Sparkplugs after 148,000 miles

There appears to be virtually no wear on the irridium tip of the old plugs. This is consistent with what I've seen. If you look closely at the irridium tip, it is still flat at the top and there is a small spot with no deposits that allowed for good spark. The pad on the ground electrode also shows little to no wear.

I know I'll take heat for saying this and there will be many dissenting opinions but, I'll say it any way.

There is no reason the deposits cannot be cleaned off of these plugs and the plugs reinstalled for another 50K miles or more. There is virtually no wear on these plugs (just deposits). If you research irridium, you will find it is one of the hardest, and the most corrosion resistant metal known to exist (this is why its used on spark plugs). It is also more rare than gold.

If you compare the new plug to the old plugs, the only difference you will find is carbon deposits. Sand blasting with a spark plug cleaning tool will render these plugs like new or there are several how to's online to do it w/out a blaster. Even the NGK web site says spark plugs can be cleaned.

Just some info and food for thought.

 

It was time for that change.

 

No heat. And why wait so long to have a look at them, I mean, sparkplugs are kind of the combustion chamber's dipstick. I'm inclined to pull the plugs about 50,000 km, clean and re-install. Then replace at 100,000 km, whether they need it or not.

The only thing, maybe depends on the plug, but I suspect those are the kind that have a coating on the tip, that could be damage by sandblasting. Check the manufacturer's website to be sure. In any event, they can be cleaned quite effectively with just carbueretor cleaner and an old toothbrush. You could wire brush the threads, but stay clear of the tip.

 

No coating on the tip. With irridium being so hard, you don't need a coating.

 

Never ceases to amaze me how clean Prius spark plugs still are after 150K miles... Times have changed so much since I worked in an auto shop in the 1980's

 

Because?

 

I think the manual said at 100,000.

 

If the manual said to jump off a bridge, would you do it?

Those plugs look good for at least another 50k miles, just hit 'em with a toothbrush and pop'em back in. There's virtually no wear on them...

 

If you're going to the effort to pull the plugs you might as well put new ones in... One less thing to wonder about if you start having engine problems in 50-100K miles from now.

 

WHAT IRIDIUM TIP NGK SPARK PLUGS DID U USE WHAT IT THE LASER PLATIUM IRIDIUM TIP ?

 

I am sorry I gave u my opinion, and I would not jump off a bridge unless a hot babe went in first.

 

If the manual said to jump I probably would.

 

Semi-seriously, you would been fine for another 100k miles.

I replaced the plugs on my mom's old Camry after ~100k, not because of a misfire or anything, but because they were too old and didn't get hot enough for the car to pass smog at low load. I imagine a car that's 15 years newer would do twice that w/o breaking a sweat.

 

Saving money in the wrong places if you try and run plugs for 200k miles. The op said they were noisy coming out. I've seen numerous honda owners wait until the plugs misfire to change them. At that point they are seized in and can strip threads in the head while they come out.

 

Yes, but the ground electrode AROUND the pad is all worn out. This plug was long overdue for a change.

 

The NGK IX are high performance/short life plugs. I guess it'll be shot in 30,000 miles.

 

Whenever I get a high mileage used car I throw in plugs and wires. Once I get the old plugs out to inspect it is no extra labor to reinstall new plugs. I have seen master tech mechanics chase drivability issues for hours when it was bad wires or plugs. Whenever I see crusty looking wires or the plugs that look old I do that first.
One Toyota truck would start for 10 seconds and die. After hours and hours it was discovered that the cap and rotor was bad. With a hybrid imagine all the wasted time troubleshooting inverter , mg1 and other components if you had a weird intermittent short in a plug causing an unrelated code.