A couple of days ago a stealership suggested that my OEM platinum plugs be taken out before they seized in the engine. They have been in the car for almost 10.5 years and have 57,700 mostly highway miles on them.

So I went over to a friend's house yesterday. My friend's brother was there and he has a 99 Maxima with 78K on it (bought 2 years ago @ 56K). I was sure my friend's brother had never had the 60K inspection as he didn't do it and they never mentioned it to him as a selling point when he bought his car.

So I wanted to compare the condition of his spark plugs to mine. I also asked him to check the condition of his throttle body.

There was absolutely no difficulty in removing my plugs. There was a bit of corrosion on them. They may best be described as grey rather than black.
My friend cleaned them up on his electric wheel and we put them back in all nice and clean and shiny.

My friend's brother's plugs were blacker than mine. He similarly cleaned them up and put them back in.

His throttle body was quite clean - no oily brown or black residue at all. We didn't even bother checking mine. Both cars idle perfectly at 650 -700 rpm.

I would like to make the following points:

1. It appears changing OEM platinum plugs @ 60K is a fallacy. Based on the condition of my plugs and my friend's brother's plugs, it appears they are good for close to the first 100K like other manufacturers. Any opinion on this?

2. Despite running nothing but 87 octane (which I don't) my friend's brother's throttle body was as clean as a whistle @78 K. We live in a smog- free/dust-free coastal environment @ sea level.

When do people typically start cleaning their TBs and under what kind of environmental/driving conditions. I may check mine @ say 80 - 90K but I suspect it will be good to go.

Following the cleaning of my plugs, I took my car out and ran it through the gears up to about 80 MPH in 3rd (its a 5-speed, lol) and it pulls strong all the way - no miss, no hesitation nada.

Thanks

 

Replacing at 60k miles is just a suggestion - no one is forcing you to do it You could alwys replace them with coppers which are cheaper

Cleaning the TB is up to you, but most people who are used to it do it like once a year as a type of maintainance. The first time they clean the TB varies from person to person (depending on when they got the car), but at a 100k is a good time to clean it atleast once

 

i clean my tb every 10k miles, trust me youll notice a better throttle response and a difference when you clean the tb, the can costs what? 2dollars?

 

Damn you dont drive too much do you? Jatan is right 60K change for plugs are just a suggestion. The plugs could go for 100K if they look fine. You may want to check the gap. Plugs will widen over time with use. The gap is .44

As for the TB, I clean mine every year. I have a K&N filter, and I think the oils that are on the filter get cought on the TB.

Did you take a rag and try and see if there is anything? It will often look shinny but when you do clean it, there will be a layer of dirt & oil robbing you of power.

Sounds like you have a problem free car.

 

I didn't check my TB. My friend's brother checked his and it looked fine. He didn't wipe it off.

I do have a K&N panel filter that I bought 5,600 miles ago. So maybe I will check my throttle body in awhile. If it looks clean I think I'll leave it. I noticed in the Haynes manual that they do not recommend cleaning the throttle body because there is a protective coating on it.

And as far as cleaning the TB every 10K, I thought I was the most **** .orger, but it appears that I'm not even close. Sound like a case of OCD, lol!

Would a lot of stop and go driving affect the cleanliness of the TB? As I said my car is mostly highway, probably at least 80%.

 

It's probably b/c of your highway driving - I usually end up stuck in traffic going to and from school, and a lot more stop and go city traffic

 

bumpity bump

 

I totally agree with you on that point. Most auto Mfg. are installing platinum plugs at the factory and claiming 100K mile tune ups. My plugs looked just fine when I took them out at 60K. I did do a major service on an org members car not to long ago that had factory platinum plugs with 100K on the clock. They looked clean, but the electrode showed signs of ware as it was quite small which made the spark gap noticably larger. He claimed the car which was a 2000 SE ran fine and got descent mileage as well.




The gas you run really doesn't have that much impact on the TB. The TB is really only seeing fresh intake air through your air filter and just a slight bit of blow by from the engine. Using 87 or 91 isn't gonig to change the blow by amount either. Proper maintenance, oil changes and a clean air filter keeps your intake clean. Although you seem to think your TB is pretty clean, I assure you if you spray it down you'll be suprised at whats going to come back out as grime. It's the nature of the beast, unless the intake was cleaned at some point during an inspection or service recently.

