OT: Sticker shock.... spark plugs?!
 

Went to grab a set of four spark plugs for a friend at my local Advanced... cashier said $65!!!

Apparently spark plugs have easily doubled in price over the last decade... unreal!

They were for an old 2003 Toyota Corolla with a lotta miles and a blown head gasket. Was getting a misfire on cylinder 1 but I figure spark plugs are cheap, why not replace the whole set?

..i left with only one spark plug

Anyone experience this craziness with anything else?

Inflation and profiteering are real. Hard to tell which one is happening for most things though. Wages are not really keeping pace. It’s tough out there for most folks.

I'm guessing they are iridium plugs, and are meant to last 100k+ miles.

Iridiums have always been that expensive.

Check out Rock Auto: https://www.rockauto.com/ I just replaced mine. Dealer wanted $40 for one. Same OEM specified plug was $9 at Rock Auto.

That's a fact ^. Be glad you don't have to buy eight at a time.

Just bought two Screaming Eagle plugs for my Harley. $35. Replace every other year so I can live with that. Every Harley has gone way up. HD stands for hundreds of dollars.

Way back machine, think they were like 1.50 each

BITD, NGK B-7E plugs for my motorcycles were .99.

Rock auto has been my go to for all my vehicles.

Another plug for Rock Auto. (pun intended)
They are the first place I look for parts.

I think this is just the air cooled motor stressing plugs.

My Hondas had iridium plugs with long change intervals like a car. But 4 of them so they would have been expensive and the labor to get to them was horrible.

Harley = more frequent maintenance but surprisingly decent parts prices. Japanese = reliability and maintenance like a Camry with Ferrari performance but absolute sticker shock on parts and a pain to get to anything.

We got our first vehicle with iridium plugs some time ago. GM thought it was reasonable that you had to rotate the engine to change the plugs because they only design cars to last 30000 miles.

on edit: I just gave a set for that vehicle to someone. No wonder they were happy to get them.

A set of nice NGK plugs for my VW was 35 bucks I think. I replaced them at 65k. The previous ones looked great and could have gone a lot longer but that's the rec. interval. I needed to do the PCV as preventative at that point anway and swapping it requires removing most of the coils so worth it to do both at once.

The $975 bill for replacing the oil pan on that car however... That was a shock.

Store was taking advantage of you. A big chain auto store like that for a super common economy car should have been offering you a range of plugs; from basic to best. Quick google search shows you should still be able to get a plug for that car in the 3.xx range easily.

I don't buy anything from the chain auto supply stores unless it's an emergency.

while auto parts may seem expensive, compare to what my buddy just paid for the 8 spark plugs in his aircraft...$1200. oof...

My local chain auto store had the plugs at $20/ea. I usually find their prices to be 30-50% more than Rock Auto. I was very surprised at how much more the local dealer was charging. A different dealer had the plugs at $30/ea. I'll still buy stuff occasionally from my local chain auto store. They take my used oil and have generally been helpful when I come in with questions.

Nothing in general aviation maintenance costs less than a grand.

Edit - nothing in *Certified* GA. You can put all the lawnmower parts you want in an experimental.

Hence the term "Aviation Monetary Unit" or AMU. One AMU = $1,000. Or as we used to say, if you have to ask, you can't afford.

Greg

The VWG likes to put up ridiculous prices for seemingly inexpensive parts. I've left my faulty wing mirror folding mechanism as is, after finding out it had to be replaced for a whole new unit for the cool sum of $381 :eek:

Yep. I couldn't ignore the leak so I had to eat that one. The pan is plastic. My mech said I should consider them a wear item. Aften enough heat cycles, they eventually warp and leak.

Plastic oil pan?! Yow, you should look into whether your engine ever came with a metal pan. If so, perhaps the next time you could put that in when this "new" one needs replacing. I know, Good Luck!

Some cars indeed come with plastic pans from the factory :mad:

It's almost all profiteering. Very little of it is true inflation. Corporations are posting the highest profits in 70 years.

