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I have just noticed that Mrs F's 36k miles/6yr old plugs should have been changed at 30k/4yrs. This seems a retrograde step, especially as it's such a low revving turbo engine with many fewer sparks per mile than last century's small engined cars (usually no more than 2000rpm). Our 21yr old Focus got new plugs at 50k and 102k miles - and whenever I changed them they seemed just as good looking as the new ones with no change in gap. Is this because the advice hasn't been updated since the demise of plug-fouling leaded petrol?
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Do plugs wear, ie are parts eroded over time by the spark?
I think one set was replaced during the five plus years I had my petrol Fabia.
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Much stronger spark in a modern car John, 30k seems about right, my son ignored my advice to at least check the plugs on his previous car ( peugeot coincidentally) , couple of months later the coil pack failed miles from home,cost him a couple of hundred quid to get recovered home, turned out the plugs had completely worn out, the gaps were massive, put extra strain on the coil pack to the point it went pop.
Your car, your money of course.
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Did not check his plugs and failed to have breakdown cover!
Penny wise, £ foolish perhaps?
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FB, as far as I remember he did have cover in place but for a reason I can't remember they couldn't/ wouldn't recover him, as for you first point you can only ever advise them!
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>>I have just noticed that Mrs F's 36k miles/6yr old plugs should have been changed at 30k/4yrs.
My 50k miles, eleven-year-old Yaris has a recommendation to change the plugs at 60k. They are made from some unobtanium type material!
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>> >>I have just noticed that Mrs F's 36k miles/6yr old plugs should have been changed
>> at 30k/4yrs.
>>
>> My 50k miles, eleven-year-old Yaris has a recommendation to change the plugs at 60k. They
>> are made from some unobtanium type material!
>>
Probably iridium? Still worth taking them out and checking the gaps, it's a twenty minute job.
Last edited by: Paul 1963 on Fri 20 Feb 26 at 20:58
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Update.....fifty pound's worth of NGK 97434 later, plus a new £7 twelve point plug spanner as my old 14mm box spanner wouldn't get enough grip...aarrgghh! Anyway, the original Bosch R6 iridiums came out easily enough, no oil or water in the depths. They actually look almost as good as new. With my trusty old feelers I got 29thou into the new plugs, and 31 thou into the old ones. Indeed, the central electrodes in the old ones look sturdier than the NGKs! So I shall tap them down to 29thou and reinsert them after another 30k miles when I see what the NGKs look like...if I live that long. This modern pricy iridium exchange advice every four years for a mundane runabout seems to me to be verging on an official scam. Thankfully, at 28mm thread length the NGKs are exactly the same length as the Bosch originals. I wonder what, if any, difference the 25.5mm length plugs which were among the recommendations would have made to the performance.
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I'm surprised iridium plugs wouldn't last 60k. I had a toyota I think I missed the servicing point and replaced them at 70k, still fine.
If the original set were made by PSA fair enough but NGK last for years, I think there's some that will do 100k between changes.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Wed 25 Feb 26 at 22:24
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I thought you should never try to adjust the gap on iridium plugs?
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>> I thought you should never try to adjust the gap on iridium plugs?
>>
Correct .
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Actually my last post isnt exactly true, you can gap them but it's not recommended due to the brittle nature of the iridium tip....apologies I posted before thinking!
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same yaris hybrid 70,000 still ok but replaced
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>> Thankfully, at 28mm
>> thread length the NGKs are exactly the same length as the Bosch originals. I wonder
>> what, if any, difference the 25.5mm length plugs which were among the recommendations would have
>> made to the performance.
>>
I suspect none unless the shorter plug tip is recessed.
I remember the expensive plugs being replaced as part of a major service with my previous 1.4 tsi mkII Superb and thought 'ow much! However to be honest it really improved the way the engine performed.
Back in the day I just used a shorter plug in one cylinder of my Dad's 1.3 pre crossflow mkII Cortina to avoid it oiling up, it was truly cream crackered re piston rings, but it did help with plug fowling. It didn't help with the trail of smoke behind the car and extensive terminal rust though!!
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Please don’t adjust the gap on any iridium spark plugs . They are designed to work to give maximum performance. Adjusting the gap alters the angle of the fine tip to the earth electrode .
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>> Please don’t adjust the gap on any iridium spark plugs . They are designed to
>> work to give maximum performance. Adjusting the gap alters the angle of the fine tip
>> to the earth electrode>>
Good advice. I managed to shatter the tip of one of them. Why is this tiny tapered tip so fragile? I have read about engine damage being caused by spark plug disintegration. I had never ever heard of this before. I wonder if it was these fragile iridium plugs? Is this really progress? Why bother with such pricy and risky plugs if the advice is still to change them at 30K/4yrs? Sturdy Champion plugs as per my lawnmower used to cost no more than a fiver and last for decades. I changed the 1990 plugs in my TR7 last year; they still looked OK but admittedly they had done fewer than 25K miles.
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>> I have read about engine damage being caused by spark
>> plug disintegration.
>>
Mrs O'Reliant had a Corsa which suffered that fate. I don't know what type of plug it had but the tip broke off on number three cylinder and made a mess of the bore and possibly the valve seat before being ejected. Being an elderly car it was enough to write it off.
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<< I managed to shatter the tip of one of them. Why is this tiny tapered tip so fragile? >>
If it doesn't need to be adjusted it doesn't need to have built-in strength !
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2019 1.4 Vitara.... but plugs changed to iridium last year after only 45k Miles. I didn’t want any potential problems on a long continental road trip. Probably over cautious.
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Yes spark plugs are a bit 20th century. Probably nearly 19th in fact!! :-)
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>> Yes spark plugs are a bit 20th century. Probably nearly 19th in fact!! :-) >>
How about glow-plugs then ? :-)
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40k intervals on our 1.2TSI Yeti. I've just given it its 100k service, they're good for another 20k.
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Same 40K interval for my Audi W12, but they've been in there since I bought it 12yrs ago. Plan is to try and DIY it this summer on a sunny w/e. (You have to remove the inlet manifolds to get at 'em.) But.....choices, choices. £5 Ridex from Autodoc; £9 Denso or £13 NGK from Halfords. ...... x 12 = a three figure sum! Still, I've heard some folk happily pay that for a couple of rounds of holiday golfsticks which would keep me happily entertained probably for far less time.
Any expert opinion out there about Ridex? I'm all for economising but I don't want bits of plug falling into the cylinders!
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>>You have to remove the inlet manifolds to get at 'em
Blimey, I thought changing 'em on my XV e-Boxer was difficult enough!
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Peugeot - 19 1.2 Spark plugs - still in the 20th century? - Bromptonaut
