2nd gen Prius a safe reliable buy?

K&N filters are usually reusable, vs. disposable. That's the difference. Again, performance increase may or may not be important here, but if you buy a K&N filter, you never need to buy another one, just clean and re-oil.

 

If you watch product comparison videos, NAPA Gold line of filters is a good alternative for OEM.

 

I usually buy iridiums because they last the longest, but on the Prius I think my next set is going to be copper tips because if your car burns oil, the spark plug will need changing way sooner because of deposits on the tip long before the actual electrode is anywhere near wearing out.

 

Couldn't you soak the spark plugs in something to remove the deposits?

Pixel XL ?

 

I don't know if anything is strong enough to remove those carbon deposits, if it were, might require several days of soaking.

 

Carburetor cleaner?

 

Heat from a propane torch.

 

notice he says that he doesn't do this on his cars! only his power equipment.

 

He said that's only because of the time it takes to access the spark plugs in cars, not the effectiveness of the cleaning. But since this thread turned to discussing how to clean spark plugs, the video does belong. You can decide for yourself if it's worth saving the money to clean vs. the possible hassle of taking them back out again. It'd be a good idea to not replace the wipers and cowl before testing out how it worked though.

 

Sounded to me like he said the reason he didn't do it on his cars was because of the time in the expense, that one should go ahead and do those right

 

That's an answer to a question not asked by the posters wondering about the best way to clean carbon build up from spark plugs. Every can decide for themselves if it's worth the effort to try to clean them.

I can see doing it if I had a propane torch in my tool kit. If you are trying to diagnose a misfire for example like I was did a while back, I was already switching plugs and coils around and seeing if and what the misfire follows. It would be trivial to try the torch. It's not like you are going to button up everything (wipers/cowl) until you have everything sorted.

 

Personally?
I'd evaluate the cost of carburetor cleaner, or any other solvent against the value of my vehicle, and then factor in the cost of a brand new set of spark plugs, and the possible greater efficiency they would bring....and probably just buy a new set of spark plugs.

It's your car, it's your engine, good functioning spark plugs are vital to it's operation, IMO not worth saving a few bucks trying to resurrect a aged, fouled set.

I'm all for thrift, but given the overall investment our vehicles represent, sometimes the things people do for minimal savings, don't seem to make sense to me.

 

No one said anything about ignoring the maintenance schedule. This was about cleaning the carbon deposits off of new plugs fouled by oil burning.

I know a hot solution of oxiclean and oven cleaner make short work of carbon deposits and are harmless in a stainless steel EGR cooler. Not sure if those chemicals would corrode an iridium spark plug.

 

You can get Denso filters on Rock Auto on the cheap. Denso filters are the ones they stick in the Toyota boxes at the dealer. OEM.

 

When I need to get carbon off brass parts on my Coleman lanterns an overnight soak in Coca Cola does wonders. Never tried that method with different metals though.

 

That's why I would use a copper tip, they're under $2 a plug and last for 20k miles. Irridium plugs are around $8-10 a piece and last 60k miles. Iridium tips are extremely brittle and thin as well, they're very easy to break when cleaning.

 

Oil usage is a fact of life on most cars with ICE. Some use more, some less, none use none. What is important for you now is to determine the rate at which YOUR car uses oil. I found it very helpful to use so-called high mileage oil. Oil that's marketed for high mile cars. Most manufacturers have something like that, but I use Mobil 1 full synthetic. I found my oil consumption was cut practically in half by switching to Mobil 1 oil for high mileage.

Iridium plugs last well over 100K miles in these cars. I think the recommended replacement interval by Toyota is 120K (correct me if I am wrong). copper plugs last 4-5 times less and cost 2-3 times less. You do the math. If your car burns enough oil to foul spark plugs in less than 20K miles, spark plugs are the least of your concerns. You need a new engine.

Here are the iridium plugs that are recommended by Toyota:

Denso SKR11
NGK IFR5T11

Both brands are fine and I guess both can be found in new vehicles from the factory, but Denso is the manufacturer that produces much of Prius' components.

 

No need if you already ordered them. Just keep it in mind for a future purchase.