Several years ago when I worked at the local Giant AutoParts Retailer corporate headquarters I got a discount on their parts. So naturally I put the best and most expensive parts on all my cars. Who wouldn't? At some point my Nissan pickup started to run funny. It wouldn't idle right, acting as if it was about to stall, but then it would speed back up all by itself. I couldn't figure it out so I finally gave up and took it to a mechanic. After 2 days of not hearing from him I called to check on my truck.
"Have you figured out what is wrong with my Nissan?"
"No. I can't figure this damned thing out. It is the weirdest thing I've ever seen."
He didn't actually say it quite like that. He was far more colorful in his speech, but my blog has enough cursing on it already so I took the liberty of removing some 'f' words from his response.
I was relieved that he couldn't figure it out, actually. I had worked on that truck for a long time and couldn't find the problem. I know I'm not stupid, no matter what some people say, so having a professional be as stumped as I was made me feel a little better.
Finally, after about a week they said my truck was ready.
"What did you do?"
"We took those platinum spark plugs out. Nissans don't seem to like them. Now it runs fine."
They kept my platinum tipped +4 overpriced spark plugs, I might add. I don't know why they didn't give them back to me. I don't know what I would do with them, but I paid for them and they cost quite a lot.
1 year later my wife's car has a problem. It stumbles randomly, usually on uphills, but never while in cruise control. No one, and I mean no one, can figure this out. The stumbling gets worse. Months of this go by and I have searched the internet, talked to every mechanic, had it looked at by half the men in Memphis, and still no one has a clue.
I remove the Bosch platinum spark plugs and replace them with cheap Bosch copper plugs. I remove the K&N air filter and replace it with a cheap paper filter.
The problem goes away.
Sometimes you get what you pay for. Sometimes you don't. For whatever this is worth, I will never use platinum spark plugs in anything again. I don't care if they are given to me and fit my lawn mower. I won't use them anymore. Some race car drivers in Europe had posted some complaints about them. They said the tips are too small, probably because platinum costs so much, and so the surface for the spark is insufficient. Who can say? I just know they ran like crap in 2 of my cars and gave me headaches.
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