NGK 7446 Laser Iridium at 190,000 miles

[The Critic]

Untitled by thecritic89, on Flickr

I was prepping a used car for sale (for a co-worker) and removed these from a 2002 Acura RSX Type-S. The car had 190,000 miles. The owner had purchased the car used with 105,000 miles and has never replaced them during the term of his ownership.

Unless they were replaced prior to 105k, these should be the original plugs from the car. The gap measures dead on. This car also consumes a quart of oil every 1000 miles.

These really don't look bad at all. Perhaps Iridium plugs really do last the life of the vehicle?

 

[Urshurak776]

I know the NGK's are stock on 2005 and up. I thought Denso was stock on earlier models? Not sure.

 

[Falken]

I plan on changing mine on the Fit when I hit the 5 year of ownership mark (I bought car end of 2010).

I procrastinate with it because I have to tear off the whole cowl and pan underneath to access the plugs at the back of the engine.

The reason I want to do it at five years is to truly not have to do it ever again rather than needing to change them from misfires at the 9 year mark and they are all seized in the head.

The local dealer wants 5$ per blue cowl clip, and they break easy, so I am not looking forward to this simple service!

Did they feel seized in the head at all when you were removing them?

Ahh, maybe I'll just leave them in for the life of the car... But I already bought the plugs pretty cheap from RockAuto...

 

[Vikas]

Is that timing belt engine? If so, may be full service was done at 105K miles? Also since these are IR plugs, they are most likely replaced. That era of Honda would have come with laser platinum from factory. IR plugs came out later in years,. Check the under hood decal on that car and tell us what plugs are listed there and if they match what came out of the car.

 

[Chris Meutsch]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Is that timing belt engine? If so, may be full service was done at 105K miles? Also since these are IR plugs, they are most likely replaced. That era of Honda would have come with laser platinum from factory. IR plugs came out later in years,. Check the under hood decal on that car and tell us what plugs are listed there and if they match what came out of the car.


My 2001 Civic had Iridiums from the factory......

Those look great for nearly 200k.

 

[barkingspider]

Ngk spark plugs are good in my book. I use them in my GM vehicles w zero problems.

 

[benjamming]

Originally Posted By: Chris Meutsch
Originally Posted By: Vikas
Is that timing belt engine? If so, may be full service was done at 105K miles? Also since these are IR plugs, they are most likely replaced. That era of Honda would have come with laser platinum from factory. IR plugs came out later in years,. Check the under hood decal on that car and tell us what plugs are listed there and if they match what came out of the car.


My 2001 Civic had Iridiums from the factory......

Those look great for nearly 200k.


Likewise, my 2002 Accord had Iridiums from the factory as well.

 

[Vikas]

You guys are correct and I was wrong. That car came with NGK IFR7G-11K. Looks like those were iridium. Looking at the Amazon pictures, the tips seem to have worn somewhat on the OP's picture.

 

[Kool1]

I have 175,000 miles on my 2003 CRV and replaced the spark plugs twice. I recently installed Denso iridium TT spark plugs where electrodes on both the center and ground are small and the plugs are known as twin tips. The major difference I can feel between the long life iridiums and the TT iridiums is that I now have a rock solid idle.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

They better last 200k if they cost $10 each!

 

[fredfactory]

That was original equipment, the NGKs like Vikas and others say, the car was bought at 105,000 miles. A lot of people will put new original equipment plugs in at 100,000 miles. So doubting these are fully original.

I guess OBDII on board diagnostics detect misfire pretty well from what I've seen. One could just wait til they see the OBDII codes appear!

 

[ARCOgraphite]

For OEM:
Do the terminals have a paint dot on them? They do have blue script ...

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: fredfactory
That was original equipment, the NGKs like Vikas and others say, the car was bought at 105,000 miles. A lot of people will put new original equipment plugs in at 100,000 miles. So doubting these are fully original.

I guess OBDII on board diagnostics detect misfire pretty well from what I've seen. One could just wait til they see the OBDII codes appear!

The car was on a Ford dealer's lot at about 105k. The car does not call for plugs until 110k since this is a 4-cyl Honda. No timing belt service is required on this one, and I'm sure a lot of people sell/trade their cars before that big service.

