AutoMechanic
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Dang I have never seen a car with two spark plugs per cylinder that’s interesting. Bet they were hard to get out I have dealt with rusty stuck plugs before it’s no fun.
HEMI's and Civic Hybrids are another examples of 2 plugs per cylDang I have never seen a car with two spark plugs per cylinder that’s interesting. Bet they were hard to get out I have dealt with rusty stuck plugs before it’s no fun.
Wow...so many erroneous assumptions in one post...I think I am honestly more surprised that a mid-2000's top of the line Mercedes still has plug wires vs coil on plug, guessing the dual plug arrangement caused this.
How could MB could not engineer a proper flame propagation in one of their flagship engines? Well any engine for that fact.
Car is fine. Water did enter the cabin, had to pull up the area under the front passenger floorboard and clean some corrosion. Did the same with the rear SAM, but not sure if it had significant water exposure (don't recall- did the repair a few years ago.I think you’re correct, those were the original plugs in the car. For my S-class, I got replacement NGK plugs at sparkplugs.com - and they were genuine...not sure I would trust an EBay seller... as expensive as the coils and wires are, it’s a good call to go with genuine or Bosch parts.
How’s the car otherwise? Any water intrusion in the cabin? Particularly under the front passenger seat, where the SAM Power supply and CANBUS wiring is housed, water causes corrosion and eventual failure. Another susceptible/vulnerable area is under the rear passenger seat, where the rear SAM is located.
I think what’s impressive is the car has served you well despite being flood damaged and running on 200,000 mile plugs.
Did you measure the gap of the old plugs?
Dang I have never seen a car with two spark plugs per cylinder that’s interesting. Bet they were hard to get out I have dealt with rusty stuck plugs before it’s no fun.
That’s good I am a Toyota mechanic so I haven’t worked on a Mercedes in a long time since I left the independent shop I don’t miss working on them too many special tools needed lolActually pulling the plugs were fairly easy and consistent. Mercedes did a good job with this engine in this vehicle. Fairly easy to self fix most things (except replace the transmission fluid).
My brother's RX-3 had twin plugs per rotor.Dang I have never seen a car with two spark plugs per cylinder that’s interesting.
Never knew there were so many cars with it. I guess it is possible for the other ones you listed to have it also I’m not sure.My brother's RX-3 had twin plugs per rotor.
Maybe RX-7/8 too?
Old Nissans too - especially the 260/280ZX and the early 1980s trucks.HEMI's and Civic Hybrids are another examples of 2 plugs per cyl
Wow...so many erroneous assumptions in one post...
This isn’t a distributor ignition. The wires are short. Because of room, and the dual plugs, it’s a V-8, remember, they route a short wire to the coil. One coil for each cylinder.
The dual plugs aren’t a flame propagation issue alone, they’re used to measure the quality of ignition through the measuring of ionization energy in the second plug firing.
They used this strategy on many of their engines.
While you’re busy criticizing Mercedes engineers, you’ve overlooked the fact that this engine ran for nearly 200,000 miles on the original plugs.
That is a testament to the good design in this ignition system.
On the auction front- people have money. I am seeing salvage vehicles, with no buyer inspection, sell at auction for prices that can compete with private Seller sales. 99 percent of vehicles sold to individuals at auction are not worth what was paid after fees. One has to work extra hard to find the one percent, and then be more lucky than good that another person did not discover what one found.
From what I understand the used car market is kinda bonkers right now because there are so few used cars on the market.I have to say my experiences this year exactly mirror what you say. I've been tracking vehicles at local auctions and am surprised by what people are paying OTD, especially since many bids are with no inspection at all (I only bid on what I can go touch locally, not as brave as you).
I am going to read your linked threads; interesting. I had been trying to find a 4matic of that gen S500 earlier this spring/summer. I found two that were too rough and one lovely one, but I was a day late in finding that one and missed it. I am just about finished tweaking a Volvo XC70 I bought six weeks or so ago; maybe when that's done I'll start looking again for an S500. There's a jag xj12 at auction next week I sure wish I could justify right now (I can't).
From what I understand the used car market is kinda bonkers right now because there are so few used cars on the market.
What I heard was that everyone was expecting some really serious economic turmoil so in the beginning prices were low. Everyone blew through their inventory and then things never got as bad as everyone was predicting (how I have no idea with how many people were out of work). That combined with new car sales being down during the last recession meaning there are fewer new cars turning into used cars. Then you have new car production getting disrupted and here we are. Kinda fascinating thinking about how all this fits together. Especially how different parts of the country are affected.I honestly can't tell. Our market has historically been super-strong -cars way over national average price for used ones (Seattle economy). Since Covid, I've seen prices all over the place, but generally lower than pre-Covid. This is my observations from watching lots of CL ads over the years and more so recently (Selling my step-sons starter car, getting him a new one, and a ski-car for myself).
One thing is clear; the used car market is definitely in flux, and maybe ours locally is out of synch with the nation in general.
I just finished the OPs flood-damage thread, and am starting on the fire-damaged one.
I have to say my experiences this year exactly mirror what you say. I've been tracking vehicles at local auctions and am surprised by what people are paying OTD, especially since many bids are with no inspection at all (I only bid on what I can go touch locally, not as brave as you).
I am going to read your linked threads; interesting. I had been trying to find a 4matic of that gen S500 earlier this spring/summer. I found two that were too rough and one lovely one, but I was a day late in finding that one and missed it. I am just about finished tweaking a Volvo XC70 I bought six weeks or so ago; maybe when that's done I'll start looking again for an S500. There's a jag xj12 at auction next week I sure wish I could justify right now (I can't).
OP's s500 may be powered by the m113, which my old man has one. I believe they went to the dual spark plug design for refinement in the form of a smoother engine without having to spend as much on engineering proper flame propagation in comparison to a single plug design. The w220 generation was known to have quite a strict engineering budget in relative comparison to the previous w140, where they went absolutely nuts.I think I am honestly more surprised that a mid-2000's top of the line Mercedes still has plug wires vs coil on plug, guessing the dual plug arrangement caused this.
How could MB could not engineer a proper flame propagation in one of their flagship engines? Well any engine for that fact.
The Ford 6.2L V8 is a twin plug engine as well as the older(90s) Ranger 2.3L engines.Dang I have never seen a car with two spark plugs per cylinder that’s interesting. Bet they were hard to get out I have dealt with rusty stuck plugs before it’s no fun.
Interesting I didn’t know that.The Ford 6.2L V8 is a twin plug engine as well as the older(90s) Ranger 2.3L engines.