Yeah, yeah, I've got too much time on my hands.
On Aug 26/02, I got the new plugs and did the replacement myself. At the time I wondered if these, too, would back out or loosen so I recorded the indexing of each plug.
Today and about 2000 km later, I checked to see if anything had changed. And the answer is ................... NO!
All plugs were still at the pre-set torque of 18-20ft#s. All plugs were still orientated in the exact same position as when put in.

(With the old plugs @13#s, they loosened over several months to as little as 6#s. Even when tightened to 18#s, after about a month and a half, they loosened to about 10-13#s. I'd always wondered if they were "unscrewing" or that the crush ring was needing more crushing. I guess I'll never know now.)

I guess the recall was worth it and Honda did it right, this time.

 

That is great news xviper!! Thanks for the update.

 

Yes! Thanks for checking, XV. My torque wrench isn't good enough to be sure, but I've trusted the TSB and just left 'em alone... Glad it wasn't wrong to do so!

At the time of the scare, before the new plugs were released, I ended up losing coil cover bolts because I didn't torque those down, and though I've learned my lesson (and replaced the missing bolts), I'm not too inclined to get back back in there again.

Anyway, that's great. I agree, Honda did this right.

I wonder if anyone using aftermarket plugs has had any back off trouble at either the old or new torque setting. I heard no one complaining about the Iridiums at the time...

Best wishes!

 

xviper,

Do you think the original plugs would have loosened if they had been initially torqued to 18ft#s? I am thinking that once torqued to 13ft#s, thus "crushing" the crush rings, then left to work loose over several months , then retorqued to 18ft#s, that possibly this wasn't the same as torqueing them to 18ft#s initially. That is, even with the new plugs, can we retorque them once loose or do we have to start over with new plugs and thereby new crush rings?

 

I think you'd need someone with more tech knowledge than I to really say for sure.
I'm guessing here but I'm thinking that if the rings were originally crushed to 13#s and then later re-torqued to 18#s, that they would still be "more crushed" and have, for lack of a better term, the higher "compressed reaction force". (It would be different if you crushed something a lot and then backed off the force to a lower torque.) I would "theorize" that if set at 18#s to begin with, that they still would have worked loose just by nature of the material with which they were made. I think the original plugs needed far more torque to keep them in than what the head threads could have taken.

 

That's great to know xviper.... and yes, you do have too much time on your hands

 

I never had the "loosening plugs" problem, at least up to about 36k miles. At that point I changed to Bosch super-double-whammy-dual-douch-bag platinum plugs THAT HAVE NO CRUSH WASHERS AT ALL.

They have a 45 degree chamfer on the seating surface of the plug, and after about another 30k miles, still no loosening. Hmmm. So now that I'm bragging about having no problem, I'll probably crank up the car tomorrow and all 4 plugs will shoot out through the hood.

 

Dust off that rabbit's foot. Polish up that horseshoe. Find that 4 leaf clover. Do you have a lucky penny?