Originally Posted By: Kool1
I have 175,000 miles on my 2003 CRV and replaced the spark plugs twice. I recently installed Denso iridium TT spark plugs where electrodes on both the center and ground are small and the plugs are known as twin tips. The major difference I can feel between the long life iridiums and the TT iridiums is that I now have a rock solid idle.

Interesting. Are those the new TT Iridiums that I've heard people talk about? I put a set of Denso 3419s in this RSX Type-S as the replacements.

 

[Cardenio327]

Originally Posted By: Falken
I plan on changing mine on the Fit when I hit the 5 year of ownership mark (I bought car end of 2010).

I procrastinate with it because I have to tear off the whole cowl and pan underneath to access the plugs at the back of the engine.

The reason I want to do it at five years is to truly not have to do it ever again rather than needing to change them from misfires at the 9 year mark and they are all seized in the head.

The local dealer wants 5$ per blue cowl clip, and they break easy, so I am not looking forward to this simple service!

Did they feel seized in the head at all when you were removing them?

Ahh, maybe I'll just leave them in for the life of the car... But I already bought the plugs pretty cheap from RockAuto...


Don't sweat the cowl clips. I did the lost motion spring recall myself on my Fit because I don't trust the dealerships here. I am impatient and ham-handed, and even so I think I only broke one of the cowl clips, and it doesn't need all of them.

Warning: Since you live in Canada, your Fit might have been made in Japan or it might have been made in China. If it was made in China, on some of them they didn't properly torque the spark plugs. The plugs will loosen on their own, and tear the threads out of the head when they eject. When I did the LMS recall on mine I didn't remove the plugs, but I did check their torque, even though mine was made in Brazil, not China.

By the way, I have no intention of changing my plugs until it gets to 170,000 Km, unless I somehow flood the engine or it throws a misfire code.

Edit: Falken, I'm pretty sure the plugs can be changed without removing the cowl or intake, you just need an excellent visualization in your mind's eye of how the coils are removed and replaced, and a good selection of plug sockets, wobblies, and torque adapters in order to torque them properly.

 

[Vuflanovsky]

Yeah, I would seriously doubt those are the original plugs. All the cars I've had over the last 12 years or so have had NGK Iridium plugs. While I don't doubt that they'll last 100K miles, you'll feel the difference if they're replaced at 70K miles. I noticed this particularly in a 2009 Mazda 3 which ran considerably better when they were replaced at 65K miles in between regular maintenance. In my experience, these plugs will run 100K miles but with noticeably degraded performance by that time that you'd probably be changing them earlier. I don't see any of them going 200K miles.

 

[Kool1]

Interesting. Are those the new TT Iridiums that I've heard people talk about? I put a set of Denso 3419s in this RSX Type-S as the replacements.

Yup, these are the TT iridiums that came out recently. Denso claims they should go 100,000 plus miles.

 

[fredfactory]

Originally Posted By: Vuflanovsky
In my experience, these plugs will run 100K miles but with noticeably degraded performance by that time that you'd probably be changing them earlier. I don't see any of them going 200K miles.


Do you notice a slightly rougher idle first? I've heard OBDII misfire codes can be thrown. Wondering if somebody can just let the OBDII system detect the first signs of bad firing.

 

[Brybo86]

while they may last 200k without causing damage, when I did my plugs at 96k, i got an immediate 2-3 mpg on the highway.. ?

 

[Patman]

The Laser Iridiums that come on Honda and Acura vehicles pretty much do last the life of the car. There is one guy on the Honda forums who put a million plus miles on his Civic and he was still running the original plugs the entire time! He even swapped motors at one point and used the same plugs! He checked them a number of times and found them to be good so he decided to keep running them.

When I bought my Civic I foolishly replaced the OEM plugs with inferior Champion iridiums, even with only 80k on the car. Just a few months ago though, I put in some Laser Iridiums though, and I plan on leaving them in for the rest of the time I have this car (I now only drive it about 6 or 7k a year though, so I should have no trouble sticking with these plugs even if I kept the car 10-15 more years-which is unlikely)

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
They better last 200k if they cost $10 each!


In Canada they cost me $25 each including tax! Ouch! (I was impatient though and bought them from a Honda dealer instead of ordering them from the US and saving a bundle)