I've got a nasty rough idle.. I'm at 40K, but the car was bought 7/99 so it has many city miles and hours on the engine. Anyway, the idle has always been alittle rough. I was promised new plugs but when I returned 2 weeks later there was a new service writer and no note in my file

Anyway, here is the #1 plug.


I've been planning to replace them soon.. But I decided to just pull one and see what they looked like before dropping $60+.

so, you guys think this plug is bad enough to be part of my loaping problem?

 

Couldn't hurt! Go for it.

(Thanks for the wire BTW, I got it this week.)

ARFF

 

color-wise it looks normal... Is the tip really misshaped like that, or is it just a shadow... I can't tell. Regardless, swap those plugs out and I am pretty sure your rough idle will go away You may want to just use copper plugs if you don't mind swapping them sooner.

 

I just pulled my plugs at 73k miles and the tips were mis-shaped from the spark over 70k miles.

 

yeah, its not pointed anymore :/ it actually has a plateu.

I thought they would be more fouled, but they dont appear to be..

 

Does your engine have any pinging issues... or did it previously?

 

oh, one more question.. I had the car off for about 45 mins, but it was still warm.. not *hot* but warm.. When I reinstalled the plug again 15 mins later the engine still felt warm.. any harm in that? I read your engine should be cold, but you'd have to wait quite some time for that.. I'm fairly sure the nissan dealer doesnt wait that long to swap plugs. :/ They offered to do it in 30 mins the last time I asked. I did use a torque wrench tho @ 20ft-lbs.

 

yeah, just got new coils 6,000 miles ago.

 

heh, no problem, enjoy!.. I stuffed a *ton* of wire in there, about 20x more than you'll need.

 

that makes sense then... as for the warm engine... it doesn't matter. As long as you used a torque wrench on the plug it should be fine... If you want to be **** about it, just double check the torque on them when the engine cools...

 

COOL. I'm afraid now I'll wait around for months before I do it. I saved your pics though of the brackets.

Anyway, I read somewhere once that the block should be slightly warm when you change them. That's how I do it anyways...should be fine!

ARFF

 

The most important thing is not to overtighten them. They could strip the aluminum head. And as long as the temperature was relatively the same, you should have no problems. The metal does change slightly based on the temperature. I've never heard of any problems though.

Just my .02 but I like to change plugs every 30,000 miles (platinum or not). Plugs do take a beating and for the price and ease of installation, its a good idea to change frequently.

 

So, if I get this right?

The plugs should be changed when the engine is slightly warm (comfortable enough to keep hands on the block) and the only other requirement is to torque them properly.

thanks
SHIFT_woosh

 

torque spark plugs. Have not changed mine yet. Are they tapered seat or crush washer type?

 

Tim,

I haven't changed the plugs in my Maxima yet, but as far as plugs go, this one doesn't really look all that bad. I don't see much, if any, carbon build up, nor do I see any oil residue on the plug. Also, the plug looks pretty clean overall. The only thing that concerns me is that the electrode tip looks a little weird, as if it has melted. If that is what it looks like to you too, you might consider using a "cooler" plug to try and prevent this in the future.

Here's a question for you: Does the curved metal piece (the part that goes to ground and receives the spark) have a little indentation on the inside of it where the spark has been going to ground? If so, this can cause the gap to be off even though it will measure correctly with the gap tool.

Let me know what you decide to do . . .

 

yeah, electrode is mushroomed, ground is scalloped alittle. I think that was from the bad coils I had for 36K miles