This is a really great video. think it one of the best on youtube. You should do another update. The new FAKES are so much better almost undetectable now. I compared my OEM precovid plugs with news OEM plugs, the new OEM from the factory looks like it was made in a garage. I think the dealers inventory might have some fakes mixed into it now. Given the parts shortage issue.
There is little question of who is doing this counterfeit manufacturing, Chinese companies. It is a big industry in China, making cheap counterfeit parts for high-demand auto parts. There is a big illicit market there for replacement auto HID bulbs, typically the good ones made by OSRAM and Philips. There is also a big business there in China in supplying sub standard steel to the construction market, with fake certifications of strength and treatment. This has been going on for over 20 years.
***The information in this video is specific to the NGK Iridium Plugs model IZFR6K11. Other real model numbers may have real plugs that use a cardboard protector and may say ///JAPAN/// on the plug. If those two details are the only difference on other model numbers, they're likely real. FYI -NGK manufactures in Japan, US, and Thailand. Some models come with plastic covers and other models come with cardboard covers. Main places you should be worried about fakes is Ebay and Amazon 3rd party sellers. ***
I bought my NGK plugs (honda packaging) last 2019 from Honda dealership, they were 30cad each. Then just today, I decided to buy for my other honda on Part Source, but before I headed there, I came across your video. So this time it had NGK box and it's 20cad each. All of your description for genuine plugs checks out on what I have. But for the Honda, I still have it's Honda packaging but the sleeves/thread protector it came with was brown cardboard. I could have checked the plugs during that time if I knew there were fakes. But I think I still have genuine plugs as this is from Honda.
I also noticed that my NGK 93135 (DILKR7A11) plugs bought from CARID online do not share the same physical differences as the same known non-fake plugs. Mine do not say anything about USA on the plug, comes with brown cardboard thread protection not clear plastic and several other inconsistencies. I am going to call NGK to get the final word. I paid more than the fakes for these so soon I will know for sure.
@@ybrik5937 I read comments from Miguel Chavez DIY that said yes, some come with the cardboard cylinder protectors. I am calling NGK on Monday to see if mine are real. Maybe you missed his comment in this thread?
Note, the cardboard tube does not necessarily mean fake. I got real ones from OReillys with cardboard, instead of plastic. Also, some production is Japan, so it's not a reliable indicator. The rest of the comparisons work fine.
Not so fast. In the early '80's while working as a mechanic at a Buick dealership, we had a run of bad carburetor fuel filters. Turns out they had been bought from some other source then GM. We were replacing them for some time after that. Remember, that was at a genuine new car dealership as opposed to a parts store,,,,
In India also we get original fitted with cardboard, & also the Name JAPAN is not engraved, this is because nowadays all are manufactured in Haryana, INDIA.
Several years ago I purchased some "knock off" Champion spark plugs and installed them in a 90hp Mercury outboard engine. Almost from the start I had problems with them. I stopped buying the Champion brand plug and switched to NGK brand spark plugs. I use them in all my engines and I buy from the same source. It's getting to the point where you can't trust anything.
You have to be cautious buying things on Ebay and from 3rd party sellers on Amazon. NGK has a list of authorized sellers. I would go with any of the companies on their list of authorized sellers. The link is in the video description.
Thanks for the vid, I was holding my breath because I just bought a set of 4 for my 2009 Accord, but I got them off Amazon. Luckily, they passed the test.
This happened to me a few years ago. I was replacing the original NGK 7658 Iridium plugs that came with my Suzuki Grand Vitara when it was new. The car had 115,000 miles at the time. I bought six of the same plugs from Amazon and didn’t notice anything different or fake about them. Big mistake. After only 15,000 miles on the Amazon NGK plugs, my ignition coils started failing, one right after the other, resulting in a check engine light and misfire codes. The coils were brand new OEM units that I installed the same time I installed the Amazon NGK plugs. Coils usually fail due to sparkplugs with a gap that is too wide. This forces the coils to consistently produce a higher voltage for the spark to jump the wide gap, resulting in overheating of the transistors inside the coil or damage to the secondary coil winding. When I removed the Amazon NGK plugs to check them, it was obvious. The center electrode was completely gone after only 15,000 miles. This left a gap that was huge, at least four times what it should have been. This is what was causing my coils to fail. In comparison, my original plugs with over 115,000 miles had hardly any wear at all. Then I purchased another set of NGK plugs from Rock Auto. So far, it’s been about 30,000 miles on those. I checked them at 10,000, 20,000 and just recently at 30,000 miles and there was no wear. It’s obvious the plugs I had bought from Amazon were fake. The fake Amazon plugs cost me three expensive coils that I had to replace.
