Odd plugs

[wlk]

Wife had been saying the Element with the K24 was not herself a little sluggish when cold on cool/cold mornings. Hot or warm mornings she was her peppy self. Pulled the number one plug 2 weeks ago and seemed fine, gap was correct nothing out of ordinary. I drove it couple times and fine to me but it is her DD. Only thing I had noticed recently with it was the exhaust was starting to smell a bit more. So I ordered a set of plugs as I change them it 50k and was waiting to change them- super easy and takes 15 minutes on the E.
Old plugs are Denso Iridium IK20L's 5358s with about 40k miles on them. Both plugs and coils were changed then both Denso's. Replaced w Denso IK20TT 4702s.
Now yesterday she threw a knock sensor code but ran fine wife said. Wife did get gas at a crappy Exxon station the day before as it was on her way home from work. Crappy bc it is always running out of gas, happened 3x's she had stopped previously this year and not overly busy this time of year. Wife is not going there anymore even though it is Exxon station, we buy Top Tier majority of the time as we have 3 around us. Figuring bad gas as knock sensor is OEM also with 40k on it.

So I pulled the plugs today and cylinders 2, 3, and 4 were all out of specs and it appears the ground electrodes opened up to .055" from spec of .044", tips all look uniform. Ordered them from Rockauto as I do all my plugs. Just seems odd being a Denso 100k plug.

Anyone else have this happen?

 

[hrv]

Wife had been saying the Element with the K24 was not herself when cold on cool/cold mornings. Hot or warm mornings she was her peppy self. Pulled the number one plug 2 weeks ago and seemed fine, gap was correct nothing out of ordinary. I drove it couple times and fine to me but it is her DD. Only thing I had noticed recently with it was the exhaust was starting to smell a bit more. So I ordered a set of plugs as I change them it 50k and was waiting to change them- super easy and takes 15 minutes on the E.
Old plugs are Denso Iridium IK20L's 5358s with about 40k miles on them. Both plugs and coils were changed then both Denso's. Replaced w Denso IK20TT 4702s.
Now yesterday she threw a knock sensor code but ran fine she said. She did get gas at a crappy Exxon station the day before as it was on her way home from work. Crappy bc it is always running out of gas, happened 3x's she had stopped previously this year and not overly busy this time of year. She is not going there anymore even though it is Exxon station, we buy Top Tier majority of the time as we have 3 around us. Figuring bad gas as knock sensor is OEM also with 40k on it.

So I pulled the plugs today and cylinders 2, 3, and 4 were all out of specs and it appears the ground electrodes opened up to .055" from spec of .044", tips all look uniform. Ordered them from Rockauto as I do all my plugs. Just seems odd being a Denso 100k plug.

Anyone else have this happen?

View attachment 160489

Not me.. My 07 accord with that engine had 386000 on it and the plugs always looked great..

 

[wlk]

Closer view

 

[wlk]

Not me.. My 07 accord with that engine had 386000 on it and the plugs always looked great..

When I bought it 2yrs ago w 182k the old plugs I pulled out looked better than these. Unknown miles on them but a few.

 

[PimTac]

I would verify that these are genuine Denso.

https://www.denso-technic.com/images/news/en/2020/spark-plug-counterfeits-poster.pdf

 

[wlk]

I thought maybe fakes but they appear real. Clean stamping, writing good, ceramics even and gasket has no large spacing but not an expert though

 

[PimTac]

What does that Assembled In stamping say?

 

[c502cid]

Just curious, did you check the gap before you installed the plugs in question?

 

[wlk]

What does that Assembled In stamping say?

Says Assembled in US with Foreign Content. New ones say it too

 

[wlk]

Just curious, did you check the gap before you installed the plugs in question?

Yep always do on all the plugs. Grew up having to gap every one and habit now. Plus I have trust issues

 

[Hall]

https://www.denso-technic.com/images/news/en/2020/spark-plug-counterfeits-poster.pdf

That just tells the counterfeiters how to make unidentifiable fakes. They've had years to improve too.

 

[PimTac]

That just tells the counterfeiters how to make unidentifiable fakes. They've had years to improve too.

Yep and I believe in buying things like spark plugs from a reputable brick and mortar store where one can see them before buying.

 

[Hall]

Yep and I believe in buying things like spark plugs from a reputable brick and mortar store where one can see them before buying.

I'll buy plugs from Rockauto but not Amazon or eBay. I'll buy them from local parts stores if the price is reasonable but often they're 2x the price of Rockauto. The plugs for my G35 - NGK's long-life Iridium - are $28/each x 6 at O'Reilly.

 

[wlk]

Yep and I believe in buying things like spark plugs from a reputable brick and mortar store where one can see them before buying.

May have to start with this again. I used to but with RA being considerably cheap I stopped. Maybe RA has been scammed as well who knows so much tech today you can fake anything I guess

 

[CarDoc66]

I would not use those plugs. Can you see the iridium tip is missing from the ground electrode? All of them too. Where did it go? There is no magical spark from precious metal tipped plugs. The idea was to prolong the change interval, especially on engines where the plugs are labor intensive to change.
NGK U groove would last just as long as those lasted at a fraction of the cost.

 

[berniedd]

Not surprised you getting poorer engine performance at 40k miles on the IK20L spark plugs. Yes, they could be fake but ..... A lot of us think that all iridium plugs should last 100k miles, but apparently not so. Denso here below says service life of their IK20L plugs is 30k miles.

https://www.densoproducts.com/denso-5358-ik20l-iridium-power-spark-plug#productSpecifications

The link also says the ground electrode is plain old nickel. It is not padded with a platinum or iridium puck, hence the visible erosion of the ground electrodes in your pictures.

Kudos to you for your choice of the IK20TT replacements. They are better in design and longevity ( possibly 100k miles) than your old IK20Ls.

 

[dogememe]

That doesn’t look right.

One thing is, just because you buy them from a reputable place doesn’t mean they’re genuine.

I’ve had people try to new return spark plugs at work at the parts store. But the ones they are trying to return are fakes they got online for cheap while the expensive genuine ones are happily in their car or resold elsewhere. And just because I caught it doesn’t mean anything - they could try it at a different store and/or with a less observant employee.

Think about it… pay $25 for a genuine plug at the parts store, then buy fake ones online for $10. That’s a healthy profit especially across 8 plugs.

 

[mk378]

Can you see the iridium tip is missing from the ground electrode? All of them too

I wonder if they were double iridium in the first place. Are the new plugs the same part number?

 

[Chris142]

My jeep does weird things to plugs. It has a waste spark ignition system. It will open up the gaps on 3 of the plugs but none to very little on the other 3.

 

[Marcozi]

Says Assembled in US with Foreign Content. New ones say it tooView attachment 160494

They're fake, according to the .pdf file above. Why? The ground electrode has a "pin" sticking out toward the center electrode.