Sparkplugs - Corolland: the Toyota Corolla Forums

what's the significant difference if you buy the regular NGK copper plugs, vpower, or the iridiums?

Your wallet will be lighter, but the plugs maker's will be heavier.

I used to own a BMW E30, and a well known fact in the enthusiast community that the E30 prefers the cheap $1 Bosch copper plugs and that more expensive plugs would actually decrease the performance. Guess what happened when I went to Autozone, the sales rep said I should buy the high performance $8 plugs to go with my high performance BMW. I guess sales people will say anything to make a sale. My point is I trust the car maker's advice on what spark plugs to use than some spark plug makers or parts retailer, who, by the way, its sole purpose is to try to squeese as much profit from you as possible.

Only difference would be how often to change the plugs - if you don't mind changing plugs every 10K or so - then go with the copper plugs. Otherwise the platinum and iridiums will just hold up longer (harder material). They do make plugs that have a wire electrode, clipped electrodes, grooved electrodes, extra electrodes, etc. - most will not do a thing for you. Just get a reputable brand and you shouldn't have any problems. Don't believe the marketing that a certain plug will make more power than other - completely false statement - plugs cannot ADD power. Only reason why some have noticed an increase in power from their original plugs were probably due to that the original ones were already worn out.

Bikeman982

I believe that in addition to the price and how long they should last, there may be some temperature range differences.

The construction material is the main difference.

In a corolla,

The only difference is price. You will not have any real performace gain by going to a $15 plug vs a $1.5 plug.

tdk.

I would think that a plug with 4 contact points would have a greater chance of not failing to make a spark due to a bad contact. If one goes bad, then there are three others available per plug.

That said, I run Champion single tip plugs.... default_biggrin

but theres still just the one in the middle!

This is true!

What's the advantage of having >1 contacts on a spark plug? Are the sparks bigger giving more power? Or just another way to leech money from unsuspecting buyers?

looking for colder sparkplugs. anyone know any good sites on where to find them?

What's the advantage of having >1 contacts on a spark plug? Are the sparks bigger giving more power? Or just another way to leech money from unsuspecting buyers?

The only advantage I can think of would be what I posted above...

looking for colder sparkplugs. anyone know any good sites on where to find them?

Why do you want to run a cooler plug? Are you running boost?

$1.50 NGK plugs work better then the long term plugs. They just need to be changed out every 30K miles or so. No big deal on a inline 4 engine.

ya i need colder plugs cause im gonna be boosted here soon. what do you guys recommend

ya i need colder plugs cause im gonna be boosted here soon. what do you guys recommend

Ask the parts store if NGK BPR6ES plugs fit your car. They are good up to about 15lbs of boost.

Good tip gvr4ever - those NGK BPR6ES plugs are great plugs for boosted apps (strong insulator to resist some detonation, ribbing design and length to minimize flashover, and copper cored). But I do not think they make them for N/A Toyota apps - too bad, they would be great (NGK BKR5ES will fit though, but not as good).

I'd get a couple of sets, they'll be pretty cheap, get at least a set for one and two heat ranges cooler. They will get fouled pretty quick as you tune up the turbo and fuel management - also will have to play with the gap - normally you want to close them up a bit or you will tend to blow out the flame kernal. How much will depend on boost levels and the type of ignition system you are planning to run - but most usualy get good results closing them up by about 10 thousandths.

Guys if your gonna buy plugs for a toyota then go with Denso Or NGK. I have seen the OTHERS cause misses in distributor cars and short out coil over packs.

Wires,your best friend is orig equip. I have seen a set of 1987 wires still working perfectly fine with 200k on the wires.This was this year.

Bikeman982

I always replace my spark plugs with the NGK recommended in the repair manuals.

I have metered wires and found out whether they were good or not.

