spark plug question

I have. The NGKs don't work well at all in the BMW M30. Have not tried them in a Bug. They're more expensive than the Silbers although they're a whole lot easier to get. None of the auto parts stores want to carry the Silbers; in the US they seem to be a specialty shop item.

The Bosch Platinums are total crap... I tried them in the M30 engine and they do not behave well at all. I suspect they're a much higher profit margin item too.

--scott

I think everything internal combustion powered I own has NGK spark plugs, despite coming from places as varied as Smyrna, Tennessee, USA; East Liberty, Ohio, USA; Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan; Wuyang, Guangzhou, China; Iwata, Shizuoka, Japan; and Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

interesting. did you experiment with the heat range at all? i know some of the more modern bmw's come with custom 4-ground ngk's from factory so i can't imagine what any disruption mechanism might be other than mistaken spec.

so plenty of room for german, italian, french, swedish, british and russian then!

Want list:

Germany - BMW G650GS Sertao Italy - Aprilia Tuono V4R France - Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 (Group B homologation) Sweden - Volvo C303 GB - Triumph Bonneville SE Russia - Ural Czech Republic - Tatra 813 8x8 Canada - Honda Civic Si Thailand - Honda PCX 150 Austria - KTM 690 SMC R Antarctica - Penguin

re france, concur - what an incredible vehicle. and of that era, have you ever seen the ari vatanen video, "climb dance"? check it out on youtube if not.

re canadia, the 89 e.f. is my personal fave. recently managed to get one with a completely straight frame - almost unheard of. with more room than the crx, and very nearly as light, it's pretty much the ultimate in practical car that'll seat 5, that with the seats down will fit a full size file cabinet and a huge amount of other garbage, and all in a little package that corners so hard, it'll shame vehicles many times its price. i just wish honda had made a little pickup of it - like the rabbit pickup of that era.

I did not, although since I just ordered a set of Silbers for the 2002 and Bavarian Motorsport charged me $6 each for the things, maybe I will in fact play with slightly hotter and cooler NGKs next time. The Silbers are the plugs that are well under a Euro in Germany....

--scott

I don't see a Trabant on this list. How could you not want a Trabi?

--scott

if you're paying that kind of money, go for the ngk iridiums [but shop around - prices vary a lot]. very wide heat range, and the fine electrode will fire almost any extreme of mixture.

Update on this.... Got home so it's 4000 miles later. In the first

50 miles of the return trip it started missing again and I almost turned back. It was raining most of that 50 miles. Slogged on another 10 miles to the Interstate Service Area with it seeming to come and go. Check engine light flashed on and off and on and off several times and then stayed on. Got to the Service area and shut it off, opened the hood and poked around looking for wetness but everything seemed dry. Started it back up and the light was off and it ran fine. Ran fine for the rest of the trip, 4000 miles. Yesterday I drove it quite a bit and no problems and when I got home I left it on and got my infrared heat measuring gun and measured the exhaust manifold by the three cylinders on the side I replaced the plugs. Front cyl was about 450 degrees, second cyl 550 and third cyl 550. So that's making me think it may be related to those fuel injectors running too lean as was suggested by the web post I found. Anyone know what the "normal" temp is when getting a manifold temp reading like this?? Averaged 20.5 mpg for the trip.

if you can't connect rain with an indication of an issue with the ignition system, then the problem is in the passenger compartment, not the engine compartment.

but you didn't bother to pull the code, just like you can't be bothered to report what it is...

of course - humidity is always irrelevant if something's not actually soaking wet.

after the warmth of the engine had dried it out...

and ignoring all the other usenet posts that disagree...

it's not the temperature, it's the /difference/ in temperature.

bottom line, if you want to go ahead and change the injectors, then go ahead and do it. just don't keep bothering us about it - especially since you don't want to analyze what these symptoms indicate, and you're clearly not prepared to listen to anyone else who does.