Spark plug change is this normal?

I am at a loss how Fufu delicate these trucks are. Changing plugs at 60k miles? Back in the days of real Toyota built trucks from Japan, you could easily remove the plugs, inspect and re-space them, and if OK you could just clean them up with a little wire brush and stick them back in.

 

OP’s plugs would’ve been reused with just re-spacing them and cleaning them up if it were my ‘85. I do have to admit, though, that one plug on the lower left-hand corner has a lot of carbon buildup, showing that the plug was compromised and probably wasn’t sparking very well in that cylinder. I wonder which cylinder that was from? I’d pressure check it

 

That was the old day of copper plugs. You ain't taking sand paper or a wire brush to these new type of plugs they got out there.

 

The Atkinson Cycle type of engine in the Tacoma is the reason the spark plugs are only meant to go 60,000 miles. The direct injection and the cleaning cycles put more wear on the plugs and probably why they should be changed earlier. That is my guess anyways.

 

Oh geez, dude you fell for it. There’s no reason why plugs need to be so expensive, the spark gap is what matters.

They could easily use the old style plugs as well, as long as the resistance from the connector plug to where the spark gap is correct.. But yeah, if there are alloys that make the spark work better in the tip of the spark plug I guess that’s part of it, but seriously we are all victims of this.

 

Uhhh, fell for it? Plug technology has come pretty far. You don't adjust or even touch iridium tipped plugs or the like. Today's modern engines will tear up old copper plugs, so they had to design and manufacture something different to hold up. Hell, the 2nd gen Tacoma's had copper plugs and the intervals are 30K. The new plugs are twice as expensive, but last twice as long. So, not much difference...

 

The only technology in a plug is the fancy metal they put on the tip, the spark is the same as Electrons have not changed any since I started driving. Now, if you’re talking about materials that keep the spark plug lasting longer that’s different but really, the physics of it are exactly the same.

 

Correct. But complaining about changing plugs and not being able to just clean them, that's just neglect IMO...

 

The worst looking plug came from passenger side next to firewall. Very first plug I removed

 

I think they make them hard to pull out so we won’t do it and just clean them. buying new ones from a dealer and paying them to do it is the way to go these days I guess.

 

yeah, as others pointed out, you waited too long, and the carbon uildup on the sides of that plug were probably causing the cylinder to not burn the fuel as efficiently as the spark, probably partially traveled down the sides of the plug rather than the full amount going across the gap.

I remember seeing a demo of this along time ago, you could pull the plug out that was dirty and fire up your engine and see the sparks traveling on the sides of the plug rather than across the gap if it was a very dirty one.

sorry, I’m using text to speech, got to get back to driving I guess.

 

If they were easy to pull out, I would’ve done it at 30,000 inspected them but no longer these days. I hate certain things about these tracks and this is one of the big ones.

 

OP. If you’re worried about it next time you pull those out have a compression check of the cyllendars, it’s probably OK it’s just that you let the one get overly dirty.

OK I’m out luckily I’m just a passenger but this road is really bumpy. Have a good day you guys.

 

Yeah this proves change at 100k!!

 

Well I took a wire brush to them and they look almost good as new minus the new shine. I may actually sell these old plugs on the marketplace lol

 

I wouldn’t worry about it.

if you’re really anal about it, just check the spark plugs you put in at 20,000miles and see how they look.

 

a sample size of 1 negates anything published by a massive corporation full of highly-educated paid engineers?

fair warning, the manual never says you must change the plugs at 60k, but there's a reason they have it there.

this is like arguing over bake pad changes. a disc brake caliper piston is well documented to have similar stopping performance as the brake pad material in most cases. so now you don't even need those BS brake pads toyota keeps trying to sell you!

 

These folks are just trolling. If not they are outright neglectful to their trucks.

It would be similar to "I only feed my dog 2 days a week. He survives just fine and I save so much money!"

 

Lol yeah we're all victims because it's suggested we change plugs at 60k. The tyranny of those dang toyota engineers