[speedlife]

i thought most cars needed a tune up at 60k but how does the accord do it at 100k?

 

[divinewisdom]

you have gotten at least one major service already [50-60k], if you go to the dealership.
the acv6 already comes with the platinum plugs. the dealer wont change them till you get to 90k-100k.

 

[showgunz]

How? Well, as you know platinum is one of the most "inert" metals around. They don't react with hardly anything in nature, hence you can wear them as jewelry and not have to worry about tarnishing them or having green marks on your finger after you put them on. I guess 100K is the service interval they went for in engineering the design of the platinum plugs. A 100K interval sounds nice to a new car buyer. But many cars with platinum plugs are supposed to replace them around 100K miles. In truth, they may last only 90K miles but for marketing purposes, 100K sounds like a nice sales pitch. Also, some anti-freeze are made to last 100K miles. Do they really work at their best until their life is up? I hardly think so. So a lot of people switch out their platinums for plain old copper and new iridium spark plugs. They provide a hotter spark at the cost of shorter life.

 

[canadian1986]

my auto shop teach in high skool said the platinum plugs lasted way longer, but it is still a good idea to get them pulled around 50k to make sure ur engine is running good, cuz the plugs can tell if it isnt running well,


he saw a caddy with plat plugs and they never got pulled till 100k and turned out the engine wasnt runnin properly at around 50k and by the time they pulled the plugs the engine wuz toast...

thats wut he told me, not sure if its right, anyone else kno anything like that?

 

[speedlife]

if your plugs are bad not all your cylinders are firing correct?if this is the case can cause major engine damage? but youd know if your cylinders werent firing no?

 

[showgunz]

You need to write that over again. That didn't make sense. Wait a minute, aren't you the guy who sold me the Noah car cover? Sorry about my PM box being full, but could you send me the warranty and all the necessary papers? I forgot to follow up on that. Thanks.

 

[speedlife]

i thought i mailed it to you after? no?

ok. i know when my moms town car spark plugs went bad, the car puttered. the mechanic said not all spark plugs were firing, one for each cylinder. 8 cyl =8 spark plugs. so basically say the car was running on5 or 6 if 2 or 3 were bad. this can damage the car no?

 

[showgunz]

Yeah. You're basically flooding the chambers with no ignition and losing compression ratio. That's pretty bad. Also, you should notice a big drop in power.

Dude, I didn't get the papers. Send them please. Just mail it in a manilla envelope I guess. I'll update you when I receive it.

 

[V6 i VTEC]

For a long time car companies just used copper plugs, because it was cheap. Copper plugs didn't have a really high life span. As cars became more technologically advanced i.e. combustion temperatures got hotter for better combustion and lower emissions, copper plugs couldn't cut it. Platinum plugs are harder than copper alloy plugs, and can with stand about 1600 degrees and last 3x longer than copper, so car companies eventually went with a platinum plug for increased spark plug life durability. Iridium plugs are even harder than platinum, so naturally they were durable. Iridium has one feature up on platinum though. Since it's so much harder than platinum the center electrode could be made micro small for a hotter spark, in turn providing even better performance and lesser emissions and last just as long as platinum. Even though platinum and iridium will out last copper, and most car manufactures have these "100,000 Mile Tune-up intervals" ... in a real world they're not gonna last that long. That's a stretch and they do it as a selling point. I would probably give them 70-80k miles.

Something new that I have noticed on the horizon is titanium plugs. I know nothing about these, so I have nothing to say about them. I guess we'll have to wait and see how these perform.

 

[speedlife]

For a long time car companies just used copper plugs, because it was cheap. Copper plugs didn't have a really high life span. As cars became more technologically advanced i.e. combustion temperatures got hotter for better combustion and lower emissions, copper plugs couldn't cut it. Platinum plugs are harder than copper alloy plugs, and can with stand about 1600 degrees and last 3x longer than copper, so car companies eventually went with a platinum plug for increased spark plug life durability. Iridium plugs are even harder than platinum, so naturally they were durable. Iridium has one feature up on platinum though. Since it's so much harder than platinum the center electrode could be made micro small for a hotter spark, in turn providing even better performance and lesser emissions and last just as long as platinum. Even though platinum and iridium will out last copper, and most car manufactures have these "100,000 Mile Tune-up intervals" ... in a real world they're not gonna last that long. That's a stretch and they do it as a selling point. I would probably give them 70-80k miles.

Something new that I have noticed on the horizon is titanium plugs. I know nothing about these, so I have nothing to say about them. I guess we'll have to wait and see how these perform.

awesome info. from a business perspective, why would they tell you 100k if it wouldnt last that long or at best last that long? potentially damage the car thus hurting the reliability reputation? as far as service goes, i always thought they over did the service interval to bring you in more often to service your car and pay more money when not needed.

also are you saying that iridium will last as long as platinum?
if they say change at 100k but you wuold think 70 or 80, how do you know when to really change it then? decrease in performance? etc?
how bout the wires, dist cap and rotor. change that too?

 

[V6 i VTEC]

awesome info. from a business perspective, why would they tell you 100k if it wouldnt last that long or at best last that long? potentially damage the car thus hurting the reliability reputation? as far as service goes, i always thought they over did the service interval to bring you in more often to service your car and pay more money when not needed.

also are you saying that iridium will last as long as platinum?
if they say change at 100k but you wuold think 70 or 80, how do you know when to really change it then? decrease in performance? etc?
how bout the wires, dist cap and rotor. change that too?

