Spark plug question (please help)

[WilliamA1970]

Hi all,

I just bought a 2001 Corolla yesterday (132K miles on it). I had taken it to Firestone for an inspection, and one of the things they suggested was to get the spark plugs changed. The dealer agreed to do the spark plugs for a good price... I specifically said "I need you to use the Iridium spark plugs"... they said "Yeah, we will, don't worry about it."

Well, they put in Platinum plugs.

I complained about it, and they seemed unsure why it would be a big deal, but agreed to change out to Iridium.

Here is my question:
The car seems to be performing fine with the Platinum, but I saw in another thread that the Iridium can last for 100K miles. Would this mean I would not need to go in and pay to have tune ups for that long? I ask because Firestone (which does the tune up) basically says that that is what they do for tune ups is just change out the spark plugs now.

If you could help me with this, I would really appreciate it. I had a 1992 Corolla for a long time, and absolutely love the cars... but know very little about cars.

William

[Kiwi-Corolla]

Tune-ups consist of more than just replacing the spark plugs. If that's all Firestone do when they perform a tune-up then I'd suggest you go somewhere else. A basic tune-up/service would consist of changing the water and oil/filter, checking the air filter and fuel filter, scanning for error codes, inspecting the belts, inspecting the tires, battery check etc.

You can do a tune-up/service at home by yourself, but since you said you know very little about cars then it would be best to take it to a reputable garage. Just be sure to tell the mechanic who is going to work on your car that you don't want the spark plugs changed. Your engine will require an oil change every 7,000 miles or so, so the next time you take your car to a garage just ask only for that to be done (unless they find something else that needs replacing of course, in which case ask for proof after the job is done).

[mr1114]

On a lot of cars these days, the spark plugs is the thing that will be prone to the most wear. Cap, rotor, checking timing is all a thing of the past. And plug wires are gone from a lot of cars now. Some places only consider a plug change the tune up. I'm not quite sure if there are any other advantages of iridium over anything else, besides that they last a long time, as I havent done enough reading on here about that topic, and I have not changed the plugs yet on my car since it runs fine and am getting the MPG I should be. I bet the Platinums would still last a while. Do these engines require iridiums for a specific reason?

[EdW]

Well one thing to remember about these "100K mi" plugs is that even if they perform well for that duration, that's a very long time for a plug to be in an engine, and they can easily get frozen in the head threads.

I tried the Bosch platinum's in my '98 and found it didn't run as smoothly, switched to the ones recommended in the manual, and even though they need to be replaced more often, they're cheap enough and the engine was designed with those plugs to be used. Just my .02....