Damn, that sucks! No doubt those were counterfeit plugs that damaged your coils. Coils are expensive too! When my coils were going out after 10 yrs I was surprised how much they cost, I bought them from Auto Zone because I needed them right away.
count yourself lucky. cheap plugs can shatter and drop ceramic or chunks of steel right into your combustion chamber and its game over for that engine.
It appears I received and installed a set of these FAKE NGK plugs from ebay . I had installed them and the car ran rougher than the old NGK's that had about 130,000 miles on them. I chased "mistakes" on my part before I re-installed our old plugs back in. I thought "maybe" I had received "seconds" quality NGK's . Nope, I got fakes . Thanks to Chavez for this video.
@@ChavezDIY I agree, next time Autozone for parts for sure. FYI, her original owner 2004 Honda Accord is at 396,000 miles on the original drivetrain. This was probably the 3rd time I've changed plugs in it. Her car looks and runs like a 5 year old car .
Thank you so much for this video. I didn't even know there was counterfeit spark plugs. This video helped ease my mind that the NGK's I bought are real. Thanks, bro! Good looking out!
Yes, FAKE NGK spark plugs are being sold out there. I wanted to change my old spark plugs with new ones. My vehicle's owner's manual stated what kind of spark plugs I needed. In May 2024, I purchased six (6) NGK Laser Iridium spark plugs on eBay. I didn't immediately replace the spark plugs mainly because I didn't know how to. After watching this video, I purchased six (6) NGK Laser Iridium Premium spark plugs from my local O'Reilly's Auto Parts store. I compared the eBay ones to the O'Reilly's ones. I was surprised to discover the differences of the eBay FAKES and the ones from O'Reilly's. Everything stated in this video was TRUE in my own comparison. I was no longer confident in my eBay purchase and so received a full refund. I finally replaced my ols spark plugs with the new one from O'Reilly's. Even though my eBay purchase saved me money at first, I'm sure it would cost me more money and headache on potential car repairs in the future as a result of this FAKE spark plugs installation. Thank you very much for the excellent, informative video!!!
Excellent video on the NGK fake vs real spark plugs !! You really hit it out of the park on this one with all the detailed comparison of each plug. I'm getting ready to replace my plugs in a few months and started to look online and the prices varied quite a bit with Ebay and Amazon usually having much cheaper prices. This should be a BIG red flag as quality real NGK iridium plugs are not cheap. I found some performance shops online and a set of 4 was near $ 79.00 which I suspect were real NGK plugs. I'm going to check with my dealership and see if they carry NGK, if not I will probably order from a performance shop or other retailer I can trust. Thanks again for the great video, you should continue doing videos on car part comparisons as there is lots of Chinese junk being sold online.
The significant differences between fake spark plugs (in my case, this is DENSO SC20HR11 IRIDIUM) from the original are as follows. The central electrode did not have a laser-welded iridium washer/cylinder, and the side electrode had a stamped imitation of a "welded" resistance welding disk. These differences between the fake spark plugs and the genue spark plugs can only be seen using a binocular microscope.
I bought some NGK plugs a month ago. Haven't installed them yet & just saw your video last night. Checked this morning & was relieved to discover I'm good. My plugs fit your description of the real plugs perfectly. Thank you for your vigilance, Miguel. It's way too easy to be taken in by a well disguised fraud. And I'm sure I wouldn't even have considered fake plugs were a thing, even when my engine started to perform poorly. Wow!
Well, if ya STOP buying ANY auto parts from ebay or amazon to begin with, and ONLY buy from reputable parts dealers both online or a brick & mortar business, ya won't have to worry & wonder if you bought fakes. By the way, ya can't use this single video of a single spark plug type to determine if your plugs "are real or not" because many NGK plugs that ARE REAL use the cardboard protectors over the threads. If everyone would STOP buying garbage off ebay & amazon, the crooks would give up on making such garbage because they can't sell it. But far too many people are so obsessed with "saving a few bucks" and/or "finding the best deal". Regardless of price, if any auto part doesn't come from a well known reputable dealer, I'm not buying it. But as long as people insist on "getting the best deal from ebay or amazon", the crooks will continue selling them fake garbage that can damage their engine or vehicle.
