Original plugs at 195K miles?

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nm_alien

New member
I recently purchased an '05 SR5 V6. The owner claimed it was dealer maintained and there were records to back it up. It runs well and is in pretty good shape considering the age and mileage. I've been taking care of all the little maintenance issues that had been neglected: air filters, HVAC knobs illumination bulbs, broken driver sun visor, hood lift struts, fuel cap, radiator cap. I didn't notice any records of spark plugs being replaced so I decided to also replace the spark plugs since they are so cheap and easy to replace.

I had read somewhere on here that from the factory, it was very common to find 3 NGK plugs on one side and 3 DENSO plugs on the other side. The attached photos are what I found. The gap on these was in the neighborhood of 0.080". The engine and cabin air filter pictures are thrown in for grins.

This is what you get with a "Dealer Maintained" vehicle?
 

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Dealer maintained (maintainted?) vehicles are misleading. You can have the dealer "maintain" your vehicle and keep refusing the spark plug changes. That guy lied to you, but not really.
 
" it was very common to find 3 NGK plugs on one side and 3 DENSO plugs on the other side "

I had never read such a thing. I bought my 06 with 197k at the time, pulled the plugs and found these .

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UrbanRunner651 said:
Mother of God :jaw: Any misfires?
Bet she's running like a champ now!
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No misfires. I hadn't driven it enough to really notice it running any better but it's running well. Before I did this, I was struggling to get all the readiness monitors set (on my OBD2 scanner) and even once got a catalyst efficiency code to pop up. Now that it has new plugs and air filter, the scanner shows that everything is working within specifications (no codes, all readiness monitors set, green light on display).
 
Morphyne said:
Dealer maintained (maintainted?) vehicles are misleading. You can have the dealer "maintain" your vehicle and keep refusing the spark plug changes. That guy lied to you, but not really.
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Yeah, I kind of figured this was probably the case. My dad used to work as a Master Tech in a Toyota dealership. He has lots of good (bad) stories. The service writers make their money by 'up-selling' stuff that is on the maintenance schedule or 'recommended'. I'm sure the spark plugs came recommended many times in the past 14 years and the PO declined a crap ton of times. At least I can see that all scheduled oil changes were done and some occasional other fluid changes were done on the service records.
 
The Denso plugs appear to have slightly more metal left on the electrode base than the NGK ones. Were the gaps smaller on them?

My '07 still had the factory Denso/NGK mix when I bought it at 164K miles. Ran well with them, ran well with new NGK replacements gapped to spec. Very well designed ignition system to accommodate that much gap.
 
waypoint said:
The Denso plugs appear to have slightly more metal left on the electrode base than the NGK ones. Were the gaps smaller on them?

My '07 still had the factory Denso/NGK mix when I bought it at 164K miles. Ran well with them, ran well with new NGK replacements gapped to spec. Very well designed ignition system to accommodate that much gap.
Click to expand...

i have only had my ride a month or two, 130k miles 2004...damn toyotas - runs so good i dont want to jinx myself replacing something like this when she runs/glides/brakes excellent.
 
waypoint said:
The Denso plugs appear to have slightly more metal left on the electrode base than the NGK ones. Were the gaps smaller on them?

My '07 still had the factory Denso/NGK mix when I bought it at 164K miles. Ran well with them, ran well with new NGK replacements gapped to spec. Very well designed ignition system to accommodate that much gap.
Click to expand...

The gap was about the same for all 6 of them.
 
Why the two different brands of plugs though? When I went to toyota to pick up replacement plugs, they gave me all Denso`s.
 
I am betting he paid the dealer "stealer" for the needed maintenance but the dealer just told him it was done. What they knew he would not see they just did not do it.
STAY AWAY FROM DEALER 'STEALERS" :gun4:
 
azgold said:
Why the two different brands of plugs though? When I went to toyota to pick up replacement plugs, they gave me all Denso`s.
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From what I understand--which could be complete bullshit--one head came from a plant that installed NGK and the other head came from a plant that installed Denso. No idea why.
 
KaseyMcc said:
From what I understand--which could be complete bullshit--one head came from a plant that installed NGK and the other head came from a plant that installed Denso. No idea why.
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I have some speculation that is not based in reality, just assumptions. NGK and DENSO are basically the two main players for plugs in Japan. Toyota wants to have two competitive suppliers so they make sure to give enough work to both of them to keep them both in business, rather than awarding all their contracts to one and the other going under.

I used to work at Newport News Shipbuilding. It's the only place in the world that can build the US Navy's nuclear-powered Nimitz and Ford-class aircraft carriers. When the Virginia-class submarine came around, Newport News had the winning bid but the Navy did not want NNS to have the monopoly on submarines too and was concerned that it could put Electric Boat out of business. So the Navy forced a partnership between NNS and EB where they both built parts of the subs and then final assembly would alternate between NNS and EB for each successive boat.
 
nm_alien said:
I have some speculation that is not based in reality, just assumptions. NGK and DENSO are basically the two main players for plugs in Japan. Toyota wants to have two competitive suppliers so they make sure to give enough work to both of them to keep them both in business, rather than awarding all their contracts to one and the other going under.

I used to work at Newport News Shipbuilding. It's the only place in the world that can build the US Navy's nuclear-powered Nimitz and Ford-class aircraft carriers. When the Virginia-class submarine came around, Newport News had the winning bid but the Navy did not want NNS to have the monopoly on submarines too and was concerned that it could put Electric Boat out of business. So the Navy forced a partnership between NNS and EB where they both built parts of the subs and then final assembly would alternate between NNS and EB for each successive boat.
Click to expand...

EB in RI?
 
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