Clinton News-Record, 1979-10-25, Page 35'lugs Every 10;000
A spark, plug may look
good to the casual observer
after 15,000, 20,000 or even
,000 miles.'
why change plugs
ter 10,000 miles of use
in your, family car?
There's a good reason
according to experts. The
10,000 mile change recom-
mendation is not actually
b ed on the fact that
spark plugs are "worn out"
in the strictest sense after,._
10,000 miles of service.
This figure —. selected
after extensive spark plug
life tests — merelyrepre-
sents a safety factor be-
yond which plugs may
misfire under the sudden
demands of peak acceler-
ation or extremely heavy
load.
Gas Economy Drops
It also represents the
point at which gas econ-
omy begins to drop. In
addition, the car is harder
to start, power is lost in
ps,i
A spark plug is . con-
sidered worn out when it.
reaches the point where it
is likely to misfire - re-
gardless of its appearance.
Md, contrary to popular
inion, misfiring doesn't
necessarily mean the plug
didn't create a . spark. It
means, simply that the .
plug failed to ignite the
gasoline properly—wheth-
er a spark was produced
or not!
A new spark plug with
the correct gap setting
needs about 5,000 volts to
fire, However, as the plug
remains in service, con-
stant .heat and chemical
attack phis electrical ero-
sion cause the gap to be-
come wider, thus increas-
ing, the amount of voltage
to fire the plug.
Gap Gets Wider
Spark _plug gapJgrowth
occurs at a rate 'of about
•
,001 inch for each 1,000
miles of driving. Conse-
I quently, a set of plugs that
has been in service for
10,000 miles generally will
have gaps that are about
1.010 .inch wider than the
originai.settings and
higher voltage is needed
to make them spark."
And, this is only for
normal driving. Operating
the engine abs very high
.speed can decrease the
amount of coil voltage__
available to fire the spark
plugs by 30 to 40 percent!
Accelerating to pass on a
highway may practically
double the voltage burden
on the spark plug.
Can't Get
Servicing or replacing
the car battery may not
be the answerto a car's
winter starting woes.
That's what a high per-
centage of motorists
learned when they experi-
enced starting failure -and
sought to correct it solely
through attention to the
battery.
According to a hard -
starting survey conducted
• by Champion $park Plug
Company last winter, re-
peated failure was experi-
enced by 38.9 per cent of
car. owners ; who had .their
batteries charged after
initial! "can't starts."
,Of those motorists in-
stalling a new battery af-
ter not starting, 25.9 per
cent had -at leastone other
failure.
When car owners treat-
ed starting woes with en-
gine tune-up, they ha)d
better success in forest l'1
ing future problems, . the
survey showed. Rate of re -
es
Needs More Voltage
That's why misfiring is
first noticed while accel-
erating because it's here
that the plumactually
can require mre voltage
to produce a spark than
the ignition system is ca-
pable of producing — es-
pecially if the plugs are
badly worn.
Remember, as plugs re-
main in service, more volt-
age is needed to make
them spark. As the ignition
system. ages, its ability
to produce high voltage
lessens. If the point is
reached where the spark
plugs require more voltage
to spark than the system
can produce, the' spark
plugs misfire.
Started
peat can't starts was 14:6
per cent after a tune-up.
Installation of new spark
plugs alone was , a better
answer to starting trouble
than battery service since
18.7 per cent had addi-
tional problems with new
plugs.
The survey .also 'revealed
hard starting continues to
be the leading problem
confronting motorists. In
the U.S., 29 per cent of
owners reported at leas+
one . failure last winter. In
Canada; 30 per, cent had.
trouble.
Cold weather was not
solely to blame ..for start-
ing trouble. Warm weather
regions in the U.S. -were
only __.slightly below the
national average in re-
ported ``can't starts."
In `Pacific . Coast states,
.27 .per cent of car owners
surveyed had at least one ;.
failure while the South
Atlantic states had a 2i
per cent "can't start" rate.
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