 

spark plug change intervals are dependant on various situations, driving style, brand, type, temperature of operation, etc.. factory recommendations are good ways to keep track in servicing the vehicle. I strongly recommend to go with what the service manuals tell you.

about the octane you choose to use. i mentioned this before in some other threads, it is not going to affect much on your spark plug longitivity. rather, this will affect your knock sensor life. there are combustability issues in the different octane levels. an engine will be designed to perform best under certain types due to combustibility and desired performance output. some cars will work best with low octanes and some high. for our car, we have to stick preferably with 91 octanes. if you keep using the lower octaned fuel, your knock sensor will probably detect relatively more detonation and send signals to the ecu to properly adjust drivability. this over-working of the knock sensor will render you shorter life of the knock sensor.

i am not pointing out problems to your car already. just want to inform you of the possible problems you might encounter in the long run. the early symptom of the knock sensor failure are ghost cel codes, o2 sensor related errors, and lowered fuel milage econs.

i would prefer to use the 91-92 octane fuel just to stay under the factory recommendations. however, i did too many N/A power mods to my car, and i don't think that's factory recommended. lol...

here, i would like to introduce to you this seafoam stuff.

you can use this to clean your throttle body if you like. there is a thread about cleaning the throttle body in the stickies. you can find it easily if you do a little harder on this homework. you can use the seafoam solution to clean the throttle body. i would strongly recommend that.

also you can use this seafoam solution to also clean your intake manifold. many people had turned to me about this seafoam stuff. i always hleped those who asked. i'm sure you would be interested in doing this. i do it once a week. and do a big seafoam flush in many passages for each oil change.

Here goes:

You are going to need to buy this "seafoam" auto marine motor treatment multiuse formula
You can get this easily nowadays from AutoZone or advanceautoparts for 5 bucks plus tax.

This is how you do it:

1) heat up the car, turn the ignition off.

2) remove the intake rubber hose at the throttle body section.

3) Use a route funnel, direct a route deep into the throttle body, and pour half the bottle of this seafoam solution in it while holding the throttle door open by lifting up the springed throttle cable linkage.

4) pull out the route funnel, install everything back including the intake assembly.

Then wait 5 minutes...

5) Crank up the car, but give a little gas to it by pressing down the gas pedal. You’ll feel that the car is about to stall. This is due to flooding carbon buildup picked up by the seafoam solution inside the manifold. Be sure to do it in an area of good ventilation cus you will get huge plumes of exhaust smoke coming outta your tail pipe.

6) When the majority of the smoke is gone, go ahead and take it out on the high way for a high-rev driving. You want to get out all that seafoam stuff.

( I seriously recommend that seafoam doesn't stay in your intake manifold for more than 15 minutes )

One important thing, DO NOT put more than half a bottle of this seafoam stuff in one wash. It’ll flood your combustion chamber with $hit and take out the (engine oil) lubrication on the chamber walls. This will cause frictional grinding and create blow-bys where the piston skirt is running on the molybdenum-coated chamber. You’ll lose compression this way. Not a good idea at all.

After seafoaming, you should feel better throttle response. Smooth idle and stronger acceleration.

I do ¼ bottle once a week on Wednesdays. Recently when I took out the intake manifold to replace it with the MEVI, both my upper and lower intake manifolds are “CLEAN as HECK.”

 

I don't use 87 octane, my friend's brother does in his 99 Maxima. He has put his plugs back in after cleaning them at 78K. My are clean as a whistle, so despite what the Nissan recommends, I will continue to use them for some time. I wonder what NGK states the usage of these plugs is?

Given that my car runs perfectly, I will pass on the Seafoam treatment you recommend. I would get my head examined before I used that weekly.

Certainly there are better things to do in life! Your neighbours must love you.

 

yeah, every wednesday afternoon when i open up my hood, neighboring houses on the same street: all windows shut, doors closed, animals go awol, sky turns gray and stormy, looks like a disaster is about to strike. lol...

 

when i changed my freinds spark plugs 2 weeks ago 2 of his spark plugs were melted and the other 4 looked very black and on thier way to melt i guess its from doing 120 almost eveywhere he goes as i used to when i had my license. i belive my plugs look like that or worse and my tb is prob dirty cuz of my frankencar intake i need a new apex'i filter. BUT MELTED SPARKS PLUGS is nuts

 

Once a week??? Thats wayyy too fukn often bro, i think your addicted to seafoam

 

wat would i use to clean the intake manifold if i live in canada? i cant find seafoam anywhere...

 

all they have is combustion cleaners for the throttle body and all in spray form...

 

go to this seafoam official website:
www.seafoamsales.com

click buy and find all the possible store that you can find them. i'm sure there's got to be someone to carry this product in canada.

if not, try your luck at ebay. i see a bunch of this when i search for seafoam.

good luck

 

thnx, just ignore my private mesage .lol sry
is the bottle at the top left the one im looking for?
" SEA FOAM MOTOR TREATMENT"?

