@jesmed Oh yeah!, water injection… IT IS BACK! No joke! The tuner crowd grabbed onto water and methanol injection to first cool down their turbo kits and now on normally aspirated cars. “Proven” performance advantage! Snake oil anyone?
I’ve purchased the exact NGK spark plugs recommended by Toyota for my Corolla at chain auto parts stores. But I have to insist that I’ll only accept those specific plugs, as they tend to want to sell me something else instead. And I often have to wait for the staff assistant there to order the plugs I want. But in a day or two they’ll be in, and at a competitive price. The locally owned auto parts store I currently do business with routinely stocks these same plugs so I can get them anytime, just by walking in. And the price is the same as the chain stores.
The first time I changed Toyota plugs I attempted to get exactly the same part number that was on the OEM plug. It was not possible. I learned in researching the NGK part number that the last designator, the last letter, on the original plugs was to designate the plugs as “specials” to be shipped to Toyota only.
I also learned that NGK uses two different part number structures for exactly the same plug. Once I broke the codes down and determined the two part number designations available at the parts stores, I wrote them with magic marker under the hood. Now when I go to the store I can ask for the plugs by the NGK number, whichever one is in stock.
I’ve found that the parts store catalogs list more than one NGK configuration for my tC, with both part numbers for each, for a total of six options. They list copper cores, platinum tips, and iridium. I stay with iridium, which is what it came with.
Some counter guys know which are the OEM pugs. Some don’t. Some will try to sell you the trifurcated unobtanium plugs with the “Thunder of Thor” ionized atmospheric discharge pattern. It’s nice to know exactly what I need.
That’s interesting TSM. The chain parts store I have used in the past usually tried to sell me Bosch plugs, but I always insisted they order up the NGK’s spec’d by Toyota instead. Good thing maybe, as when I was doing some homework on the Corolla’s HC emission problem, one piece of advise that seemed to be almost universal was to not use Bosch plugs – at least not the kind that have four arms on the electrodes – if you have an HC emission problem.
Yeah, I decided to stop doing business with JC Whitney when one of their catalogs included one of those electrical conditioners you plug into your 12 volt outlet or cigarette lighter to get more power and better fuel economy at the same time. I think that same catalog had The Tornado, the plastic device you put in your throttle housing to get a better air/fuel mixture.
An electrical conditioner you plug into your 12 volt outlet or cigarette lighter to get more power and better fuel economy at the same time?? I LOVE IT! The epitome of stupidity!
Don’t forget the rebuild pellets. I had to force myself not to order the toilet paper o filter, just to say I had one.
Hey, snake oil is good stuff! Have you ever seen a snake with sludge?
Whitey, is that the one that advertises that it’ll “clean up your electrical system?”. I just recently saw an ad for that. I seem to recall discussing that one here once. Hysterical.
Yes, Mountainbike, that’s the one.
That one’s a riot. Perhaps even more ridiculous than magnetic “particle aligners” and toilet paper filters.
Total BS is not limited to fly by night, boiler room operations either. A few years ago Sylvania claimed that the new design LED taillamps on current generation Mustangs would save 10 gallons of gasoline a year in normal driving as compared to an identical Mustang with incandescents.
Toilet paper filters . . .
Do we really want to go there again?