My mechanic just replaced my plugs on 2004 Volvo XC70 and they were $24 for 5 plugs.

A google search on 2003 Toyota Corolla spark plugs, shows prices ranging from $16 to $4. The devils in the details, and not all spark plugs are created equal.

At my first job, I earned $1.75/hr.

At the time houses were $50 ;)

VAG wanted $565 for a replacement trunk latch for my vw. The part has been in use on various vehicles since the early 2000s.

Amazon sourced part was $39 and came with the tools to replace it.. buying the triple square wrenches would have cost $40 alone.

99 cents in the 1960s

I bought the double-irridium plugs from Rock Auto, SKP brand out of China.

All I can say is that the 2010 Toyota then passed smog prior to my selling it, and that the plugs were only around $4.50 each as I recall.

I've pulled plugs from a Ford Expedition 5.4L which is a difficult extraction, so better plugs make sense in terms of their service interval.

Plugs either spark or they don't, and the main variables are temperature, voltage rise (as realized at the electrodes), compression pressure, and plug gap.
Setting the plug gaps on the narrow end of spec (or narrower) not only allows them to go on sparking for a longer service interval, but also extends the life of the secondary windings in the coils.

Many VWs come stock with plastic pans now. There is an aftermarket metal option for my engine but my mech. won't install customer supplied parts.

I think the German Government has very strict requirements for recycling. I don't know the details or whether plastics have an easier path to satisfying them than metals do but BMW for sure has been making parts from plastic that would have been made of metal. Some of these plastic (if not all of them)parts failed much sooner than the metal parts they replaced. BMW water pumps were notorious for this and aftermarket replacements are available but you must have them installed by other than a BMW dealer.

I might just let a leaky plastic oil pan pollute my garage floor.

OK, there it is. I would ask your mechanic to get the aftermarket metal pan and put it in. Yes, you may pay a little more, but there is probably a retail price so it shouldn't be exorbitant.

Alternatively, find another mechanic. Yes, good, honest mechanics are not easy to find, but running around with a plastic oil pan that warps out and leaks every couple of years isn't being honest if there's an aftermarket solution that will not only solve the problem but save you money in the long run.

Good Luck!

Decent battery for my old Tacoma was just shy of $200 from NAPA a few weeks ago. :eek:

Last equivalent i bought was about $60.

If one can afford to not pollute, one should not pollute.

This is among the reasons I sold my 72 GMC.

If I remember correctly, My first car, a 1973 Cutlass, needed 8 plugs, points, rotor and condenser every year or 12k, maybe $20. My 2018 Subaru had its 4 plugs replaced at 60k last year. Not even counting inflation, the current plugs at $10 each are much cheaper in the long run.

careful. i ended up with counterfeit toyota spark plugs. only buying from the dealer from now on. you can get deals if you purchase online and pick up at the dealer. still cheap compares to pretty much everything else on a car.

Just make sure you get good plugs. Many years ago a friend brought over a car to my house and asked me to tune it up. I replaced the plugs, points, condenser, and rotor. Couldn’t get it to start?! I did checked everything like three times and nothing worked?! He was mad and yelling at me!

Finally I put back in his old parts and Varoom, the car started right up! I asked him what kind of parts did you buy?! He bought the cheapest stuff from the old Grand Auto?! I’m like that stuff is junk! Nobody uses that crap…I told him take his crap and get out. Haven’t seen him since.

Moral story - get good OE or OEM parts! If you’re buying spark plugs look for brands like NGK, Denso, Bosch and a few others. But I think most ICE cars these days use iridium plugs, which can last 100k miles! But it has been a while as my Tesla doesn’t need this stuff…lol

Good Luck!

Even brand name doesn't always work. Once did the annual tune-up, car died on the way to work. Hitched a ride, stopped by the garage for my local mechanic, George, told him what happened and where I left the car. He found the car, drove it around until it stopped, diagnosed it as a bad condenser, replaced it and left the car where he found it. I stopped by the garage after work, he told me where he left the car. so I paid him, found my car and finally made it home. At least I didn't have to pay any towing fees.