Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting how hard to replace own plugs and wires?

anyone know anything more about this???

I've got +4's in the garage waiting to go in this weekend.

Am I looking at just a longevity problem, or something more serious?

I'm gonna answer my own question for those of you who may be concerned about this too, and b/c I just had the time to search thoroughly.

It seems, that plenty of CEG'ers are using Bosch Platinum +4's and I didn't read many complaints, in fact not one. So what ever this fabled Hightower incident was I'm going to assume that it's not a common problem...and that I should be ok if I go ahead and use 'em. So in they go.

BOSCH does NOT make plugs in the correct heat range for the Duratec (probably Zetec either)

BOSCH's design for thier ground electrode is garbage. I have seen far too many center electrodes melted or just dropped out!

I ran +4's on my car for 6k miles (they were free) The reason they were in so short of a time is the entire back bank failed badly! The front bank had bad wear too. (the engine had cut out problems!)

I wisened up and decided even for free I should have stuck with my experience and skipped any BOSCH plugs.

I installed Motorcraft plugs (AWSF22FS - 1 step colder - that's another story) and have been running smoothely ever since...

Also - DO NOT buy those cheap ramp style plug gappers. The are not very accurate & become even less so over time. Also when you force them between the 2 platinum electrodes you can damage and prematurely wear the platinum tips.

Buy a normal feeler gauge & gap tool for the extra dollar or two...

just wait til u pull those bosch plugs outta the rear bank after a few thousand miles and see how much more worn they are than the front bank

if u go through the dealer tell him u want double platinum plugs or maybe try asking for plugs for a contour svt...i believe all the 2.5's use the same plugs

took them back

car need afuel filter and plugs at 100,000k anywyas

so about 3 or 4 months time ill take it in, let them do the ford plugs and filter

they said the same thing, ford plugs for the duratec, nothing else

probably a sale pitch, but he warned me on the +4's he said theyll burn up in no time

**Raises hand** Heres my complint... After about 15-20,000 miles, on the rear bank... Well lets just say that they pretty much made themselves +2 1/2's; becuase thats about all the plug material that was left on them. And yes, the center electrode's on both mine and chris' were both well below the ceramic part (his were worse then mine, they were in a bit longer) And actually, chris' were about ready to stop making a spark, from what we could see. The reason you are not hearing about the complaints is that people put these plugs in, thinking they will last more than 15,000 miles, so they dont know how bad they are by that time... You do what you want on your car and with your money, just dont say things that you have no proof about. This problem with the +4's will happen on ANY car that has the "double firing" ignition system, like ours has. So for all those that care to listen, dont put the +4's in, or any other non-double platnium plugs. Get the Autolites. I had put on about 10,000 miles on them the last time I checked them, and they looked damn close to the way they looked on day one when they went in... -Nick

EDIT: Now, this I did not know. Can you provide a like with a picture of what this is??? Thanks.

The ramp style is the circular gauge that every store carries. I don't know bout the feeler but I wish I had one. Anybody know of a way to make a gap smaller? Just wondering. I pulled some autolite platinum pros(basically same as double plats) out of my car. They were in pretty good condition, nothing wrong with plugs, car just needs a little more loving and they would have looked perfect.

The way I have always done it is by tapping on the electrode with the disc type gap tool...

I installed these before I heard all these horror stories. Since then I have upper RPM band HP. I can't even get up to the governor speed. On acceleration I hear a buzz/rattling from the engine bay. (this only happens while the car is in gear) Long and short of it is that my V6 is slower than my Ztec. Should also be noted that when the engine is cold and I start to drive I get a stuter in the acceleration, If I keep my foot on the gas in the same position it'll start moving then slow down a little followed a some serious power recovery. Question here is could this all be related to the quad 4 plugs that I installed?

Yes. They may start out good, but become very bad in a hurry.

I'm sure my advanced timing and mods helped mine die even faster then most other's, however with the same number of miles on the Motorcrafts they still look like new so...