 

You might be able to get it at a NAPA store in Ontario as they're listed for the US, but I have my doubts.

 

i found it at carquest lol, i just dont know which product that i need

 

yeah, that motor treatment is what you need.

you'll need that to pour into most of the flushable system routings

if you want to clean your throttle body, you can get the one on the right, that deep creep is the same stuff but came with a spray nozzle. kinda like those throttle body spray bottles you'll typically find.

have fun

 

lol, i havnet cleaned anything in my car since it was bought...so im guessing im gonna find some black **** come out of my exhaust...should be fun and feel good to see it get cleaned, thnx a lot boys

 

would it be possible to use this same seafoam stuff (the MOTOR TREATMENT one) to clean my throttle body as well instead of the deep creep? (it would save me half the price, the soafoam here in canada, the only one i can find is 18$ each, not much, but id rather spend 18 instead of 36)...

if the answer is yes, is there any side effects?
should i just get another "car combustion cleaner" like they say at the motorvate website?

thnx in advance guys

 

Get a TB cleaner from an auto store for the TB (motorvate uses a carb cleaner, but there are TB cleaners at stores )

 

Just go to Canadian Tire or Lordco if you have the latter in your area.

 

hold up man, 18 bucks each? how much would that be in us dollars?

over here you can get a can of the seafoam motor treatment for only 5 bucks plus tax. you might wanna rethink about buying it at too high a price. if you like, you can always find some websites that sell those at larger quantities for 5 bucks us dollars each.

alos, YES, you can use the same motor treatment for the throttle body cleaning. it's in no harms way to use this pretty much anywhere.

however...

DO NOT use seafoam to clean all parts at once. you can do a throttle body clean today, and run a little bit, then do a intake manifold flush tomorrow or something. while you are doing these, don't pour some into the crank case and the brake booster lines. at last, you can pour some into the fuel tank to clean injectors. but doing too much different seafoam jobs at once may cause extensive clogs and make your car choke and cough and throw sick codes.

 

My thread has been hijacked. There are a million Seafoam threads on this Board. Why pick me?

 

cause this was the thread the other guy explain the manifold cleaning thingy...
also, they dont have seafoam at my canadian tire...never heard of lordco...
carquest sells it for 18$ which is roughly 14 american? and i dont get that stuff off the internet cause i dont have a credit card and my dad and i dont really trust internet stuff

cyu1, if i clean the intake manifold with seafoam saturday morning...can i also clean the throttle body with a tb cleaner the exact same time and be ok?

 

mrgreek: '

Not to humiliate you in a public forum, but you could always use personal mail (PM). It has its purpose.

Good luck with the Seafoam. I'll try it sometime but not until my car has 90,000 or 100,000 miles on it, which will be several years the way I'm going. Hopefully your neighbours won't start a petition, lol!

 

My dad (the cheap guy that he is) is approaching 100k miles on the stock spark plugs. He doesn't have any problems with them.

 

is this for real??? sounds like putting a liquid into your intake???? is it a joke ???

 

The main reason why cleaning plugs won't restore them back to like-new performance is because the sharp corners on the electrodes become eroded and rounded off. Spark initiation takes place at the electric field intensity concentrations at the sharp corners. When the corners get eroded and become rounded off, the field intensity drops off and the voltage required to produce a spark increases, no matter how clean they are. This will eventually result in misfiring and decreased fuel economy, especially at higher rpm.

You can get special spark plug files to restore the sharp edges, but eventually, it is just easier to buy $2 copper plugs and change them at 30k miles.

 

Nope, not a joke. Lots of folks do it.

Chris

 

You should change them at 60 k. The insolators is what is going to crack and could give you problems. The platinum plugs can take the heat but the insolators crack often. Who knows you might be able to go to 100k. But compared to the price of gas, new plugs are cheap.

 

Well I have been driving for 5 months on the NGK plugs that were cleaned in March and the car is still running like new @ 60,200 miles. I have driven 2,550 mostly highway miles since then with no problems and the fuel economy seems to be as good as its ever been. So if ain't broke I'm not going to fix it, lol!

 

I got my injectors ultra sonically cleaned for $110 for my Honda, I think it was worth it

 

And you're the one sending me PMs saying you beat a 98 modded Maxima by 5 to 6 lengths and would take me on anytime. I don't be thinking so with an 88 CRX pos.

Stop sending me PMs and go back to where you came from, please. No trolls allowed!

 

wow you are really helping this thread idiot

 

I replied to your most recent PM. Now stop sending PMs to me, please. I don't want to hear from someone with an 88 CRX and I don't imagine too many .orgers want to either. Cease and desist, please.