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what kind of spark plugs and wires?


Texan1983
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I have a buddy who was a Nissan, Acura, and BMW mechanic and now has his own shop. He highly recommends NGK's for Nissans as he has never seen any problems with them.

 

He "lightly" advises against Bosch Platinums in Nissans, and I was one of his data points for this. For some reason, they VERY OCCAISIONALLY have a tendency to come apart in Nissans - the ceramic on the tip cracks and breaks away. I had that happen in my 240SX, and he saw 5 or 6 other incidents in Nissans. That's 5 or 6 plugs out of thousands he's seen and it rarely causes any real damage, but it is strange as he's never seen it happen in BMW's, nor has it happened with NGK's in Nissans .. No idea why.

 

Since then, I've only used NGK's. In my 240, in all 5 of my motorcycles, and now I'm even using them in my BMW. NEVER a problem, so I'm sticking with them.

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Anybody have input on wires and caps?

 

I'm considering ordering a Bosch cap & rotor and Beck/Arnley wire set. Less than $100 for all at Rock Auto. And less than $100 ($72 delivered with Bosch wires) from alloembmwparts.com. Wow! Pays to comparison shop. Any reasons I should choose differently? I could also get NGK wires for about $13 more...

 

I am planning to upgrade the ignition to a Jacobs Pro-Street capacitive discharge box and high output coil in the near future.

Edited by mws
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Those prices are reasonable. Most of the Pathy specific wire sets I've seen are around $70-80. I got the cap and rotor for around $40 at Napa, but I think Nissan parts are expensive around here as they were more elsewhere. As for the Bosch plugs, I've had them for probably 8 or 9 months now and they're great. Along with the tune up, I noticed a bit of an improvement on highway mileage, and they seemed to help the "pep" of the engine, but this could just be imaginary or the result of the whole tune-up. If your stock stuff is really tired, I'd bet just about anything would be and improvement and upgrade.

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If you can go with aftermarket ones, it would be worth it. Stock the wires are 7mm, whereas an upgrade to 8mm would show some improvement. Not sure which brand would work the best. I know 88 runs Taylors, but he has TBI.

Edited by MaritimeMan
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Just remember, there's absolutely no point in getting the fancy expensive plugs if you do nothing to the rest of the electrical components. Even with upgraded wires, I'd just go with the slightly up from low grade plugs. Now if you achieve a full MSD ignition system, then those pretty penny plugs play a larger role. Just my 2 cents, people seem to like shellin out $5-6 per plug when there are minimal if not negligible results.

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I split the difference of cheap and "high performance" and bought the Bosch +2's. Along with a tune up adn plugs, I had a bit more pep and snap. Who's to say what caused it, mostly just replacing a lot of tired stuff. But those plugs were more like $3 each, which wasn't bad. If you're looking for a true boost, it sure wouldn't help to go with the aftermarket wires, coil, etc. I've been looking at MSD's and such on eBay, and they'e been going for pretty reasonable vs. the local shops.

Edited by Mr. Pickles
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I have a buddy who was a Nissan, Acura, and BMW mechanic and now has his own shop. He highly recommends NGK's for Nissans as he has never seen any problems with them.

 

He "lightly" advises against Bosch Platinums in Nissans, and I was one of his data points for this. For some reason, they VERY OCCAISIONALLY have a tendency to come apart in Nissans - the ceramic on the tip cracks and breaks away. I had that happen in my 240SX, and he saw 5 or 6 other incidents in Nissans. That's 5 or 6 plugs out of thousands he's seen and it rarely causes any real damage, but it is strange as he's never seen it happen in BMW's, nor has it happened with NGK's in Nissans .. No idea why.

 

Since then, I've only used NGK's. In my 240, in all 5 of my motorcycles, and now I'm even using them in my BMW. NEVER a problem, so I'm sticking with them.

That's strange, my mechanic mentioned that Platinum plugs were standard in Nissans. I just had my plugs changed a few months ago. Maybe the next time I change my plugs I'll use NGK's. What's the main reason, is it durability?

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Yup, reliability. Never a come back with NGK's. Not glamorous plugs - they just do their job. And do it. And do it.

 

I like the concept of the Platinum plus 4's - especially in vehicles with ultra high power ignitions and/or difficult access. With 4 "wear" points, they should last quite a bit longer - unless you get the "one out of a thousand" that breaks. But with the ease of access on my vehicles, I just use NGK's and change every 30K miles.

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