ST170 Spark Plugs

[Magnum_st170]

Just rung around for some plugs for an 02 ST170, Ford want £15 +VAT EACH, Halfords for Champion plugs, want £8 each, and thats with the Halfords Trade discount! Now I know its not that expensive compared to those of you who own German or Italian exotica with twice the cylinders of mine, but anyone got any idea as to why they are so expensive and where is a good place to get them a little cheaper. For comparison, i can get all four for a normal 2.0 ZETEC for about £6!

[lukeb]

Could it be that Ford specifies Platinum plugs for that engine? I know my Duratec engine came with a set of plats from factory. What's the code on the plugs?

[stevieturbo]

Platinum plugs are expensive, but they do last a long time.

I have to laugh when I hear people moan about having to fork out a few £££ once every say 40,000 miles.....

If its too expensive to maintain properly, buy a cheaper car.

[mave]

stevieturbo said:

Platinum plugs are expensive, but they do last a long time.

I have to laugh when I hear people moan about having to fork out a few £££ once every say 40,000 miles.....

If its too expensive to maintain properly, buy a cheaper car.

I understand your comment, butsurely there's nothing wrong with wanting to keep the costs down?If I took your line of "if it's too expensive, buy a cheaper car" then I would have happily paid £160 for a set of plugs for my Alfa (when you can get them for £60), £120 for brake discs (when you can get identical FIAT discs for £30)... the list is endless. I always thought that tone of the good things about forums like these, is it allows poeple to avoid rip off dealer prices rather than rolling over and paying through the nose

[Mr Whippy]

£8 for Halfords ones sounds about right for good ones.

NGK Iridium are a good brand, I think Opie Oilman does them these days too pretty cheap (ish)

Think yourself lucky anyway, new injectors for my "cheap" to run derv are £130 at the cheapest place! I'd rather have £10 each spark plugs at 40k intervals than £150 injectors at 150k intervals!

Dave

[stevieturbo]

True....but £15 each isnt necessarily that expensive.

And some modern cars can be quite fussy about which plugs they use.

Some crappy french cars can even have their coils and ecu's damaged by using the wrong plugs !!! Sounds incredible, but its quite a common thing.
Coil goes first, then it in turn damages the coil drivers within the ecu.

[Justin S]

my 2ltr Zetec,which runs 180 bhp runs on the standard NGK plat tip plugs,which I replaced recently for £12 for 4 from Partco.