Plug change...will it make much of a difference?

[coopns]

Changed the plugs and wires on the 95 Taurus with 170K. I had previously changed the plugs around 99 or so with Bosch Plat. and they had about 80 on them. We took them out and they weren't too bad but I already bought them and new wires...they were original. Put a new distributer cap and the little thing underneath that on as well. Wasn't bad. Gotta have the tools eh? My buddy has lots of different extensions and such which made it easier. Pile of little clips on the wires.

Anyway, will I see much of a difference? I don't drive it hard at all, 14K a year, give or take a bit. Like to get another five years out of it.

 

[JavaMan]

I don't know if you'll see a noticable difference, but, just a little differnce in improved performance I believe will more than pay for the price of a set of plugs/wires during the next 5 years that you intend to keep the vehicle. IMHO it's certainly time to do this kind of maintenance, also, I would make sure other items are being properly maintained. Engine, transmission, power steering, differential and anti-freeze fluids should be replaced as required. Don't forget about filters.

 

[TheLoneRanger]

That's a real good tune-up, with the dist cap and rotor, wires and plugs. With that many miles, the contacts on the cap and rotor were worn, the wires were degraded, and the plug gaps were widened and worn. Yep, I'll say it should run good now.....

 

[Trav]

It was due for a tune up,even if you dont notice any difference thats not bad,you replaced wear items before they were totally worn out and causing problems like missfires etc.AKA preventive maintainance which is a good thing.

 

[surfstar]

With standard copper plugs I notice no change in performance/MPG after 20-30k miles on them, but one time I went to 40k and when changed I gained ~1 MPG. Since that time I've determined my interval to be 30k on coppers.

 

[mechtech2]

Good luck with the Bosch plats.
We don't use Bosch in the shop anymore. 50-50 there will be an immediate or future problem.

 

[toocrazy2yoo]

I'm a couple thousand shy of my 30K inspection, and just replaced the Champions in my Hyundai with the NGK coppers. The gaps in the Champions were over .050, WAY out of spec. Didn't notice any difference, but the car is young yet. I'm doing everything scheduled for 30K in advance, the Stealer is going to be limited to inspections only.

When my old Hyundai started acting a little rough, new plugs (and every other plug change or so, new wires) cured the problem. And, like clockwork, those occurances were right at 30K intervals every time..

 

[hollywood]

I was always told to replace the plugs with the OEM Plugs. I have heard that if you switch it hurts the performance and ingition parts. Is this true??

 

[Kestas]

As a general rule of thumb - yes. Please realize that engine development is done with a certain type of plug chosen by the design engineers. It is matched to the engine. I think it's the resistivity of the plug and gap that must be maintained. (This discussion is not about heat range, so I leave that out.) If this resistivity is not maintained, I believe this can harm or degrade ingition performace and longevity of the components.

 

[another Todd]

As a general rule I say replace your plugs with whatever brand you want. The "OEM is best" hogwash is all manufacturers hype to get you to keep buying their brand. And that is all it is---a brand. As far as I know, no auto manufacture makes their own plugs, they put their name on somebody elses, and sometimes they don't even do that. My Silverado came from the factory with Denso double platnum plugs in it. I changed to Iridium plugs and it runs better.