I have a 2003 Honda civic IMA. Imagine my shock when I came to replace my spark plugs. Not only were the NGK ones £18 each but there were 8!!! Honda seems to recomend either NGK iridion or Denso Platinum in the handbook. Is there any difference other than the Denso ones being £6 each instead of £18. Will I notice any difference in FE or performance by getting the cheaper ones?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

They are designed for 100K miles. So go with the cheaper one if that is what you want. If it's recommended than it will go the distance.

 

My 04 came with iridiums. High compression and boosted engines usually see a HP improvement switching to iridiums. Our engines have huge compression considering they run on 87 octane.

 

Maybe post your spark plug part numbers, the manufacturers and/or Hondas.

I've just gotten interested in our '06's plugs. We're no where near replacement time, but I want to pull them, have a look, and re-install with a little anti-seize compound. I pulled one so far and it was NGK. Looked ok at 68,000 kilometers: no rounding of the (iridium) electrode.

I checked the plug prices for ours at San Leandro Honda's Web Site, and they are:

ILFR6J11K (NGK) <Honda part no: 12290-RMX-003 <$14.65US
SK20HPR-L11 (DENSO) <Honda part no: 12290-RMX-004 <$16.62US

In this case the Denso is a bit more. I'm not sure if they're both iridium, suspect they are. Denso in particular has next to no info on the web.

http://www.slhondaparts.com/browse.a...OIL-SPARK+PLUG

With 8 plugs that's getting pricey ;O

Not sure, but this might be the San Leandro link for yours:

http://www.slhondaparts.com/browse.a...CIGNITION+COIL

 

Just checking my '06 requirements, Amazon has decent prices. For the ILFR6J11K (NGK), it's $13.48US, and it looks like you can get free shipping, once you purchase 8.



http://www.amazon.com/NGK-ILFR6J-11K...7163348&sr=8-1

Dang, just noticed: they only ship to the States.

 

I recently changed the spark plugs on my 2005 Civic Hybrid. It has 220,000 miles on the odometer. When I removed the old plugs I found the front plugs were Bosches, while the back ones were AC Delco... In other blogs I have read that the Bosches come pre-gapped. BULLSHIT! The Bosches were really old/corroded, possibly the original plugs, which means that the previous mechanic never changed the front plugs. I checked the gaps of the old Bosches, some were .035", not .044",.. ALWAYS CHECK GAPS! I went with the NGK Iridium from amazon , which were about $25 for all eight. They were half the price of the Bosch iridium plugs and were gapped at around .035". I re-gapped them at .044".

I suspect that the person who previously changed plugs was a "professional" mechanic who wasn't motivated to do a good job, or, maybe, was told to "Do the cheapest job possible.". This is why I do my own work. Always check the gap and don't be lazy.