Like I said earlier...they use long intervals between major services as a key point to selling a car. Most people now want cars that don't require alot of maintenance, so that's why you see things like long life coolant, 100k mile tune ups, and 5000-7500 mile oil change intervals. This may be possible for cars that's just cruised along down the highway 90% of it's life, but that doesn't happen in a real world. I'd recommend using your better judgement on how often you service different components of your vehicle. As for faulty plugs causing engine damage, I really couldn't see that happening ... unless the plug separated and feel in the cylinder causing a piston to break. Something I have seen before though, is a plug that wasn't firing causing a catalyst convertor to melt down because of the raw fuel it was recieving.

As for plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor buttons ... I'd refer to the owners manual. Some may give you a guide line as too when you should replace them, if not I'd say around 45-60K miles. The quailty of these products would determine how long they would last anyway. I recall seeing one car with 200k miles on the original spark plug wires. And yeah Iridium plugs should last as long as Platinum plugs. If you don't drive that hard, you might can push them too 100k. At about 11-15 dollars a piece I think I'd try to maximaze my use out of 'em.

 

[fox_raptor]

does anyone have the denso iridium ik16's? if u do do u know how long they will last? because ive heard of 20k before they need to be replaced, and now i read this thread and it says they last long, so if anyone knows, that'd be great

 

[showgunz]

Denso recommends replacement at 30K. It sounds a bit too quick to replace them, but I rather not be sorry so I'll go by their recommendations. Iridium in itself may last as long as platinum, but Denso Iridium spark plugs are recommened for replacment at 30K miles.

And bad plugs can and slowly damage your cylinders. Can you imagine fouled plugs causing a lot of deposit to form in that chamber and eventually seize the piston and/or connecting rods? Believe me, you want ignitability to some degree in each cylinder. When you have plugs that don't fire, you're inputting fuel and air that doesn't get combusted. Where does that unburnt fuel and air go, hmm? Explain that and maybe I'll be convinced that the engine won't sustain damage.

 

[speedlife]

if they last as long as platinum plugs ,then why change at 30k?
the manual doesnt say when to change the dist cap and rotor and wires

 

[V6 i VTEC]

Denso recommends replacement at 30K. It sounds a bit too quick to replace them, but I rather not be sorry so I'll go by their recommendations. Iridium in itself may last as long as platinum, but Denso Iridium spark plugs are recommened for replacment at 30K miles.

And bad plugs can and slowly damage your cylinders. Can you imagine fouled plugs causing a lot of deposit to form in that chamber and eventually seize the piston and/or connecting rods? Believe me, you want ignitability to some degree in each cylinder. When you have plugs that don't fire, you're inputting fuel and air that doesn't get combusted. Where does that unburnt fuel and air go, hmm? Explain that and maybe I'll be convinced that the engine won't sustain damage.

Unburned fuel is going to go two places. Out the combustion chamber mostly, or down pass the piston rings as blow-by. You would have to run this engine for a loooonngg time with a fouled out plug to damage an engine, and I do mean a long time. You're more likely to burn up a catalyst convertor 1st before damaging an engine. I'm not saying it's impossible, just highly unlikely. If a person couldn't notice that thier car was running on one or two less cylinders, then maybe they shouldn't own a car.

As for engine deposits (Carbon build up) that's something you can't get past. Any engine that burns fuel will have deposit build ups after running.

 

[showgunz]

True. But the blow by is usually for small amounts of fuel not burnt off by normal combustion. The gap around the piston ring is very small. When a spark plug doesn't ignite and the unburnt fuel is mixed around the cylinder, I wouldn't call that a blow by. Besides, the exhaust valves are not big enough to let fuel out of the combustion chamber. The valves let out air, remember that. And if the unburnt fuel leaked through the gap around the piston rings, believe me, your pistons won't last long.

I'm guessing that Town Car probably had bad plugs, but didn't lose ignition in those cylinders completely. Yeah I agree, when one or more cylinders don't produce power, you IMMEDIATELY notice it. In some cases, the engine won't even turn.

 

[V6 i VTEC]

True. But the blow by is usually for small amounts of fuel not burnt off by normal combustion. The gap around the piston ring is very small. When a spark plug doesn't ignite and the unburnt fuel is mixed around the cylinder, I wouldn't call that a blow by.

Blow-by is any type of gas that escapes around the piston rings. Pistons have three rings. At the very top is the 1st compression ring, under that is the 2nd compression ring, and the 3rd is an oil control ring which is a combination of 3 rings by itself but has nothing to do with holding compression in the engine.
There are 4 strokes to an internal combustion engine, intake compression, power and exhuast. When air is drawn into the cylinder, the next step is to compress this air-fuel gas. During the compression stroke, cylinder pressures can reach a few thousand PSI depending on the design of the engine. The object of the 1st and 2nd compression rings is to seal the cylinder and keep as much gas possible in the combustion chamber. Unfortunately not all does, so during the compression stroke and the power stroke some of the air-fuel mixture will blow-by the rings.

Besides, the exhaust valves are not big enough to let fuel out of the combustion chamber. The valves let out air, remember that. .

You're not to clear here, but I'm gonna assume you're referring to me talking about unburned fuel melting a Catalyst Convertor. You'll have to remember that when fuel is drawn in and not ignited, it's still there. So when the exhaust valve is open whatever is in the cylinder will be forced out. whether it be exhaust gases, or unburnt fuel.

And if the unburnt fuel leaked through the gap around the piston rings, believe me, your pistons won't last long.

I agree with you on this, but it would take alot of driving with a dead plug to cause major wear to the piston or cylinder wall.

 

[speedlife]

so when do you change plugs guys. my car has 52k on it. my manual doesnt say when to change the wires, dist cap and rotor

 

[V6 i VTEC]

so when do you change plugs guys. my car has 52k on it. my manual doesnt say when to change the wires, dist cap and rotor

Do it at 60k, if you don't see a service interval for it. They may last longer than that, but I've learned not to push the reliabilty of distributor type ignition systems and thier corresponding components.