I checked my plugs today and all of them felt tight. However, the bottom of each plug had oil on it (I would assume that's normal?), the tips were frosted in a gray charcoal, and the bottoms of the ceramic part were burnt and almost looked scolded. I have seen others on this site like this, but what can we read from the look of my plugs? Is the car running too rich? Why do they look burnt? I just installed the new plugs (Bosche Platinum +4) and also cleaned off my exhaust tips as they have been covered in carbon after only a couple days of driving. I'm far from a mechanic and this is my first plug change.

 

My car is a 2001 with 23k miles.

 

The electrodes look pretty normal to me. I did the spark plug recall @ 24000 km (so about 15000 miles) and they looked just like yours but my threads didn't look nearly as black and I didn't have as severe burn rings at the base of the white part. The car ran fine before the plug change and it ran not much different after.
I'd be interested to hear your evalution of the "Bosche Platinum +4" in terms of how your car runs with them compared to before. Can you give us the part # and the cost?

 

just removed my plugs and they look exactly the same...

 

I think Xviper is right, the electrodes look fine, but the burn rings look like fouling, while the scorching on the insulator (ceramic) looks like excessive heat.

Have you been playing around with AFR before removing the plugs, or run bad fuel before?

This is really odd.

 

They're fine. I've gone through two sets that looked just like that.

 

Is it true that stock plugs should last 100,000 between changing them? T hats what the dealer told me!

 

They're supposed to. By 100k miles they NEED to be changed. I guess you could do it earlier if you wanted, but I wouldnt say any sooner than 60k.