Copper plug life

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I havent run a copper plug in a vehicle for years. What is the life span (miles?) of a copper plug? My 91 Chev. K1500 had copper plugs put in a few years ago. I have the maintenance records. Will have to double check, but I think there are only about 7k miles on the plugs. That translates to six or seven years; the vehicle was only driven about 1000 miles per year.
 
Copper plugs are recommended for my old honda and they recommend changing them every 30K miles.
 
I run Champion OEM coppers in my Ram, change out every 15,000 miles due to being less than 2 bucks per plug. Probably overkill but its my routine.
 
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I use ACDelco 2 to 3 years at 30,000 miles. I am sure they can go longer with a cleaning and re-gap, but I just use the old ones as spares just in case one goes bad.
 
Most recommend 30k. I don't change mine based on mileage, I just pull one or 2 and check the gaps every once in a while and swap them out if they're either looking crudded up or worn.

If the gap has just opened up a tiny bit but the plugs otherwise look perfect, I'll save myself a trip to the store and just re-gap the existing plugs and throw them back in.
 
The factory copper Champions in my 2007 Kia Sportage (bought used at 17,000 miles) were pretty much done at 20,000 miles. The gaps had increased from recommended 0.043" to nearly 0.070" by then. I knew that the dealer had never inspected them because I had a hard time loosening them up from the cyl head. They were replaced by NGK Iridiums.
 
Originally Posted By: yesthatsteve
Toyota recommends 30k on the copper plugs in the xB in my sig.


They still used copper in the xb?
crazy2.gif


I thought Toyota had switched to iridium in all their cars by then!
 
Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
Originally Posted By: yesthatsteve
Toyota recommends 30k on the copper plugs in the xB in my sig.


They still used copper in the xb?
crazy2.gif


I thought Toyota had switched to iridium in all their cars by then!


I think they started putting them OE in Lexus 2001 or 2002. Their usual habit is to trickle down technology through their lines, so it's likely a 2005 scion did not use them. They also occasionally still use copper in certain applications; newer 4.0 V6 trucks have copper.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Jeep recomends 30k replacement.but use a waste spark system so thats equal to 60k. I have seen them go well over 100k thanks to high power coils lol


not quite. the "wasted" spark jumps with only 1000v. I doubt that does much damage compared to the 10.000V+ on the plug in the compressed cilinder
 
Just for the record all spark plugs are copper core. The cheapos have nickle plated electrodes, then up the scale they go.
 
Originally Posted By: berniedd
The factory copper Champions in my 2007 Kia Sportage (bought used at 17,000 miles) were pretty much done at 20,000 miles. The gaps had increased from recommended 0.043" to nearly 0.070" by then.


That's one igniton coil I wouldn't touch with my tongue to see if it still worked.
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
Originally Posted By: yesthatsteve
Toyota recommends 30k on the copper plugs in the xB in my sig.


They still used copper in the xb?
crazy2.gif


I thought Toyota had switched to iridium in all their cars by then!


My 2006 Scion did not have coppers, so maybe 06 was when they changed over.
 
Toyota still uses copper? Cheap cost cutting at its finest!


Back in the old days, or today if you buy a cost cutting Toyota product you always had to change plugs every 25k-30k.

These days its just about never.
 
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