The $1,500 Spark Plug

For the first half of my life, I was a do-it-yourself kind of guy when it came to many automotive repairs. I wouldn’t tackle transmissions or body work, but I have done almost everything else you can do.

Now everything is so interdependent and complicated. And they tell you that you don’t have to have a tune up for 100,000 miles. That last one has never proven true. Generally, by around 60,000 miles or so, the spark plugs, at the least, should be changed. It’s been done on my car and both of my sons cars. Mine was running like a dog. Seems a bad tank of gas fouled the plugs.

Even changing the spark plugs yourself has changed. First, there is typically a small screw or bolt holding each cap in place. Then the plugs are often deeper inside. But most significant change is the price. In the 70s, they were about $2 each. Now the cheap ones are $10 each and the ones they recommend are $40 each.

The day after Thanksgiving, my younger son set out to change his.

There’s about 66,000 miles on his 2003 Sentra, and given the history of our other cars, it seemed time. He opted for the $10 plugs. But it was irrelevant. As the third plug began to loosen, it suddenly snapped off. Two different mechanics tried their ways to take the remains out from above. They’ve heard of situations where it does not work, but have never seen it themselves. But this one would not even move.

The head must come off. Assuming that working from below will get it out, the cost is just under $1,500. Don’t know what the additional will be if they have to do machine work on it.

This is the place where you start to think about a new car. It’s a little over 5 years old now with 66,000 miles. But it’s paid for. Getting a new one will saddle my son with a car payment when he finishes graduate school in 6 months. On top of the school loans, that would be too much. So the only option is to fix it.

Can’t blame my son. I saw him working on it. He did not do anything out of the ordinary or excessive. I wonder if leaving plugs in for so long has the effect of accumulating much more carbon on the deepest few threads than would happen if they were extracted and replaced more like the old 15,000 miles from earlier days. Sort of like cancer. If you live long enough you are almost guaranteed to get it. It just may take 700 years for many of us. Same here. If you don’t replace the spark plugs for 200,000 miles, you probably can’t get any of them out. But at 60,000 it is not as likely a problem, just more likely than at 15,000.

Oh, well. I guess there’s a lesson to be learned here. Maybe it’s that we can no longer do anything on our cars for ourselves and must rely on the professionals. Like in my job. Every time they simplify the tax code, there is a greater need for my services because it is much harder to do it yourself.