Hello everyone, I routinely change my spark plugs every year on my car as it's my daily driver. I have noticed that the center electrode is always in good shape when I pull them out. I mainly see carbon and gunk on the ground electrode and metal shell for both the Lead and Trailing plugs. My question is - can these simply be cleaned instead of replaced? I ask this because on every car I have; I replace them with new ones as Plugs are cheap (4 for $20 on average). However, in the Rx8 they average $20+ a plug unless you get them on sale. I took out an old set I had stored and cleaned them with Carb cleaner and then let them soak on a cup filled with seafoam. They now look clean and good but I am wondering if it's worth the hassle of pulling out the plugs and testing these or just buying new ones? I always you OEM NGK's along with new NGK OEM Plug wires every year.

 

i usually keep cleaned used ones in case i have to deflood an 8. how often do you change your coils/wires? how many miles are you driving a year? $80/yr isnt a lot of money but again depends on mileage

 

I don't see a problem reusing them if they're still in good condition, but yes it's less about the time more about the mileage and driving style. A year of highway driving is much better than a year of traffic. I'm curious why you replace the wires every year, that seems aggressive.

 

growing up a broke kid on 2 stroke dirt bikes i used every amount of life out of spart plugs lol.

i think the suggestion is ~30k miles on a stock ignition system but i probably wouldnt go that high.

 

I replaced the coils about 15k/ 2 years ago and I do all highway driving. I always been told to replace wires and plugs together for optimal performance which is why I change them often. I plan to slap on the older plugs this weekend and reuse the same wires per your guy's advise.

 

Plugs and wires together generally makes sense, but every year is probably overkill.