A few weeks ago I bought my first ever Mini; a 2010 Cooper Hardtop with 52k miles. Boy do I love this car, even with its base motor! I've been doing every piece of maintenance I'm capable of doing. So far this means gearbox oil, engine oil and filter, cabin air filter, and spark plugs. Supposedly, from what I've read, the spark plugs in the base model are good for 100k miles. I figured I'd replace them because it's fun and cheap, and gives me a chance to get to know the car. I'm glad I did because they were well beyond their useful life! The tips of the ground electrodes had eroded so much (from use) that the gaps on all four measured .055 inches, which is a substantial increase over the recommended .040. The new plugs have even cured some unwanted behavior I was seeing with the old plugs. Below 2000 RPM if I gave it more than about 1/3 throttle, the engine would miss hard, like a hard rev limiter. Also, when pulling away from a stop, the engine would run rough and occasionally stall. With the new plugs all of these symptoms were immediately cured. Never in my life have I seen new spark plugs make a noticeable change.

 

I have a 2010 MC, 65,000 mi. Original plugs. Where did you get the replacements?

 

I bought some Bosch platinums from Rock Auto. Nothing terribly fancy.

 

I hate Bosch Platinums. Crappy QC on them, quite a few fail quickly or instantly.

 

We have seen multiple cars that need plugs at 45-50K miles, they don't go the 100xxx miles the dealer recommend.

We only stock NGK plugs, as they are quality plug that has been tried and true.

MINI Cooper Spark Plugs

 

Never in my life have I seen new spark plugs make a noticeable change.

Really?

As owner of a "classic" I religiously adhere to the philosophy

NEVER futz with the fuel system until you are

150% the electrics are spot on . . .

****************

I'm curious as to the mods on the car

are these OE plugs?

Any other mods?

on my MINIs the plugs looked fine at 50,000 miles . . .

 

We have plugs HERE if needed.

 

I did purhase a set of the OEM NGK plugs at RockAuto a couple of days ago and they were substantially less expensive than any other place I have checked. They are the OEM plugs. Someone stated they have never seen new plugs make a noticeable change in the cars performance. UHH, not to be rude but that person hasn't changed very many plugs or done much car work because new plugs, and depending on the issue(s) with the car can make a huge difference in drivability and performance.

AND it doesn't matter if the spark plug manufacturer has the best gapping machine available to mankind, that is not proof the plugs will be the same gap when they arrive in your hands. ALWAYS check the gap prior to installation. If you've been working on cars for any reasonable amount of time you already know this. Newbies need to understand that one mis-gapped plug can lead to huge problems, and if you aren't much of a troubleshooter it can take forever to figure it out because you'll think because you just installed brand new plugs that it can't be them. That would be the incorrect thinking, but then again, sometimes it takes wrong decisions to learn the correct way.

Boy I got turned around here-I just needed a gap for my R56 non turbo, but I'll get it. My bad.

Cheers to everyone.

 

I was surprised in the improvement in both fuel economy and performance when I swapped out my plugs after as little as 30k miles - but then again, that was after running 30k with tuned ECU and other mods... I use NGK plugs and they're great for me.

 

Hi,
Any one continually get a leak in the back drivers corner of the valve cover? I've pulled mine 2 times now, I've tried a little RTV, and I've got it at 90 inch lbs / 7.5 ft lbs on the bolts and the leak keeps coming back. I've even replaced the valve cover from 1A Auto. This last time I tried a Felpro gasket.

oil ends up down the back of the motor, and down on the bell housing of the transmission. Its not a lot, just annoying.

Any ideas appreciated. I've watched YouTube videos etc and not finding joy.