bobodu wrote:I was tricked by TWO bad brand new NGK plugs last year on a bike. Bought them at O'Rielly's Auto Parts and they were not counterfeit. Never had a bad NGK before.
Yeah one of the biggest things with any spark plug is trusting in the source and its prior handling from the factory.. Just dropping a box of spark plugs on a hard concrete floor (knocking it off a shelf, etc) can introduce tiny hairline cracks you'll never see , even sometimes within the metal body of the plug, that result in a "bad new" plug out of the box.... which you may more often find when sourcing from auto parts stores, wal-marts, etc.. since their warehouse folks are, well, less well-trained.. I think the problems I used to see with Champion plugs were a lot to do with their packaging and material handling processes (dropping them off a conveyor during packaging, etc?) as well as the distributor I got them from (it wasn't just plugs that were often poorly packed, one example - packing a couple flat idlers sitting loose on top of some head gaskets, or packing heavy metal parts or box of saw chain in with more delicate (plastic/fiber intake tubes, etc) where things got crushed, smashed and knocked around in shipping.. I suspect that may be why it seems some brands have regional reputation since some regions served by the same distributor with poor material handling processes, etc.
How poor are they who have not patience. What wound did ever heal, but by degrees? - Iago (Othello Act II, Scene 3)