Iridium Plugs

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Mar 18, 2015
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Location
North Texas
Okay, new thread. Won't mention anything but spark plugs. Im gonna change mine soon.

Autolite XP
NGK IX
Bosch OE Fine Wire Iridium

I know I want the longest life plugs (iridiums) but know nothing about what makes these plugs different like what they're made of and how they are manufactured.

I know some are fine wire, nickel-plated, the resistors are different, the electrodes are different IDK. It confuses me. Please school me in spark plugs people.

I'm also going to be doing a piston soak overnight before the plug change and need help with what to use for my soak.
 
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You broke your first sentence promise, you mentioned "piston soak".

Honestly, I think any iridium plug will do great. I think they are all thin wire. I took an OEM set out of my daughter's Chevy Malibu at 110,000 miles and they looked almost new!
 
Considering Oem specifies NGK Laser Platinum at 100k miles intervals, how much longer do you want to go with Iridium?

I have found that Oem type plugs mentioned in the owners manual usually work best.
 
Factory were NGK laser platinum so wouldn't going up to the Iridium line be even better?
 
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Stick with the factory recommended. If you deviate, then I'd say at least stick with the OEM brand (NGK?).

I know it doesn't make sense, but I recommend sticking with the OEM brand. I've heard too many stories of people having problems, they switch out recently installed plugs for OEM brand plugs, and the problems went away. No reason why that should be, but I've heard first hand stories enough times that I prefer to stick with OEM or at least the OEM brand.
 
I have about 10,000 miles on Denso Iridium TT spark plugs in my 2003 Honda CRV. They have a small ground tip as well as a small electrode tip. These plugs are supposed to go past 100,000 miles. I can tell you that after I installed the plugs my idle became rock solid with no fluctuations and I don't press as deep into the gas pedal to go up hills as I use to. The spark plugs were only introduced last year so most people don't have many miles on them to give long term reviews. If you are interested in them, Rock Auto sells them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_2XN9gKSYk
 
I've always been told to stay with the OEM-type plug and I've always been golden doing that. I'm sure you can probably use the iridiums with impunity but I'd be inclined to stay with platinum if that's the OEM-type plug listed.

I've used iridium plugs on every vehicle I've had since 2003 and I've found that none of them lasted 100K miles without a significant degradation in performance and, to a lesser degree, gas mileage. The sweet spot for replacement usually came before it hit 75K miles. On that count, I'm not sure you wouldn't just be better off with platinums even if you could "upgrade" to the iridiums.
 
Originally Posted By: DarthDuty
Factory were NGK laser platinum so wouldn't going up to the Iridium line be even better?

The laser have platinum or iridium on both electrodes the ix only on one. A double platinum would be preferable to a single iridium.
 
Originally Posted By: kschachn
Do we know you?


Please, don't start another witch hunt. Even those get boring. Either talk about plugs or let it go.
 
Now we are getting somewhere, this is what I want to discuss, can you elaborate more please sir? This is alien lingo to me.
 
I believe the double platinum is referring to the fact that the double has two electrodes not just a single electrode. In my lady's Camry it called for the double electrode not a single one. It was specified that way in the manual for it. The very old school plugs were copper. Next tier up came the platinum plugs. And now the iridiums. If your car is specd for double electrode than use the type..
 
All righty.. Well I changed mine in my Nissan 3.5 and I got the Denso iridiums. I would suggest for a Nissan that is the way to go. NGKs or Denso.

The iridium plugs last 100,000 miles at minimum. These plugs don't degrade no where near has fast has old school copper ones. Platinums are much more resilient than copper too. Just not has much as the iridiums.
 
When switching to iridium plugs, be prepared to change back. I've seen far too many threads here, and other forums, where people had issues with iridium plugs.
 
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What problems with them? Now my current car and last car came with iridium plugs. So it was not like going from platinums to iridiums. But I wonder what problems they are having ?
 
Well if it came with iridium, no worries.

But many vehicles (Jeep 4.0 is a notable example) that came with either NGK or Champion were switched to iridium. The iridium plugs caused rough running and misfires, which completely disappeared when the vehicle was returned to the OEM type plugs.

I'm not saying iridium plugs are bad; rather, that they are a mismatch for some applications - for reasons that are beyond my technical ability to explain.
 
Ahh that makes sense to me
smile.gif

Yeah if the car came with platinums I would use the same. Like with my ladies Camry.
 
The Iridium plugs have a different gap than other plugs, this leads to problems on many cars as the ignition system can;t fire across the gap.
 
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