that the little platinum wire (buried flush in the ceramic insulator) would gradually vaporize away leaving little or no spark. They've got a prominent Denso banner now.

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I once bought a set of Denso platinums for my 1995 Acura Integra GS-R. That was right around the time they made the name change from Nippondenso to Denso. The ceramic barrel of the plug had the new Denso label, while the metal body was stamped with the old ND label.
 
I've used autolite copper in my corolla before and it wasn't doing that great, replaced it with NGK and it works better, then replace it again with Champion Platinum and it still works great.

I think the problem is more of a spark plug gap than anything. NGK comes pre-gapped and have very fine/precise heat range, or since they are OEM they have the exact spec. Non-OEM has to put up with close enough spec of their other OEM applications, and it may not be as good as it could.

If you gap it before using, and double check for the sizes/heat range/reviews etc, you may get lucky and have a good run.
 
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