This is a big industry in China, making cheap fake replacement auto parts: sparkplugs, headlamp bulbs, windshield washer blades, oil and air filters ...
As much i trust my local auto parts store, when i buy plugs, i double check they are genuine, cause there's bad people that ordered from amazon knowing they are getting the fake and the they go to their local auto parts store buy the real and then days later they go back and returned the plugs, but they swap the good ones and return the fake, cause they can go out and make money selling them for the original cost, trust me i know cause i knew someone that did that sh...ttt, but for those that love amazon for cheaper prices, well they also getting cheaper products and Bezos loves those shoppers.
Yes, they are devious, the untrained eye can't tell the difference between a fake and a real plug. I never knew until this year that people sell counterfeit OEM parts for Toyota and Honda online too.
I purchased a 6 pack of NGK 6994 from Amazon in 2018 around $60. I suspected they were fake and even contacted NGK and I asked if the Lot number was legit -F8YE. They said it was a Taiwan manufacturing location and they were in fact fake. The plugs have Japan engraved on them instead of USA from local auto part stores inventory. I cut them open as you did and I did see a copper core and they look identical to a real plug. Do you think I got lucky with real Japan NGK manufactured plugs?
I got 40% discount on my NGK spark plugs and was not confident that they were real ones because of the big discount I even asked the seller the reason for the big discount. I checked them with you now and i'm pretty sure they match the real ones and are in fact REAL, Thanks a lot! I also checked the resistance and it matches!
Correct. It all depends on the model number of the plugs. With this specific model number in the video, they should not come with cardboard covers. Other models do come with cardboard covers, but I don't have a list of those that do.
A Chinese motorcycle I bought years ago came with a fake NGK plug. The resistor disintegrated causing the center electrode to recede into the ceramic insulator. The bike didn't run well with a .1" gap!
i’ve seen on the Internet it on a fake, NGK, spark plug, you can get the washer off easy. But on the real NGK spark plugs, you cannot get the washer off easy at all.. to be safe, I do not buy NGK spark plugs from anyone on eBay. I buy my spark plugs at advance auto. They stock them, or they will have them later today or tomorrow…
NGK is made in few countries, including Thailand and Vietnam, the boxes can vary, So the box design theory is out, Now lets look at the physical description, Yes the fake ones are a bit bigger, maybe a thread or 2, the printing is darker than OEM, the fake ones started to have lots numbers now, printed on one side of hex area like OEM, This is where they cannot duplicate , the resistance check, the fakes have a much higher resistance and all over the place, The OEM's numbers are a lot closer and very low resistance
I am a ngk laser iridium user before but now I stop buying and using it...because of that fake product.. its very hard to identify the fake and orig. specially in online shopping. You want to buy expensive one because of its durability but what if you buy a fake one and it can damage your engine..? OMG...I used brisk now it is not durable but atleast I know the surely lifespan and surely not fake.
As long as you buy them from big retailer like AutoZone, Pep Boys, Oreilly etc or a reputable online retailer like AdvancedAuto or partsgeek. they should be originals. If you spend a few minutes observing them, you'll figure out how to spot the fake. At first my reaction was frustration, but once I noticed the details its easy to spot the fakes. I hate people sell counterfeit shit, haha.
Wish I had seen this before I bought a set for my 2011 Tacoma. I put them in six months ago and less than 15k miles I had a miss fire. I thought I had a bad coil because of that. I have used only these plugs on my Tacoma since they were OEM. The real ones last over 100k miles. I replaced all the coils and still had the problem. I pulled out the plugs and all the tips were gone. Definitely learned my lesson and will only go to the parts store from now on.
Sorry to hear about your 15k spark plugs with blown tips, they were definitely counterfeit plugs. I was amazed that hundreds of these have already been sold on eBay.
