The "Enerpulse" spark plugs claim 10% increase in mileage and a decrease in CO2 footprint. The Pulstar.com site claims to have tested them on a 2007 Prius. Has anybody tried them on a 2010 Prius? Apparently their "generation 3" plugs are the latest, and the ones to try.
Toyota spent thousands of dollars getting about a 10% improvement from Gen 2 to Gen 3. If changing the spark plugs could make that much difference, for that little cost, wouldn't Toyota fit them as standard? I'm going to file this one under 'dubious'.
Remember "splitfire" plugs? Similar claims, but nobody cared or knew about carbon back then. They claimed a mileage and power boost
Some claim there is not any real MPG improvement from the Prius Gen 2 to 3, but that Toyota just programmed the MPG calculator to lie a bit (more?). Presumably the spark plug test was done with a gen 2 Prius (2007). Would it hurt the Prius circuitry to try them on the 2010 Prius?
DO NOT use ANY 'miracle' spark plugs, oil, oil additives, so-called boosters, modifiers, engine treatments, etc. As has been stated before, there have been too many snake-oil products that sold a TON of merchandise and duped people out of millions of $$ before the various state attorney general offices and the FTC caught up with them. In many cases, they damaged engines and other components before being caught and shut down. ANYONE that comes out with a legitimate significant fuel-saving product will be getting network satellite trucks parked outside their front door, oil companies waving seven-figure checks at them and almost unlimited media exposure. They will have NO NEED to buy 30-minute infomercials at 2:00 a.m., have so-called celebrity endorsements or massive (millions of dollars) promotion displays set up in stores or other self-promotion gimmicks. You are already driving the most proven fuel-saving device available on the market--the Toyota Prius! Joe
Yeah, I'm still waiting on EESTOR's supercapacitors to cram into my traction battery pack, but no go so far.
Both the gen II and gen III come with iridium plugs. As far as I know, these are the best spark plugs money can buy. You CAN buy them for less at an auto parts store rather than the dealer, but as they are supposed to last 60,000 mi (100,000 km) I haven't had the chance to try that yet. I don't know why you would want to experiment with a brand new car that is already tuned for optimum mileage though. There is VERY little chance you would improve on anything by changing the spark plugs, due to the stock ones being so good.
I think that questions such as Gary's come from the fact that many drivers are used to older automotive technology that lent itself to more "tinkering" than a really modern car like the hybrid Prius does. Gary, as mentioned in other threads, there's not a lot that can be done to the Prius' ICE to improve the performance that would not already have been considered by the Toyota design engineers. The longer that I drive the Prius the more amazed I am at just how tightly all the various electromechanical subsystems are integrated, and how well those subsystems are designed. The ICE has been optimized for the HSD to function under a complex set of conditions (drivetrain load, acceleration required, traction battery SOC, traction battery temperature, air pressure, air temp, engine temperature, cabin temperature, regenerative braking, engine braking, emissions, etc, etc). So the job of the ICE is not as simple as that found for non-hybrid cars. It's already pretty "tricked out" to be able to do what it does. It's doubful that there's any mod that a user could try that would really improve performance. In fact, the opposite could happen and damage could be done.
I can increase your mileage by sending positive thought waves through the Internet. Send me $25 and your IP address and I will get right on it. Tom
It just so happens that I sell those same waves, but I only charge $23 and I don't even need your IP address. Just PM me for my paypal address.
I was one of the people who tested these through CleanMPG. They did nothing...didn't help, didn't hurt. IIRC I did see a bit more scatter in my mileage figures but that's about it.
Hey! Don't forget the secondary (resale) market! You need everyone's address so you can sell it to the Nigerian bank officials who need someone to accept their $13 million dollar check they are trying to get cashed! And of course, the conspiracy nuts would like to contact these people. If they think MPG can be improved with cosmic thought, these guys might want to build a psychic network to finally get the truth about the Roswell aliens and the grassy knoll! Joe