Car has been harder to start lately, and down on power. From what I've seen, plugs are supposed to be brown-ish - not like this. These have about 30K miles on them. Will check the coils next.



I realize the focus wasn't spot on - hopefully this works though...

 

Running rich or misfiring... Are you getting a flashing CEL?

Miles on the car? Any other symptoms?

 

Yessir - getting flashing ECU during even gentle driving. engine used to light-off within a second; now cranks a bit longer. 68k on the car; about 30k on this engine; 20k on these plugs/wires/cat/coils.

 

You don't have many miles...

Are your plug wires going to the correct plugs? Maybe you can snap a picture of your wires/plugs/coils
Also check your MAF sensor... Search for a DIY
It's possible that your coils are bad again... What's your driving style?

 

Man up and buy new stuff

Those plugs are typical of crap fouled over rich Mazda tunes

I would replace the plugs first..and see if it helps...and the then the coils and wires if it doesn't fix most of it

Any other CEL's??

 

Thanks much - I can't imagine the wires would have gotten moved; used to run just fine. It's very possible my coils are bad again. I'm learning this car will go thru cats, coils, plugs, and wires - it seems every 20k miles or so. I drive the car pretty hard.


No, Dan - no other CEL's - just the flasher under part throttle. Where do you buy your plugs?

 

sparkplugs.com

 

Got them ordered...

 

Yes sir, for 20k miles that's normal. The second plug looks like it is from the rear rotor.

The second one indicates too much in town driving.

Our plugs run black when they get like the second one they are shot.

Even the first one does not have a hint of brown.

 

well, I don't drive it a ton; my wife would drive it to work; I can't take it to work because the do-not-back-up spike strips rip chunks of rubber out of the tires. I'll ask her to drive it harder (thatswhatshesaid). Yes, front plug was from front rotor, second plug was from rear rotor.

Thanks guys.

 

You need something like this

 

eek! need that?

 

Yup!

We do burn oil by design!

 

Right - I don't get what you mean; is that photo showing 'healthy' plugs?

 

Yes... You want your plugs to look roughly like this when you replace them.

 

Thanks - new plugs showed up yesterday - interesting though; they look identical, trailing and leading - not like what I pulled out of that car. That okay? I got the iridium set from sparkplugs.com

 

Check the numbers...they should be different

They likely sent you all 4 of the same plugs....

 

two have IRL01-27, two have IRT01-31, but they look the same; no channels cut into the trailing plugs.

 

Those are the Denso Plugs I think..they don't have the channels in the L plugs like the NGK

 

so should be good to go then?

 

Do you premix and if so how heavy???

 

I don't, unless going to the track.

 

Should be good....

 

when I replaced things today, my OEM plugs looked more brown than black. weird. Anywho - got them swapped; pulled off coils to see white marks on the backs - looks like i'll shop for those next.

 

White marks don't mean anything...good coils can have white spots...and bad ones can be normal looking.....

If they are over 40K miles old...replace them and save yourself the trouble of testing them