when Randy put these plugs in my car he indicated that they were good for a long time(50-60k). It's been roughly 30 k and I pulled them today just to have a look see and lo and behold they were totally smoked! one had no small section to the electrode at all and 2 of them looked as if they had been blowing by at the junction of the base and the ceramic (just above the hex). I check them for torque often . Is this "normal" for these things? Luckily I have a back up set that I put in.what happened to the small piece that broke(wore) ? the gap appeared to have almost doubled from the new ones I put in.I guess from now on I check em a little more often , eh? Jock

 

did you or randy regap them?

there's another current thread on these in which somebody regapped them to 0.065" and had them fry like yours.

 

There must be something in the air lately...seems like a lot of spark plug problems all of a sudden!

 

I had my IK22s installed for 17,000. Two of the plugs were completly worn.

I did not change the gap from what they came out of the box. Seems as though quite a few people are starting to have plug problems...

I am trying a second set, now. I am retorquing every couple thousand miles and will be changing them b/4 17,000. Denso's website states they should be changed arroung 30,000.

My 2004 MINI Cooper S ran much better with the Densos. I put factory plugs back in since the densos and I am finding the car does not run as good. This is why I'm trying the Densos again.

 

nope they were installed as gapped by Denso and never touched since.????the truly weird thing is that the car ran pretty good.I was starting to notice the odd misfire when the hammer went down hard.I guess that's why I took em out to have a look.

 

Can this be an issue with only Denso's irridium plugs? OR has others experienced this with other brands? So far this seems like only the Densos are having issues.

Garrett

 

I think the NGK plugs are a little cheaper and have a larger center
electrode. I'll watch my Densos closely and switch if I see any
center electrode degradation.

 

Check this out -- Johan

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=61235

 

as long as we're showing pics, enclosed is mine, sorry for focus issue ,but my camera doesn't have a macro setting.note one is completely devoid of the electrode tip and another has discoloration indicating heated blow by right through the plug discoloring the ceramic. also of note is the fact that the gap has almost doubled from the factory setting of .032








anybody having any better luck with ngk irridium? what is the plug number that equals the IK22 as far as a colder range for smaller pullies?

 

hmmmm, thinking about all of this, is this only happening to aftermarket plugs? Has anyone checked out the stock plugs? This is scary considering that others are having this issue and with different plugs. By the way what are the mods on everyones cars that have had problems?

Garrett

 

my mods are listed in my sig.

 

I just pulled and re-gapped my IK-22's. They've been in for a solid 40,000 miles at about .040 (pullies, sd coil pack, etc.). I'd been getting a little detonation, so I decided to reduce the gap back to .032 (smaller gap equals less spark equals smaller likelihood of pre-ignition, or so it would seem) and indeed that is what has happened. Now there's hardly any detonation and no sacrifice in power.

Oh yeah! My plugs are in great shape . . . still plenty of tip and all equally a nice shade of grey (right in between Pure Silver and Dark Silver ). So I'll go with the IK-22's the next time I need plugs, if that ever happens.

 

Reason for mods, is maybe this could be broken down into something smaller and can find the issue. But from your extent of mods, your pretty much stock. Nothing major. So what would this be. Could it be due to running so rich?

Garrett

 

I'm not sure what you're saying here. I agree that I'm pretty much stock except for the unichip on the more agressive setting. Why would my car be running rich?

 

I did not know your car was running a unichip. From the factory the car is programmed to run rich. This is done to prevent detonation from running lower octan fuels i.e. 89 or 91 octan.

Garrett

 

this car has NEVER seen anything but a steady diet of 93 octane (94 when I can find it) for its entire 70 k lifetime. I change my oil religiously at 5k.
Jock

 

I ran stock plugs in my stock MCS for 62,000 miles. I cleaned them twice
and the tips looked perfect when I finally installed the M7 16% pulley and
the IK22s. I will be closely monitoring them after seeing this thread.

Kinda makes you wonder about Iridium vs Platinum, don't it?

 

Do you know which plugs came from which cylinger?

 

Funny everyone swears by these things and i have gone through my first and last set for sure especially considering I blew the motor with them installed!

 

they are displayed as they came out, although I'm not sure why it matters???I would still like to know what the options are as far as other brands/types that have the "colder range" .I must say I am becoming less and less likely to stick with these densos the more I read here (especially scca's post!!!!!)The other thing that really bothers me is : what happened to the broken piece of electrode????

 

And you are blameing the plugs for a blown motor

 

I have had the IK22s for over 10K miles. Didn't change the gap from OEM right out of the box. I've checked torque every few thousand miles.Today I pulled the plugs, all 4 looked great, gap checked at .032 on all four. I have OEM coil pack, Nology wires, torque 18 ftlbs with antisieze. A few autoX and tracks days but mostly street miles, however, those are rompin - stompin - fire eating street miles

 

What I am getting at on asking about the mods are to see if people with problems have similar setups. Just taking into consideration what may cause the issue. But then again the mods might not even have a play on some of the cars. But with ones with upgraded wires, or ignition upgrades and have issues, might want to double check things and make sure that those upgrades are not the cause of their problem. Many have had great success with upgraded plugs and others do not. So there is something fishy going on with the select few that are having problems.

Garrett

 

I thought that there might be a relationship between electrode wear and spark firing direction. That doesn't seem to be the case though.

 

people are referencing 0.32 gap but the denso website indicates they come pregapped at 0.44 - am I missing something here? Is the the diffrenece between regular version and colder version?