About a week ago I bought some Autolite Double platinum spark plugs for my '96 GXE. After discussing this with some of you, I found out (the hard way), that my car needs the NGK's. My car started having rough idle this past weekend. So, I replaced those Autolites with some Copper NGK (BKR5E-11).

Anyway, to make a long story short -- the car's rough idle went away--so far. May have been the Autolites, maybe not... who knows? At least, now I feel better that I have those NGK's

Also, I noticed that some of you believe that the stock platinum NGK's are worth the extra money. Well, I emailed NGK prior to buying the copper's and this is the email they sent back:

"All NGK spark plugs have copper cores or nickel cores. The platinum and iridium are used on the firing ends for longevity not in the core of the spark plug. The BKR5E-11 has a copper core, however the firing end uses nickel alloy rather then precious metals. The longevity will be less and the ignitability won't be as good as the fine wire platinum and iridium spark plugs."

NGK Technical Customer Service Representative

Name of this NGK person has been withheld for privacy reasons.

Anyway, I thought I would share this email with you all as I thought it said a lot. It should make some of you mad (those that spent the extra doe on Platinums) and it may make others of you sad (for the others who bought the platinums)

 

" The BKR5E-11 has a copper core, however the firing end uses nickel alloy rather then precious metals. The longevity will be less and the ignitability won't be as good as the fine wire platinum and iridium spark plugs."

It should make some of you mad (those that spent the extra doe on Platinums) and it may make others of you sad (for the others who bought the platinums)"

Why would it make others sad\? As you just quoted, there are benefits to having the platinums over the coppers.

 

Let's list the benefits of Platinum plugs, shall we?

1. Longevity over copper due to that precious metal being on the firing tip

That's about it. And for that you're paying $9 - $15 more per plug??

The ignitability is up for debate. If the Platinums have a copper core just like the Copper V Power, then how does a drop of Platinum at the tip make this more ignitable? If anything, the Platinum just makes the plug's electrode more durable--right?? But is that durability worth a premium of 10x's the going rate for a spark plug?

I think the Platinum & Iridium plugs are nothing more than a gimmick (similar to the gimmick of an Extended Warranty on household items like VCR's and DVD players). I think Spark plug companies are marketing their plugs like Credit Card companies market their credit cards (i.e. Titanium, Platinum Plus, Centurion, etc.).

 

Read the quote again.

" The BKR5E-11 has a copper core, however the firing end uses nickel alloy rather then precious metals. The longevity will be less and the ignitability won't be as good as the fine wire platinum and iridium spark plugs."

Notice the part about the ignitability?

 

Many guys here who are quite knowledgeable use the copper plugs with no issues. I followed their lead, and am happy I didn't shell out $50 more for platinums. Changing them is elementary, thereby making the plats a waste of resources.

I have noticed zero performance difference.

 

i have said this over and over again... copper plugs are better than platinum plugs performance/cost wise

 

Maybe we should ask Steve to do a dyno plot of copper vs. plats.

 

no more steve plots

 

Now, this may be a stupid question, and I wouldn't be all that surprised if SprintMax went off on my a$$, but the first weekend I owned my Max, I went and put Bosch Platinum's in my car not knowing what I was doing.

The car has been running fine, but recently it seems to very briefly feel like it's stalling. The only times I feel this is when I'm at a constant speed and the speed doesn't seem to be a factor. I am planning on changing the plugs to NGK Coppers this weekend. Do you think this minor stalling will stop?

 

Hey,

Take it from me -- I had Bosch Plat's prior to my last series of spark plug changes (that's what triggered the replacements in the first place) -- I had hard starts in the morning and my engine would stumble and stall. Just FYI I used the Bosch Plats for approx. 30k miles before all this developed.

The weekend before last I pulled the Bosch out and noticed that they looked pretty fouled from all the hard starts. I replaced them with Autolites (which performed pretty well up until this past weekend where I just noticed some rough idle). Now, it could have been that I haven't cleaned my TB, but I just felt I needed to put the NGK's in so that I don't have any doubts, so I swapped those Autolites out with NGK Copper's this past weekend. The car is running like a dream again (other than some vibrations from my wheels which are still not quite perfectly balanced).

 

How long do they usually last? I've had mine in for about 40K. I thought they laste or should be replaced somewhere in the range of 30K, but performancewise, no complaints whatsoever.