New spark plugs at 10K miles?

nhs156 · 25th June 2012, 04:26

My '10 "told" me that it needed new plugs at around 10K miles. The dealer dismissed the message as "nonsense", given the low mileage and deleted the error message. Car now has close to 13K miles on it and I could swear it feels slower. Can't put my finger on it exactly, but it just doesn't feel nearly as fast, visceral and violent as it did early on. Is it my imagination or could faulty/in-need-of-replacement plugs make the car feel a but more lethargic?

mdyaman · 25th June 2012, 04:45

Spark plugs are normally changed around the 30K mark, so 10k seems a bit odd. Maybe there is a spark plug that has an issue?

Paclark01 · 25th June 2012, 05:53

These cars need to be driven. Your fuel could possibly have gone bad from prolonged sitting, which may trigger a message to replace the spark plugs due to a reduced mixture. Drive it, fill up again and see if you feel a difference.

Worse case, replace the plugs.

JayDubb · 25th June 2012, 16:41

While I was in the middle of Brooklyn this weekend my M stalled in hot weather constant stop and go traffic. When I restarted I got a red cog warning which scared the crap out of me b/c I was 300 miles from home. I let it sit overnight, and drove home the next day.

The M is loaded to the brim with software, and software can be buggy regardless of it within a $700 PC or a $90K car. I would drive the snot out of it and see what happens. For what it's worth I just bought mine and have put less than a 1000 miles on it. She's got 37K on the clock and I just replaced the plugs. I'd find it VERY hard to believe your plugs need to be changed. They are platinum plugs. Another thing to remember is that these engines are naturally aspirated and in hot weather they will make less hp than in fresh brisk air. So that may be part of it too. What did the dealer say when you mentioned the lack of "violence"?