Spark plugs question

Hi all.

So...I think my car has a minor issue that new spark plugs will fix. I was told by the Nissan guys that the 100k spark plugs would be $28 each! Oh and that's times 6 cause I have a V6 car. Now there are cheaper ones, like $6 each and they are apparently not going to make THAT much difference, but will need replacing at 50k....fine by me.

Is there a problem going this way? Or should I really spend $170 on 6 spark plugs?

Make/model/engine?

Depends alot on what you want to get out of it really. I personally always buy the best sparkies i can find for my car but that's bcos i own turbo cars. But sparkies can increase fuel efficiency, power, run smoother. If it's just your run of the mill diamante or similar and it's just a runabout type car i wouldn't think the cheap ones would do any harm...

My 2c

My car is a Nissan Cefiro, V6 2.5L 1995.

It's important for work but really just an A to B vehicle.

Up to you i guess... if it were me i would get the expensive ones but i mean sounds like the cheapies would do... what's the problem that these will fix?

pop your bonnet, and look for the front cylinder bank. that bit that has NISSAN 24 VALVE etc on the valve cover. see how easy those plugs are to get to? (under that cover)

now, look for the rear bank. WAY up buried in the firewall. MUCH harder to get to. that's why they spec the 100k plugs, because you're saving money on the labour alone. bear in mind the the coil packs can be brittle with age, so there's a chance one will get broken and need replacing.

and from my memories of reading the maxima/cef forums, people have had odd issues with the cheapies that went away when they switched to the good ones. NGK Platinums are suggested.

Waht he said

DONT put cheapies in, you're just asking for trouble.
Normal copper core spark plugs only last about 15K not 50K. They're a mission to get to the rear ones on FWD V6 so put the platinum in & you can forget about them for 100K.
If you're really on a budget put platinum in the rear bank & cheapies in the front as you'll be able to change them easier.
If you shop around you might be able to pick up a set of NGK platinum or iridium plugs on trademe for under $20 each.

the hassle isn't worth the savings.

So the plugs are in 2 different places? But there are only 6 of them.

Anyway, I was looking the other day at prices for the better ones, and could almost get them send from overseas for a pretty good price. I could almost buy a bulk amount and sell the ones I don't use on trademe.

I can afford the good ones when I get paid (as it's only monthly!). As for the problem these will (hopefully) fix, the car idles weirdly, if I'm at the lights with drive on and my foot on the brake, the idle dips every 20 seconds or so. I was told that it should just be something simple like spark plugs. The ones in there are the same ones from day 1 (ie. 110k ago).

spark plugs is the first thing to check if they haven't been done. failing that, we can read error codes. could well be the idle air control valve. you don't want to know how much they cost

Nissan VG/VQ engine:



6 cylinders in a V shape, hence the name V6. 3 on one side, 3 on the other.

So thats why its an hours labour to do the spark plugs...

an hour is good, it's actually "easy" on these cars, compared to some other FWD V6's.