The dealer says I need new plugs. The maintenance manual is ambiguous, in some places implying every 30K, 60K, 120K miles. Called another dealer and they said iridium plugs should go 110K miles.
The manual lists Denso SK20R11 and NGK IFR6A11. I can find the Densos online for $8-9 but not the NGKs. There are other model NGKs for the car listed for $7 at parts stores though. Will it matter if I get the other model NGK plugs?
It CAN matter if you get the other model plug.
I once owned a brand new 1985 Chevy Celebrity Eurosport -- the Eurosport was a trim package that included a "better" motor and some whistles and bells. Whatever, the car was a pile of crap that I regret to this day. In any case, a couple of years pass and I decide to change the spark plugs. That's when the trouble started.
The car was new enough that the parts catalogs had not caught up with it yet. I resisted buying parts at the dealership and went instead to the local parts store down the street. I got new plugs that had all of the same letters, except that a C was missing in the middle. "No big deal," the guy said, "these are right." Wrong. The car barely was able to get out of the driveway. I thought I must have broken some plug wires so I bought a new set. No joy. Turns out, the "better" engine was better because of software and spark plugs. Basically, tuning was the only difference. The missing C meant that the plugs were the hinh energy type, or something like that, and without that C, tuning went into the shithole.
Bottom line, be very carefull with your plugs.
Having said that, rolling up on 100k is about the right time to be considering new plugs. Do not be in a rush to replace them if you cannot find the right ones.
Hi,
Below is the Denso site to check out the plugs. From my own experience I change plugs probably sooner than later just for trying to maintain the best efficiency of the vehicle. I changed plugs on our 2002 Camry LE at 95K and noticed a little better difference. Many car companies say you can run your car between 5K - 7.5K before changing oil, but many owners prefer to change conventional oil between 3K -
4K miles if they're using their vehicle in an urban environment.
-- Jan Alter bearpuf@verizon.net
Same here for a '78 Corolla. This was old-time, so at 40,000 I replaced the plugs. They had a "C", OK....first letter in the name ;)
Once it got below 45 degress the car was hard to start. I went to Toyota and the guy said Did you use NGKs?
Installed fresh NGKs and ran them for...er...another year. Then someone pulled out in front of me...:(
A related question to this thread. Denso does not recommend to use anti-seize compound when installing SK20R11. I would like to get some feedback on this, if this is what I should do.
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