If they checked bad, I replaced the whole set.

i just replaced my plugs on a 01 corolla wiht 93k on it the stock plugs looked like crap i changed them with OBX racing iridiums plugs r100 they are the exact same thing and work good will report on any increase or decrease of performance paid 20 bucks for them instead of 12 bucks a pop for denso or ngk also most corollas need a Iridium spark plug dont bother getting platinum or coper crap. the 97-02 require iridiums and should be replaced with them

Good tip gvr4ever - those NGK BPR6ES plugs are great plugs for boosted apps (strong insulator to resist some detonation, ribbing design and length to minimize flashover, and copper cored). But I do not think they make them for N/A Toyota apps - too bad, they would be great (NGK BKR5ES will fit though, but not as good). I'd get a couple of sets, they'll be pretty cheap, get at least a set for one and two heat ranges cooler. They will get fouled pretty quick as you tune up the turbo and fuel management - also will have to play with the gap - normally you want to close them up a bit or you will tend to blow out the flame kernal. How much will depend on boost levels and the type of ignition system you are planning to run - but most usualy get good results closing them up by about 10 thousandths.

Good tip gvr4ever - those NGK BPR6ES plugs are great plugs for boosted apps (strong insulator to resist some detonation, ribbing design and length to minimize flashover, and copper cored). But I do not think they make them for N/A Toyota apps - too bad, they would be great (NGK BKR5ES will fit though, but not as good). I'd get a couple of sets, they'll be pretty cheap, get at least a set for one and two heat ranges cooler. They will get fouled pretty quick as you tune up the turbo and fuel management - also will have to play with the gap - normally you want to close them up a bit or you will tend to blow out the flame kernal. How much will depend on boost levels and the type of ignition system you are planning to run - but most usualy get good results closing them up by about 10 thousandths.

what's the significant difference if you buy the regular NGK copper plugs, vpower, or the iridiums?

Hello folks. First post here.

Onto my Corolla sparkplug misadventure...

I bought some regular NGK copper plugs for my 99 Corolla after there had been those "two point" Bosch Plats in there for about three years. After 100 miles or so on the new NGK plugs - yes I checked the gap twice before installation (.44) - my check engine idiot light came on.

I then went to get the code checked and it was this off-the-wall code that even the garage that dealt with imports didn't have a clue what the code meant.

I then said, "I changed the plugs a few days ago. Could that have something to do with it?"

He asked, "Did you use single points? You should be using double points. You're probably getting slight misfires and it's causing problems with your emission detection. Pop those two pointers back in and see what happens"

Went back home, fished the double points out of the trash, cleaned them up a bit with a slight wire brush, popped them back into the Crayola - I always call it that - lo and behold, about 20 miles of driving the check engine light turned off.

Turns out that my father in law, who owned the Crayola before I did, had the same problem three years ago and went to the dealer to ask some questions about it. One of the mechanics told him, "Use the double points".

I also talked to a close pal who worked at one of those small tune-up/brake-job places, also over 200 miles away, and we got to talking about the Crayola where I asked him of any problems he'd run into with them. Without telling him about my spark plug misadventure, he simply said, "Usually small stuff like ignition. You have to use double pointers with those things after you take out the original Densos"

Weird, huh? Anyone else hear about this? I figured it would be here in this forum, but not to any avail.

As for the Crayola - still runs like a champ, gets me to work everyday and the gas economy is outstanding.

The double electrode plugs only last longer - they don't have anything to really do with ignition performance. You will not get "two" spark kernals, as the arc will only jump from one electrode only, eventually that electrode will erode away to the point where the other electrode becomes the path of least resistance. Since you have, in effect, twice as many electrodes - the plug will last much longer than a single electrode plug. Toyota eventually went with the Iridium plugs - to extend service life and they are acceptable replacements for your engine.

There are many factors that you alos have to be wary off - double plugs are much tougher to gap than single plugs, but since you have two ground electrodes you have a 50/50 chance that one of them is pretty close to the gap you need. With single plugs - you have one shot to get the gap right, otherwise it will misfire and pop up the code you probably saw. Don't use one of those coin style gappers - total waste of time. Get a good set of feeler gauges and some round type gappers - harder to mis the gap on those. They also make an automatic plug gapper - sets the gap and centers the electrode for you - but not worth the cost unless you have to change plugs all the time. Careful when you wirebrush old plugs - the action of wirebrushing also deposits small amounts of metal on the insulator. Get enough metal on it and you end up with a misfire problem again.

As for plugs - can't beat OEM plugs - as they were made for the car. As long as you match the eletrical characteristics, gap, reach, plug temperature, and spark kernal size - doesn't really matter how many prongs you have on the plug. For a good replacement that is not OEM - jump to a good single platinum or Iridium plug - many have run them in eariler 1ZZ-FE engines with great results.