Same exact thing happened to me after 14,000mi my denso plugs start miss firing cylinder 1 &6 I bought them off eBay from “supposedly Lexus authorized dealer” when I pulled them out the tip was fouled and covered with carbon, i went to Lexus dealer and buy set of 6 and have peace of mind they’re definitely original and not fake lesson learned 🙌🏼
You were fortunate to get that far. Put a set in my Neon and it was missing and hesitating by 5,000 miles. Same scenario, electrodes were burned down to the insulators.
I bought some NGK plugs from NAPA. On some of your observations, they identify with genuine, but on at least one count, they appear counterfeit. For example, the plug has just NGK written on one side and part number on the other. There is no assembled in usa written on the plug. The box that it came in says assembled in Thailand. I am going to call NGK tomorrow morning to verify.
I just bought a set of AUTOLITE iridium plugs from Amazon that turned out to be fake. I installed them and when the engine was cold it ran well. But as soon as it heated up the car started missing so bad I barely made it back home. I finally figured out it was the plugs after checking my coils. Then I went to Napa and bought a different set. I installed those and the car ran great.
I just bought some off EBay. NGK Ruthenium HX not these.. I think they cost like $48 ? Something like $11 or $12 a plug.. I actually can't wait until they come now. I want to see if I can tell if they are fake or not. I'll probably do a video when they do.
Fake ngk spark plugs have been a big problem. I bought a set from Amazon and installed them, and 3 weeks later, one caused a misfire, and the electrode on spark plug was burnt off ...I message ngk website and they ask for photos ..so I sent a few they said they are not genuine..I bought a new set from o'reilly my car been running great for 3 months now.
Damn that sucks. I try to get my plugs from authorized sellers like Auto Zone, O Reilly, Napa, etc. I won't wanna worry about engine problems due to fake plugs.
MMM... my last set of NGK Iridiums for my bike came via Amazon some 10 years ago, and they were Kosha. I got a set for my car a while back from a local dealer and they were the real deal too... both worked out around $14NZ each.... You get what you pay for. I went to Amazon for the first set as the local price here was $48 each, an obvious gouge, but the second set just 3 years ago from the local outlet was reasonable.
The people that make the fakes do a really good job. If you wanted to be sure, you can cut one open and look for the copper in the core of the spark plug, but then you'll have to buy 1 replacement at your local store.
NGK has a big factory in Shanghai. It costs about 700 cny (98.94 usd) to buy 4 DILKAR6A11 plugs straight out of the factory. No way this thing will get down below 20 usd per plug since it's duration is over 100,000 kms (I have those in my QR20DE engine for more than 7 years)
BEST video I've seen on fake comparison - thanks! I just received a set of fakes from eBay, and that's what caused me to search online when I noticed inconsistencies in the finishes. Never realized they were making FAKE SPARK PLUGS!!!
Yeah, its crazy what people will do for money. I plan to buy some from amazon and see what I find. I also found some counterfeit OEM Honda parts on eBay (a couple of sensors). There's another guy on youtube, The Car Care Nut, that made a video about counterfeit OEM Toyota parts too.
heads up just bought a set on amazon and it HAD the clear cover but turned to crap after just a week of use. don't be cheap pay the extra 20 dollars boys
@@ChavezDIY for sure good idea, they caused rough idle poor shifting and the whole time i never thought FAKEE PLUGS. I was happy had found an incredibly cheap deal on amazon. However, did notice the box they came in was recycled cardboard and the mini "welds" where the spark happens looked sloppy. plug was also a little too shiny way too CHROME. hard to tell but this video really helped
I'm sorry man. There's no integrity to be found here and it happens much more often than most think. I'm commend you for blowing the whistle and raising awareness but man I'm so sorry you got had here. I'd be as pissed as I think you are and maybe do something similar to what you did. I'll just stick with AutoZone, Rock, and Napa for stuff like this. You also gotta watch the coils too. If they'll get you on the plugs, they'll get you on coils, perhaps even worse quality comparisons. Thanks again...
I was disappointed when I found out about these fakes, but then I found even more videos on counterfeit OEM parts being sold on Ebay, that's crazy. I agree, I will be sticking with AutoZone or authorized NGK sellers, there's a link to the authorized sellers in the video description.
Purchased a car part from Amazon advertised as genuine OEM but was fake. I wrote a bad review regarding the product and vendor but Amazon blocked my post. Seems like they rather protect the vendors than unsuspecting buyers. This was not my the first time getting fake products from Amazon. The other issue I have with Amazon is warranties denied from manufactures when purchased from unauthorized sellers. Pretty sure Amazon didn't do much checking on the sellers.
