Denso fake spark plugs

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1 June 2005
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Fake Denso spark plugs from "directautoparts" at 100$ for 12 pieces ?

Installed these plugs. Car ran on 2 cylinders in the front raw. Drove with the problem. Spark plug n°6 was darker. Changed the spark plug with a 20 $ one from my Honda dealer. It solved the problem !

After 50 more miles, it started to run on 2 cylinders from one of the front cylinders again ! Stopped immediately so can not identify the problematic cylinder. Bought a new coil because I thought it is impossible that 2 new spark plugs could fail in a row. Tried this new coil on each of the front cylinders. No effect !

I am beginning to think that these plugs are fake and will change the 6.

Any other idea ?
 
Interesting phenomenon.

See/compare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0aQpdsALQM
There are more than that one...

Do you also have to problem while the engine idles?

At THAT price at the dealer I'd buy them there. I thought it was more like $30 per spark plug. I always buy critical parts from a reliable dealer if the price is ok.
 
May be yes, may be no! Are the plugs PK20PR-L11?

Aside from poor quality artwork on the packaging, the 'tell' for the counterfeit NGK and Denso plugs is typically that the center electrode is not iridium or platinum. They appear to take a conventional nickel alloy tip and machine it to look like the fine wire tip on the iridium / platinum plugs, that is where they save the money on production. The down side is that nickel alloy with a really fine tip is going to erode like crazy in use. Take a magnifying glass to examine the center electrode on the failed plug. If it is really worn down with very limited use, then you are probably dealing with counterfeit spark plugs.

The Denso PK20PR is a resistor plug. I have never experienced this; but, I would expect that it is possible to have a manufacturing flaw which results in a bad connection or no connection of the internal resistor . Unfortunately, testing a resistor spark plug with a conventional resistance checking meter is problematic. NGK provides information that suggests that the resistance of the sparkplug (from terminal to electrode) can be between 2000 and 7000 ohms when tested. However, other spark plug vendors use stuff like silicon carbide ceramic for the resistor which is highly non linear. When you test with an ohmmeter they look to be open circuit; but, when you do a high voltage test they work just fine. Denso provides no advice on testing their resistor plugs. Unless you have access to a high voltage source to test the plugs on the bench I don't think there is a reliable test for plug operation.

Your spark plugs could be counterfeit; however, if $100 was the price for just the plugs (no shipping) that is $8.30 per plug and there are a number of big name vendors that sell the sparkplugs for less than that. JEGS and Rock Auto list the Denso platinum for $5 or less. If you had paid $3 per plug, I would say that is suspicious. At your price, its not obvious that they are counterfeit. You may just be the victim of a bad production run. Is there any evidence that the spark plugs might have been dropped at some point? Dropping a plug on the floor, particularly a resistor plug should result in its quick trip to the garbage can if you want to play it safe.

Given that you have had two failed spark plugs in this batch of 12, I think a plan to replace all of them would be a good plan. Buying the plug from your Honda dealer is not a guarantee as to the source if the dealer sources the plug from a local supplier. If the plug comes with the Honda part number on the box, then the source is probably good. Buying from a big name vendor like Rockauto is also not a guarantee that you won't get a counterfeit plug; but, generally the bigger name vendors have solid supply chain relationships with the name brands so sourcing is less of an uncertainty. Rockauto appears to ship to Europe. Less than $50 for a set of 6 including shipping.
 
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I just replaced the spark plugs with NGK yesterday and everything is ok now !

Fake, bad production run or dropped ? The first spark plug failed after 100 miles of my first track day, a second one after these 100 miles plus 100 miles of a second trackday. Nothing serious but annoying. How to fuck up two trackdays.
 
By any chance did you take a look at the center electrode on the failed sparkplugs to see what they looked like?
 
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