Fake Denso Iridium plugs

[sw99]

Pretty sure I got some fake Denso's on eBay. I installed these eBay Denso Iridum plugs about 65k ago. I recently started experiencing an occasional stumbling under light engine load/acceleration. I figured it was time to replace the valve cover gasket anyway so it was a good time to check the plugs also. Pretty sure I found my problem. The range on the gas was .080-085 on the 4 plugs. OEM gap is .044

 

[JavierH19]

Always buy from a chain parts store. They're only a few bucks more but are guaranteed original. A friend of mine was gonna buy motorcrafts for his Lincoln at 3 bucks each on Amazon and I said it was too good to be true for the price. And there are lots of fakes of those.

 

[Escape08]

Not a precious metal Iridium but most likely made out of copper.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Wow, I've been burned by fake Amazon NGKs numerous time; I didn't know Denso was being faked as well. If you got 65K then you did twice as I did. 30K max on fake NGKs.
Hopefully you weren't stranded...

 

[sw99]

I replaced them with some Denso Platinum TT's from Autozone locally this time. Lessons learned

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

I replaced them with some Denso Platinum TT's from Autozone locally this time. Lessons learned

My go to plugs recently. I like them.

 

[Furious]

Always buy from the auto parts store, it is not worth saving the few extra dollars to have a high probability of getting counterfeits from online. I refuse to buy any car parts from Ebay or Amazon, if I order anything online it is coming from RockAuto.

 

[CR94]

65k with no catastrophic failure is better than usual for counterfeits.

 

[paulo57509]

That's a lot of boot grease.

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

Looks like the expected life for those is only approx. 60k milesDenso spark plugs website

 

[sw99]

Looks like the expected life for those is only approx. 60k milesDenso spark plugs website

According to the Denso site, the long-life iridium should provide "sustained spark performance for 100,000 miles".

Iridium Long Life

DENSO brand Iridium Long Life spark plugs deliver more Quality, Reliability, and Value than any other manufacturer.

www.densoautoparts.com

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

According to the Denso site, the long-life iridium should provide "sustained spark performance for 100,000 miles".

Iridium Long Life

DENSO brand Iridium Long Life spark plugs deliver more Quality, Reliability, and Value than any other manufacturer.

www.densoautoparts.com

Well maybe you got a global market plug? It states right on their website PN starting with "s" is 100k km. Probably not counterfeit at all

 

[Junk]

Looks like the expected life for those is only approx. 60k milesDenso spark plugs website

Right above where it discusses iridium spark plug life and the S series plugs being rated at 100,000km, it states the same exact interval about platinum. I've taken multiple sets of Denso iridium long life plugs out of Toyotas with well over 100K MILES that still have the iridium tips on them. Denso iridium long life plugs are absolutely rated for 100K miles, OP almost surely got counterfeits.

 

[Dave9]

At first I was thinking.... 65K mi, that's not really all that bad, except that gap... and these are fine wire... unless it looks like the fine wire nub has worn away, I agree that they look like fakes that are copper electrodes.

Do you remember if they had a fine wire electrode when installed? Did you gap or at least check gap before installation?

 

[sw99]

Yes they had the super fine wire tip when I installed and the gap was .044.

 

[tnt_motorsports]

@sw99 I'm not sure you got knock off plugs. It might just be that your vehicle is harder on plugs. FWIW my son just sold a 2009 Jeep GC that ate a set of E3's in ~12K miles. I have put 50K on the ones in my 2005 Jeep GC and they look better than his. I can't explain it just sharing the facts...

Just my $0.02

 

[simple_gifts]

Wow, I've been burned by fake Amazon NGKs numerous time

?

You probably should stick to your electric car (j/k)

 

[Number_35]

In the '70s it was commonly said that plugs wore about 0.001" per thousand miles (i.e. the gap increased by that amount).

Plugs have come a long way.

 

[paulo57509]

Yes they had the super fine wire tip when I installed and the gap was .044.

Those fine wire electrodes have left the room.

I ran some NGK V-Power (copper) plugs in the Lumina for 42k miles. The "V" grooves were practically gone. It's a waste spark ignition so 42k might be more like (running issues.

Crappy image - cell phone camera one generation removed from a Motorola Razr.

 

[rekit]

I learned with my 2 Turbo Honda Jetskis. Just buy from NGK. Same or better price. I fought a misfire for a few months before I bought real plugs.