The same thing happened to me. Amazon doesn't want the seller being mentioned in the product review. Amazon has separate places to review products and another place to review the seller. The concern about fakes from the seller should be in the seller review which comes via email afterwards from amazon. If you want a warranty from a product make sure Amazon is the listed seller. 3rd party sellers may not be an authorized seller. I too have learned that when shopping on Amazon you have to check the "Sold by" and "Shipped by" information.
You can't go by stated manufacturing location , NGK make plugs all over , just becsue oyu are in USA doesn't mean you won't find genuine EU or Japan made NGK plugs. Ditto else where
Don't believe everything you hear here. I just installed 4 of these spark plugs from advanced auto parts, and out of curiosity I went to Napa, autozone and O'Reillys they all have that stiff cardboard ring protecting the plugs. Those with plastic ring must be fake.
Awesome job, thank you so much for the side by side comparison and explaining what to look for. I also got burned with an EBAY seller when I bout NGK Laser Iridium for my 2007 G35.
Glad it was helpful! It sucks getting screwed with fakes. That's why I try to leave honest feedback on amazon and eBay when I can. I love the body styling on the G35, its a beautiful car =)
First thing to do, check resistance with a voltmeter. They should all be almost at the same KM range. Using fake plugs can really damage an engine. No joke. Not worth it. Best place, Auto Parts places, well know one and OEM sites.
I bought some on Amazon. They look like the real plugs. The only difference is these say "MADE IN JAPAN" on the box and "/////JAPAN/////" on the ring of the plug. They also came with a cardboard cover and a recycled cardboard box that does not allow light through. I will call NGK soon to check if they are real.
@@DezDav4 Okay. What's the model number of the sparks plugs you bought? I have seen that other model numbers than the ones in the video can have cardboard covers.
@@ChavezDIY all NGK iridium plugs now come in a blue box with a cardboard protector and recycled cardboard boxes and they do say Japan on them because that's where they are manufactured if they say anything else as far as country of origin they are counterfeit. NGK only manufacturers their spark plugs in Japan and nowhere else.
I just happened to see a couple of these videos comparing fake to real NGK's. I've already installed probably the fake ones as they seemed pretty cheap on eBay. The car runs totally fine for now and I actually contacted the eBay seller. He promptly responded by saying he's sold hundreds of sets without any complaints so far. I guess according to your video I'll be changing them soon. At least the hyundai elantra is real easy to work on.
What details of the plug or box do you see that make it a fake plug? Check the video description for additional information that I couldn't add to the video.
@@philc.9280 yup. That's barely enough for one genuine plug. They'll still work but they're not using iridium so they won't last. Some people say they get 8k to 10k miles with the fakes. Iridium lasts up to 110k mi. As the gap wears out on the fakes you'll get poor mpg and maybe a cylinder misfire.
@@ChavezDIY It's been a year with the fake plugs and the car still seems to run perfectly fine with good gas mileage. I wonder what material is used on the tip. Just a follow up with my previous message.
Check the plugs, is the Iridium electrode tip worn down? Is the plug dirty like black or oily? If the plug looks fine it could have just been the coil pack failing. The coil packs on my 2005 TSX started failing after about 110k mi. After one failed, the rest started to fail weeks later until I replaced them all.
I think this are all original, the one is manufactured in japan and the other one is manufactured in usa from japan also. Same materials but not the same manufacturer. That is why the one is made in japan and the other one is from usa.
No, they're not all original. The printed manufacturing location is only one detail of many details that I cover in the video. This specific model of plugs used to say "made in Japan" years ago, but then NGK started assembling them in the US with parts from Japan. More recently due to the pandemic some were made in Thailand. I know this about this specific model because I have been buying these plugs for my Acura TSX that I have owned for 14 years. When the OEM changes something in manufacturing, the fakes continue to be printed with the older manufacturing labels, then it becomes easier to spot the fakes. Same with original Honda parts...the fakes sold on eBay continue to print old labels and do not update their products to the current manufacturing labels/designs. That's only one strike against the fakes among the many other strikes against the fakes. If you needed 100% proof, watch the part of the video where I cut them open and that's all you need to see.
