Anyone else with an '03 pull their plugs??

After my recent DTCs indicating misfires I pulled all of the plugs (in just over five minutes so it ain't hard). All showed signs of a little wear and being under misfire conditions with wore center electrodes and seriously charred base.

But more importantly is that it is using a different plug than my old '01. My '01 had the specified plug, an NGK PZFR6E. My '03 has an NGK IZFR6K. Also, this appears to be a colder range plug from the factory as their is less ceramic showing and has a shorter ceramic cone.

The '03 manual still states the same plugs as the '01 manual so I am wondering if I got the wrong plugs which I doubt. Or did Honda make a change to the specifications. If it was a mistake it might explain the quick misfires due to poor fuel quality. Otherwise I guess it will go up as an unexplained mystery. But I will have the DENSO Iridium in tomorrow and I'll check them in a few thousand miles.

 

i thought the factory used deson plugs not NGK???i had been thinking of going to the irdiums 22 heat range what do you think?

 

The manual specifies both NGK and DENSO, the DENSO number is PKJ20CR-M11.

I haven't evaluated the the part numbers enough to know what specifies what. But I will be putting in the standard IK20 DENSO Iridium plug tomorrow.

As for the heat range I can't say for sure. You are in nearly uncharted waters so only go as low as needed. Just check them every couple of months to see if there is anything awry.

 

Scalbert, I guess you had the NGK Iridium not the platimun... Check sparkplugs.com

 

Check this site: http://home.att.net/~ngkaz/wsb/html/...ome.html-.html

Good to be added to FAQ... has nice doc about selecting the proper plugs for performance!

 

Yep, that is correct and surprising. But they sure didn't look all that great. I'll hang onto them and reference them against the DENSOs after there is about 3k miles on them.

 

how does changing sparkplugs from our stock platinums to iridiums benefit us? better performance? fuel economy?.. please shed some light..

 

Slightly better performance, but my gas milege has suffered. Ever since I put the IK20s in, my car can't get over 300 before the light comes on. I use to get 330-340 a tank before the light ever came on.

 

God damn I'm barely hitting 200 when I hit E~~!

 

It's supposed to give better performance and fuel economy. I think the add I saw was a 20HP increase in a 1.6L Honda Civic. The catch was it was a 500HP race engine...

All I know is they are stinking expensive! But Iridium sounds cool.

 

Well I just put my NGKs back. If my gas milege comes back i will defintely let you guys know that the Denso cause your gas milege to go down.

The DENSO plugs smelled badly with fuel, the cyc as soon as I opened it wooohoo, lots of fuel smell. Those plugs were defintely running rich. So that might be why the gas milege went down.