The center electrode on our plugs is slim and will break, not the outer electrode - that's why you need to use a wire gapper. But still, I agree - I'd rather not have to adjust gap than adjust it and weaken the outer cathode.

if the engine is running fine, I wouldn't lose sleep over it - you'll probably get more debris in the cylinder fiddling around than you would if you didn't.

 

how old are the plugs ?, the electrodes can erode slowly over time and they just basically wear themselves away. They don't necessarily break though it could happen.

 

Yeah - but we did check the valves too. All were still in spec.

Plus it was running so rough with the bad plug and coil pack that I thought I'd broken the motor.

Running like a top now.

 

I had the NGK ridiums replaced about 6 months ago. theres no way they would've eroded. my ignition coil should come in tomorrow and then i'll know. thanks for the help everyone! this is a great site

 

Plugs were not torqued correctly resulting in poor heat conduction to the head. Plug overheated and also overheated the coil pack.

I would install new plugs on all cylinders and make sure they are correctly torqued, or even slightly over torqued.

There was a TSB on this ages ago.

 

I replaced the ignition coil and the car runs and sounds perfectly fine!!! woohoo....

 

 

Exactly, this happened all the time, but then they fixed it. Which is why you should never buy some random plug.

 

Dont ever ask your engineer for advice on cars again.

 

beat me to it