Hello, these spark plugs have 7000 miles on them. I am wondering the the car is running lean due to the white plugs? Also one of the plugs is darker than the rest (plug on the left)

Is it worth paying to have my fuel injectors cleaned? I was going to take them out and get them cleaned at a garage near me tomorrow but I dont have much spare cash at the moment so I thought I would ask you guys first!

Heres the pics, please be honest as I want to look after my engine.







The plug on the left (darkest and seems crusty)


The middle plug' very clean and white

 

If you have an ap2 I think they look pretty normal, they tend to run a bit leaner, ap1's seem to run more rich and tend to be darker. The plugs look different depending on the angle of your pictures, but I think they aren't too bad. Most modern engines you find today will have very white plugs as they run stoich. in the majority of daily driving conditions and only go rich at WOT which isn't as frequent as part throttle conditions mostly used in daily driving. The different plugs will have slightly different appearance as air flow between the cylinders isn't 100% equal.

It never hurts to have your injectors serviced if you have some decent miles on the car, but I don't think your plugs are screaming for it to be done right away.

The tops of a couple of the plugs look kind of dirty, make sure you weren't getting oil into the plug wells or the plugs weren't loose, the one plug looks kind of nasty, I'd be suspicioius of it. You can likely clean them up fine but make sure there isn't any oil leakage in the one spark plug well, and torque them to 18 foot lbs on reinstallation after cleaning.

 

Thanks for the reply its very informative, would you say that the brown colour on the 3rd plug is oil? I'll order some new seals for the valve cover.

The car is a AP1, 107,000 miles, its a daily drive and only hits vtec once a week, if that.

 

Hard to say on the staining, it could be oil leaking into the wells, or it might be corrosion of some sort, or the plugs weren't torqued tight enough and they were coming loose. Loose plugs can also cause them to run lean and can cause some damage. Clean them up, put new seals on the valvecover and torque the plugs to 18 foot lbs. Service the injectors later down the road when you have the funds. Good luck.

 

Thank you, i have a 3/8 torque wrench coming tomorrow so i'll put them back tomorrow.

Iv been reading i should put copper grease on threads, is this a good idea?

Thanks again. Rob

 

My AP1 plugs didn't look that white when I changed them out recently (went to colder plug) but I have no idea how old they were.

I personally wouldn't grease the threads. Just clean them off real good, spray some WD-40 on a shop rag and wipe them down.

 

Sorry one more question. How do i know if there has been detonation caused by a lean condition?

The plugs are now clean, I wont grease them

 

Get a magnifying glass under bright light and inspect the white porcelain material around the center electrode (firing end), you want to look for metallic balls stuck or splattered to the porcelain material, shiny metallic material. If you see such material that is aluminum that has melted from the combustion chamber due to detonation and lean conditions. Any other colour of deposits are fine, black, brown, orange, just nothing metallic/shiny.

The knock sensor should be able to prevent excessive detonation, light detonation is harmless and not unheard of in modern engines. Checking plugs after lots of part throttle driving is mis-leading, to read them right you need to run WOT and shut down the engine soon after and pull the plugs, much like they do in Funny Car racing, but who ever can do that , lol. Not very practical.

 

Thanks Jfusion!