How Many Miles Have You Gotten Out Of Your Stock Platnium Plugs

niko11 · January 13, 2008

just wondering if any one has had any of these plugs go bad long before 100,000 miles??

gccoley · January 13, 2008

just wondering if any one has had any of these plugs go bad long before 100,000 miles??

Changed mine out at 85,000 and they still looked fairly good. I wouldn't leave them in that long as they are very hard to get out after that long. I probably could have gone 100,00 but I like the peace of mind of having new ones in there.

c4cruiser · January 13, 2008

Still have my OEM plugs in with 72K on the truck. No real indication of any driveability issues, so I don't have reason to change them out.

My 92 Corvette had platinum plugs, at least the plugs with the small platinum "pucks" on the ground electrode. I pulled those plugs out with 40K on them and only one plug had the little puck attached. The rest were gone. IMHO, the AC Delco plugs are not worth using. Go with NGK or Bosch. I re-installed NGK Iridium plugs in the Vette and got about 100 more RPM at idle and gas mileage went up by 2 MPG.

RyanZ71 · January 13, 2008

I will be changing my plugs at 50K, I will never run it 100K. Even though you hear stories on here of people going 100-150K on original plugs. Best way to beat a problem is to prevent it from happing in the first place. As for the brand of plugs, I'll just stick with AC/Delco, they've never given me any issues and I doubt NGK are really any better, they probably just cost more is all.

omegafiler · January 13, 2008

I will be changing my plugs at 50K, I will never run it 100K. Even though you hear stories on here of people going 100-150K on original plugs. Best way to beat a problem is to prevent it from happing in the first place.

Agreed. I've never let plugs/wires go beyond 50k, regardless of how awesome or expensive they are.

niko11 · January 13, 2008

thanks guys.

do you only let yours go 50,000 beacuse you have had problems in the past, or is it beacuse 100,000 seems a little dangerous???

dmsdesign · January 13, 2008

I am the parts and service director of a GM store. Without a doubt, you can safely get 100K on a set of platinums, unless you have a fuel contamination concern, using coolant or oil that may contaminate the plugs. One thing we have found when changing them is that there is a very high percentage of plug wire damage to removing them from the plug wires.. this happens even when extreme care is taken to remove. so just a heads up

mike

dmsdesign

dreman · January 13, 2008

My first set went to about 110,000 miles, and I changed them without any noticeable change in mileage or power. The second set I changed at about 250,000 miles, along with a new set of wires, cap, and rotor ('99 GMC 4.3 V6). I had some problems with the new cap and wires, but the plugs weren't that bad.

Delco plugs each time.

Father-in-law went to 165,000 miles before he suddenly realized he'd never changed the plugs!

RyanZ71 · January 13, 2008

I do it because it is good common sense and I want my truck to last forever and will treat it like that, and don't believe in taking risks when I don't have to. I do alot of mountain driving and I depend upon my truck, don't need a spark plug going to hell on me on a remote road up to a repeater site.

kutu · January 13, 2008

I had over 160,000 miles on my 2002 Yukon when I traded it. Original plugs. still ran great with same gas mileage.

niko11 · January 13, 2008

I am the parts and service director of a GM store. Without a doubt, you can safely get 100K on a set of platinums, unless you have a fuel contamination concern, using coolant or oil that may contaminate the plugs. One thing we have found when changing them is that there is a very high percentage of plug wire damage to removing them from the plug wires.. this happens even when extreme care is taken to remove. so just a heads up

mike

dmsdesign

When the wires are damaged, is this causing drivability issues, or economey issues or both??

dmsdesign · January 13, 2008

I do it because it is good common sense and I want my truck to last forever and will treat it like that, and don't believe in taking risks when I don't have to. I do alot of mountain driving and I depend upon my truck, don't need a spark plug going to hell on me on a remote road up to a repeater site.

If the plug wire is damaged, it may not show up instantly. The inner cable gets stressed and will burn up. when it does, you will feel a miss or pulse in the engine. when it missfires, you will be running on 1 less cylinder. If this is allowed to occur for a fire, it will cause the check engine light to come on and a PO300 series code will display. It can also casue the check engine light to flash. When this light flashes, stop driving immediately. What that is telling you is the miss is so bad that potentially Cat converter damage may occur. And at 90-100K, the converters have past their useful reliable life, and could be subject to damage. Replacing a cat converter with a OEM unit, which is 100s of times better than the usual aftermarket one, are big bucks

Plus, these plugs will last easiely to 90-100k under normal driving

mike

dmsdesign

unit731 · January 13, 2008

I had over 160,000 miles on my 2002 Yukon when I traded it. Original plugs. still ran great with same gas mileage.

I agree. I don't fix things until they are broken. I used to fix much in cars and trucks before they were broken. I think I wasted a lot of money.

But I do respect the views of others who do replace such items earlier than recommended.

$0.02

niko11 · January 13, 2008

I do it because it is good common sense and I want my truck to last forever and will treat it like that, and don't believe in taking risks when I don't have to. I do alot of mountain driving and I depend upon my truck, don't need a spark plug going to hell on me on a remote road up to a repeater site.

If the plug wire is damaged, it may not show up instantly. The inner cable gets stressed and will burn up. when it does, you will feel a miss or pulse in the engine. when it missfires, you will be running on 1 less cylinder. If this is allowed to occur for a fire, it will cause the check engine light to come on and a PO300 series code will display. It can also casue the check engine light to flash. When this light flashes, stop driving immediately. What that is telling you is the miss is so bad that potentially Cat converter damage may occur. And at 90-100K, the converters have past their useful reliable life, and could be subject to damage. Replacing a cat converter with a OEM unit, which is 100s of times better than the usual aftermarket one, are big bucks

Plus, these plugs will last easiely to 90-100k under normal driving

mike

dmsdesign

thanks for the exlination mike, i appreciate it.