My car has been hard to start for about a month now. I pulled the plugs out today to see how they look. The attached pics are of the leading plugs (trailing are OK as I replaced them earlier this year). Can I get an opinion on how they look? To me, they look like the original 45k plugs, not ones w/ maybe 15k on them. Keep in mind that they supposedly were replaced the last year as part of the recall.

P.S. I discovered that the front leading plug is not getting spark. That's probably why I'm having the starting issues (trailing ignition does not operate during cranking after the recall). Hello dealer for a new coil.

 

those look pretty bad for only 15,000 miles

 

check the lead for the one not getting spark, look for corrosion. that lead has a habit of coming off...

btw, they look bad..

beers

 

Wow!
Those look pretty nasty for 15k miles

 

Black stuff, no good

Replace them. 20 bux each. 2 = 40 bucks.

Get a bottle of Anti-Seize as well.

 

Well, I ordered two new plugs from sparkplugs.com. The car is running horribly! Not surprising given the condition of the plugs and the fact that one isn't getting spark. The one w/ the black on it is the one that's not getting juice. I hooked up my timing light to the wire and there was definitely no spark going thru it. I'm making another appointment w/ the dealer this week for them to install a new coil. Kind of sad that the customer has to diagnose the problem for the dealer. I'm also going to bring up the plug condition. I'm betting their replacement got overlooked during the recall work. Anyway, I think I'm going to ask for a few free oil changes to make things right.