I moved this from the Evolve evaluation thread so as not to jack...

I started having problems with my car getting multiple misfires and CELs around 10k miles. Having run the car with an Evolve tune for 5000k miles, I asked them for advice and got frustrated for a while with slow response from both RK Automotive and Evolve in the UK. Had a little back and forth by email about carbon build up until I gave them the car's mileage and then not a lot. Finally just called them in the UK and they suggested a plug change for a start. The car has been run fairly hard on the highway and a road course day so it made sense given the short plug life on factory JCW cars.

This is what I found tonight:


Installed the new plugs and problem solved.

What concerns me a little though is this:


Is the corrosion here normal for 11k miles?

 

I'm by no means an expert on spark plugs, but I'm inclined to say no. I'm also inclined to say that with the tune on the car, not knowing how aggressive of a tune it is, that it might be wise to run a step colder then what is in the JCW from the factory. Just my opinion, but hopefully some of the experts can chime in here and point you in the right direction.

 

My coils looked like that too. Condensation builds up around the coils so it's normal.

 

I'm worried that mine might look like that too. I wonder what would be a good solution to prevent this... I know that this is not uncommon.

 

It will literally take you 2 minutes to pull them out and see for yourself.

There don't seem to be any aftermarket coils except from Okada yet and those don't really appear to be worthwhile for most people to install.

Incidentally, we make aftermarket coil over plug assemblies where I work but the 2nd gen Mini has not come into our sites yet. Another year or two and it will likely hit our development cycle.

 

My coils had the same thing on them.