This information is only specific to this model of plugs in the video during the time the video was published. There will be differences with other models. Yes, NGK manufactures in Japan, US, China, Thailand, and other places. For a full list of locations, check the links in the video description.
Since then boxes have gotten better can't go by that, also NGK themselves change the box from time to tiem and depending on where sourced for local manufacture so you can get 2 genuine boxes that are not the same.
I have been wondering about these too.. I have NGK's for my Juke, and they make 2 different ones for my car.. I can use the all Iridium, which are a $100 for 4 spark plugs, or the cheaper set is still like $70 bucks tho.. My boxes look nothing like yours.. I always order mine from 2J racing in Atlanta and never thought about it. I have bought from them one time from AutoZone and spent like $120 with tax. In a pinch. I will be doing a plug change in September.. I am going to play with the boost a little and take her to the track just to see what the car can do.. I have used phone apps to get an Idea of my 0-60 and 1/4 miles times.. I have pulled off a couple 14's but mostly low 15's.. Look it's a Juke, it is what it is.. They aren't quarter Mile Car's at all.. Even when turned up over 400 wheel they don't do good number's at the track.. Seems like they would make great Rally cars because they are fast as hell from like 15 to 80 miles an hour. Once you get over 90 they turn back into regular 4 cylinder's. Thats what it feels like to me.. Don't get wrong, I am on a Tune making around 250 WT and I have a lot of fun with my Juke, they are nice sleeper's when turn up.. Warning though high maintenance cars, CVT's and Direct injection. They do have front wheel only Manuals, But when turned up to much they become sit and spins. It's a real catch 22 because the CVT's can't handle more than 250WT and once you go over 280 WT with out AWD, the car will pull you off the road and spin wheels the whole quarter miles.. Its sad..
The use of iridium on the plug just makes the plug last longer than the other metals. Iridium can take more heat so they will last you about 120k miles. The three main metals used for the center electrode are nickel, platinum, and iridium. They should all really perform about the same, but they won't last the same. Nickel plugs will last about 30k mi, Platinum plugs can last about 60k mi, and Iridum plugs last about 120k mi.
Check the resistance between the tip of the electrode, and the top of the terminal. If it's a 5,000 ohm resistor plug, the tolerance range is 3,500-7,000 or 3.5-7.0 kOhm
I have heard that from other people but when I tested my fakes the resistance checks were "good". It's not a reliable way to check if they're fakes. Check the video description for more information.
@@ChavezDIY This was one of the things given to me directly by NGK when I reached out to their customer support. I also sent them a bunch of up close pics of the boxes as well as the plug from multiple angles.
Here's the response I received back from eBay on my report of the seller selling these fakes. "In the face of violations of regulations or policies, we may take certain actions, including: - End or cancel the listing - Hide or lower the ranking of the listed items in the search results - Lower the seller’s performance rating - Restrict or freeze accounts Due to the sensitive and confidential nature of this investigation, we are unable to disclose to you the results of the investigation or any response actions we may take against persons other than the account holder."
@@kurtnulf3362 Some people had the impression that eBay would actually do something, but they don't benefit from closing that account if the seller is making them good money.
I tested the resistance recently. Both the fakes and the real ones were in the 4k -6k range. So that's not a good way to tell. The difference is that the ohms from the real ones from the same box all were closer (4.1, 4.5, 4.7). Real ones from two different boxes (same model) were farther apart. The fakes were also farther apart from the same box (4.1 and 6.0).
I had bought some from a website and I had a real one , same heat range , but on the fake the insulator was really different , I doubt that it would have had the same heat range.
These fakes actually did well on the resistance check. It may have worked with fakes in the past but I guess they're getting better at making fakes. Check the video description for more information on the resistance check I did.
"Most spark plugs used today feature a single-ceramic insulator made from aluminium oxide, with other types of ceramic materials like porcelain used in the past." - this is from the NGK website.
Are the Rock Auto Parts NGK Iridum IX spark plugs real.Bought them a while back for my 85 Nissan 720.Mine have 2 types,intake and exhaust plugs.I was just looking at there parts and they had 4 of each left and had them marked down low. I just put them in today.12/25/2021.The plugs I took out are stock copper Ngk plugs.They are still good.
