Anyone know the service life of these plugs? Not the marketing hype - 100,000 miles. I've got 20,000 on these now, about the right time to replace I figure.

Michael

 

Allegedly, the JCW sparkplug is only available from BMW. BMW's part number for this plug is 12 12 0 031 708; the price is between $36 and $46 EACH.

I dont know the service life but I hope for your sake that its more than 20k miles.

 

Ouch Can't see that ever happening.

 

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLY CRAP! Gotta go call someone...a bank, Ha! I kill me. Well...I'm really speechless, er, writeless. $200.00 for a set.

 

I'm at almost 35K on the JCW plugs (41K total) and going strong .

 

You think thats bad, price the air filter for the JCW intake

$99 + tax

 

OK... Clearly they're following the BMW approach to pricing. M cars have insane replacement part costs too. First step: shop around. Second step: seek equivalent parts from alternate source. Last resort: Bend over

 

ouch


Nik

 

Hey MINICOOPERMIKE any picks of your car posted anywhere? I think im getting ready to order an 05 and was playing with the pure silver/ checkered roof with red "s" and the black and red "s" side stripes, it would be nice to see a pic of a simular car. you could email me at gblevins@nefcom.net

 

they should be at least 100k I just put some on but my car has 94k and the stockers where in great shape still.

 

The plugs are expensive because these are the OEM version of plugs produced by NGK. You can purchase the exact same style plug by NGK (i.e. one range colder), but it only has a life of 20,000 miles (as claimed by NGK), and not the 100,000 miles the OEM plug has.

 

Thanks for the info...bending over, as was suggested, is indeed a last resort.

I asked about the plugs because initial throttle tip-in power is very lazy lately. I've also noticed that the oil temp gauge - chrono package - indicates oil temps on the higher end of the scale than usual for what are still fairly cool morning temps here in the North East. Yes, I know the guage is not the most accurate, but it definately moves around in sinc with my heavy foot.
...something else??? I here coolant sloshing around every morning until the thing warms up - this after the JCW install. Perhaps I have air in the system??? An askew TB??? Dunno, but it's very noticable. Clogged IC???...no catch can...

Can't figure out what might be wearing after 21K miles???

 

I'd work the symptoms from easiest/cheapest to hardest/most expensive. Starting with an inspection of the plugs sounds good. If they look OK, and I bet they do, moving on to the coolant slosh/air in the system theory would be next. That would cause the car to run warmer than normal and have a sluggish throttle response. You'd never know it from the dumbed-down water temp gauge, but elevated oil temps on a healthy engine are a good indicattor that it is indeed running warm. Sometimes bleeding the last of the air from the cooling system requires some persistence.

Of course, you could always ask the dealer to diagnose it. Maybe they'd even throw dome of those solid gold spark plugs in it.

 

I'll look at the coolant thing more closely. It may not have been a problem with winter temps; if I look back, I took delivery the last week of Sept. 04, went to Italy for a few weeks, almost broke the engine by the beginning of Dec., then the JCW parts were in, couldn't really break it in after the initial install because they forgot half the parts...So, it was late January before I could really hammer it. The hotter weather may be aggravating the air pocket thing...

I'll keep all posted.

michael