swc7916, sorry if you took my comment to be lecturing. Wasn't the intent, besides if you paid cash then you didn't incur a debt anyway and like you say, what you spend your money on is entirely your business. My comment was more intended toward younger folks, seems to be a good percentage of the folks on here, to encourage them to do like you apparently did and take your time, save up and pay cash.

 

The reason I laughed at the $20K comment was that I don't feel any currently produced car or truck is worth that much. Prices are so over inflated and you lose nearly 1/4 of the value when you drive it off the lot. I'll let someone else eat that depreciation. But, that's just me. Someone else might say the Classic muscle cars that I rebuild and sell aren't worth what they go for either.

 

But, to get back on topic: Since a lot of us on here seem to enjoy tinkering with our Soobs and keeping them running for nickels and dimes on JY parts. I thought it would be fun to see how the Platinum plugs do after cleaning and I'll keep you posted. So far, so good!!

OEM sparkplugs for Forrester (p/n 22401AA570) are list price $12.95 each! So what kind of platinum plugs are these?

 

 

the kind of plug you can find cheaper then the dealer for sure

subarulover1:grin:

Here's my .02 on the platinum plug issue. Most Subarus need double platinum plugs (platinum on both the electrode and ground tang) due to the dual polarity spark (one side of the coil fires a straight polarity spark, going from the electrode to the ground tang, while the other side is reverse polarity, going from ground tang to electrode). The exception to this rule is the newer DOHC engines (turbo 4s and H6s) that are coil on plug.

I had two subies. My '88 hatch I used NGK V-powers in ($2 a piece) and switched to bosch platinums once... ($2.20 a piece.) I could notice very little difference in the top end, and when I put about 3,000 miles on it, I changed back to the v-powers and noticed that the bosch plugs were looking a little worse off then they should, and that the v-powers gave it back a little something.but hey, that's only a 67hp motor, so...

 

But the legacy, ('95, EJ22) I used NGK v-powers. every other oil change (so say about every 4,000 miles! I would check the plugs. I swapped them twice, just because I had planned on them being out, and was trying "new plugs" with different gap. I found that a 50 thousands gap worked for me just fine.

dxrflyboy mentioned the dual polarity issue. I know that on my wife's van (5.4 liter triton Ford) the plugs will burn up in under 10,000 miles for that very reason. I use double platinum because I don't want to have to replace plugs on that thing for another 100,000 miles.

dxrflyboy mentioned the dual polarity issue. I know that on my wife's van (5.4 liter triton Ford) the plugs will burn up in under 10,000 miles for that very reason. I use double platinum because I don't want to have to replace plugs on that thing for another 100,000 miles.

 

Good infor. But will they last 100,000? It thought platinum is good for 60,000 iridium for 120,000 miles.

Good infor. But will they last 100,000? It thought platinum is good for 60,000 iridium for 120,000 miles.

 

The OEM set made it 120,000 before it started to misfire. The misfire was actually due to a bad coil (they have coil-on-plug) and the plugs didn't look too bad. Not that I recommend going over your service interval, but when you have to change plugs in a van, sometimes you put it off for a while.....

Double platinum plugs should last 100,000 miles. In a lot of vehicles, especially fwd cars some of the plugs are a major job to change so the manufacturers went to double platinums. However, platinum is not a very good conductor of electricity. Plain old resistor plugs will give a better spark. Iridiums are the best of both versions- they last as long as double platinums and produce the better spark of the plain resistors.

wow.. where the heck are you guys buying plugs? i just bought irridium plugs for mine at like 6.95 each, at NAPA.

I have used regular (cheap) autolite plugs for several years. I put in a set when I bought my car, and inspected them about once a year. It was 3 or 4 years till they looked like they might be ready to be replaced. That was about 40-50000 miles, and they were still working fine. I have never had any fuel economy issues, misfiring, etc.

 

It is my personal opinion, that for the average car, the regular old-fashioned plugs work fine. On my car, the plugs are easy to get to. If I had a car that required several hours worth of work to get to the spark plugs, I would pay for the longest-lasting plugs available.

 

Matt D

 

P.S. I recently decided to switch to higher priced synthetic oil and high-efficiency filters to prolong oil drain interval to 1 year. It works out to be a little cheaper and a lot less work in the long run. So I'm not just a cheapskate.....