Iridium spark plugs

[Poulet]

Do you feel they are worth the extra money (ex: 17$ a pair)? Will they improve fuel economy. I have a V6.

[Pete_Coach]

No, another gimmick. Iridium is just a hard metal that can withstand high temperatures and is very corrosion resistant and costs a lot. It is an element used in hardening platinum so in essence, if you have platinum plugs, you have iridium content.

[Poulet]

Thanks for a quick response.

[Kanus]

They do last a very long time (100,000 km plus) so they are probably worth the additional cost over standard plugs.

[ES_Revenge]

They aren't really that big a gimmick. Most auto manufacturers use them as stock plugs now so they definitely aren't a gimmick. Most were using platinum for the past 10 years or so but now iridium is becoming the OE plug of choice among auto makers. Auto makers typically don't use gimmicks or "snake oil" products (you don't see them trying to put on "magnetic fuel savers", lol) so you know there has to be some benefit to using iridium plugs.

Whether they are worth it or not is up to you. Really a platinum plug will do pretty much the same thing for you, and is a little less expensive. Platinum plugs actually last longer than iridium but iridium plugs are known to have slightly better spark performance. It doesn't really matter on modern-day electronic ignition systems though. It's certainly not like you're going to get any noticeable extra power (and this goes for any plug whatever it's made out of btw). You probably won't see any real difference in fuel economy either.

Keep in mind OE plugs (whether platinum or iridium) are usually not too cheap either. My car came with platinum plugs from the factory but I switched to iridium since I changed my plugs the first time (a bit ahead of schedule at the time as well). Later on, the manufacturer started using iridium plugs from the factory on the same engine type. So depending on the age of your car and whether that particular engine/engine family is still in use you could check to see whether the car company changed over to iridium on that type of engine which might give you a little push into buying iridium, lol.

I'm assuming that you're talking about perhaps the most popular aftermarket iridium plug, NGK's Iridium IX? In that case if you're comparing to an OE plug, they probably aren't much different in price. If you're comparing to something like NGK G-Power Platinum then yes there's a bit of a price difference.

Either way you should be okay. It does get expensive with 6 or more plugs, which is why it isn't a bad idea to buy them in the US if you can (where they are a little cheaper at least). Otherwise if you go with platinum, you'll be fine too.

[kleptodathief]

i read DENSO irids r pretty good! makes any ricer FLY!

[bembol]

I didn't know what to tell my sister but Mazda told her to stick with the stock (i think Platinum).

i read DENSO irids r pretty good! makes any ricer FLY!

Upgraded from NGK to Denso. +25whp LOL

[KorruptioN]

I have a V6.

This tells us a lot.

[Spud72]

Do you feel they are worth the extra money (ex: 17$ a pair)? Will they improve fuel economy. I have a V6.

If you have a car that is a real pain to replace the plugs in so you won't for 10 years? Sure. It's worthwhile. But no, they're not going to increase your fuel economy or make your IQ go up.

If you replace your plugs every few years anyhow, just save your $$$.

[Pete_Coach]

This tells us a lot.

More than enough to answer the question.
As for Iridium, it is an element that is part of the platinum plug manufacturing process.
All you ever wanted to know about Iridium plugs;
http://www.spark-plugs.co.uk/pages/t...park_plugs.htm

If you want to spend the money on your everyday grocery getter, have at it. I doubt (my opinion) the usefulness unless it is a pure race engine with the high tension ignition system and fuel that goes along with a race engine.

[Poulet]

Thank you for all the info.

I will wait until they are on special at CT, then I will decide. My spark plugs are still good, but I tought the Iridium spark plugs could impove fuel economy.