They're likely real. Check the video description. NGK manufactures in Thailand, US, and Japan. During the pandemic I noticed they were manufacturing in Thailand for the US market.
burned coil packs alone is not an indicator of fake plugs. If the plugs are fake, the center electrode tip will be worn out and out of shape, like rounded out and your gap will be way off. The coil packs on my TSX lasted me about 90k (10years), so there comes a time when the coil packs will fail. I had two coil packs fail a month apart, but they were all 90k mi/10yrs old so I replaced the rest of the coil packs.
I'm wondering if an NKG plug that was made in Japan vs a USA made one would have similar differences. For example, I have 2 Seiko watches. 1 was made in Japan, and the other in Malaysia. They have differences, but they are both real Seiko watches,
The plugs made in Japan will say JAPAN on them and the ones made in the US will say Assembled in USA with Japanese parts. On this specific model of Iridium plugs, they are made in the US. There are difference in manufacturing depending on the model number. I want to cover more model numbers. I would only be concerned if you buy from an amazon third party seller or an eBay seller.
Damn, that sucks. Take them out and inspect them. The main difference is that the cheap ones don't use expensive metals that can take high temps...so the center electrode wears out and your spark gap will be out of specs. If they're legit, the tip of the center electrode will be in excellent condition with no wear. If they're fakes, the electrode tip will be worn out of shape, smaller, rounder, and will definitely be out of gap.
As a 40 year aircraft technician/ inspector and college education in tool & die design ; Could we all be looking at some of the plugs being made in the US and some in Japan ? These would be 2 different manufacturing plants of NGK . Or could this be a spark plug mfg from another country and have tried to copy the NGK ? The part of the video showing the plug being cut open and showing no copper inside is proof positive , some people are using a standard type design & manufacturing and putting the NGK name and numbers on them . This is a very cheap "Knock Off " .
NGK manufactures in Japan, US, and Thailand. This specific model number was updated to say assembled in US with Japanese parts a few years ago, but the fakes still have the old JAPAN stamping on the side before the update. Fakes don't get updated, hehe. Unfortunately supply chain issues due to the pandemic has created a bit more confusion. Some model numbers that were previously made in Japan or US may not be coming from the Thailand plant. The carboard vs clear plastic cover may be inconsistent and the manufacturing location may be inconsistent.
The resistance on fake plugs will always be well out over 7K (max specified by NGK). They have to be in order for the poorly made fakes to work for even a short time. Visual identification is useless because NGK has changed their production process and packaging considerably over the years. Based on the resistances in your update, you were comparing early and late versions of real NGK plugs.
Question. If the ones from EBay DO turn out to be fake, they were kind of a lower price... What do I then do? (They are coming this week I ordered them today. Never even thought about this.)
If you want confirmation that they're real, call NGK and give them the LOT number that's on the side of the plug on the metal. If they're fake, tell the seller you want to return them.
I don't know. Contact NGK and see if they can tell you where you can buy in Ghana. Here is their website with online stores that sell NGK plugs. Check the websites and see if they deliver to your location ngksparkplugs.com/en/about-us/where-to-buy
Quite sure I got caught out. Cheap(ish) NGK Iridium plugs for my Chrysler Neon. After a mere 8,000km (5,000 miles) the car was hesitant and missing occasionally. I pulled the plugs to find the centre electrodes completely burned down to the insulator. 99.9% sure they were fakes now.
I agree. All the work and effort that goes into this makes me wonder about the profit margins for the counterfeiters. I guess if you are going to make fake plugs due to easy access to a spark plug plant, then Iridum plugs make a good target.
We need original identification tools on the package asap! I had fake plugs, the electrodes brake off after a few 100 miles, I was lucky it didn't destroy the engine.
No way I would put those in my engine 😂. Read the comments, some people say they can last like 2k to 20k mi and they start getting engine misfire and performance issues. The center electrodes were worn down or melted.
most of these can be seen if you have the two side by side but you forgot to mention the easiest way to find out without any of these visual comparisons just measure the résistance,if they are almost the same and around 4K ohm or less they are real one but if the numbers are all over the place they are fake,plain and simple
I tried the resistance test on these fakes and it didn't help. I added the info in the video description. That test might have worked on other fakes or older fakes, but it didn't work with the ones I bought.
