Spark plug change interval

J

jc100

Well-known member
I bought my bike off a guy when it had 16k kms on it. It's now at 28k and I'm about to get the valves checked and chain and sprockets changed on it. Everything is original equipment on it as far as I can tell. I'm not sure about the service that the previous owner had done on the bike. It seemed clean and he said it was serviced regularly with the main thing being the service after break-in. Is it a good idea to get the spark plugs changed at the same time as I get the valves done? I'm guessing it will be a little cheaper that way as everything is off the bike at the same time (tank etc).

Any idea of the approximate cost for an inline 4 for this?
 
Yes, I would change sparkplugs as well.
I just changed mine for the 10,000km. I'm estimating, just for the plugs, it will cost between $100-150. Should take an hour or two to complete at the shop and the plugs themselves are very cheap.
 
I just got mine changed at Honda on an F4i and it was $210 w/tax.
I should have done it myself but didn't have any time.
 
Definitely not a bad idea to replace them. I'd suggest to replace them with compatible NGK Iridium's, this way you won't need to replace them again anytime soon
 
regder said:
Definitely not a bad idea to replace them. I'd suggest to replace them with compatible NGK Iridium's, this way you won't need to replace them again anytime soon
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Yamaha calls for replacement of the oem iridiums on my R1 every 12k!
 
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mma01 said:
Yamaha calls for replacement of the oem iridiums on my R1 every 12k!
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I think OEM always overestimate a bit. Just like valve clearances. I've been running iridium ever since I can remember and change them every 25k
 
RockerGuy said:
I think OEM always overestimate a bit. Just like valve clearances. I've been running iridium ever since I can remember and change them every 25k
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The OEMs are under constant pressure to make cost of ownership appear as low as possible and in my experience, the service intervals tend to be longer than what Im comfortable with. Case in point: yamaha specs oil changes at 6k Km's and oil filters every 12k - which I consider to be far too long based on oil analysis I have had done. For the use my bike sees, its worth spending 30 bucks and swapping out the plugs each year.
 
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mma01 said:
Yamaha calls for replacement of the oem iridiums on my R1 every 12k!
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That's weird, Yamaha quotes the same replacement interval for the plain jane plugs in my FZ6. I replaced the originals at 20k km and they looked brand new. I figure in my Acura they spec a replacement for the iridium's around 168k km, or over three times the 48k km they used to suggest on regular plugs. So I've applied the same to the NGK Iridium's I put in the bike. Almost 60k km on them so far, no issues so far, will replace them soon and see how they look

Edit: Are you sure your R1 specs Iridium's? On the NGK site, it lists a standard plug, even for the current gen
 
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regder said:
Edit: Are you sure your R1 specs Iridium's? On the NGK site, it lists a standard plug, even for the current gen
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In the Service Manual it specs Iridiums
 
mma01 said:
The OEMs are under constant pressure to make cost of ownership appear as low as possible and in my experience, the service intervals tend to be longer than what Im comfortable with. Case in point: yamaha specs oil changes at 6k Km's and oil filters every 12k - which I consider to be far too long based on oil analysis I have had done. For the use my bike sees, its worth spending 30 bucks and swapping out the plugs each year.
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I'm really surprised then, if u said that u had an oil analysis done. To the ppl that I have spoken to, nobody had to do a valve shim. I do 10k km on my synthetic oils and still have life in them; 10k on the filters too.

What did your oil analysis say after 6k??
 
regder said:
That's weird, Yamaha quotes the same replacement interval for the plain jane plugs in my FZ6. I replaced the originals at 20k km and they looked brand new. I figure in my Acura they spec a replacement for the iridium's around 168k km, or over three times the 48k km they used to suggest on regular plugs. So I've applied the same to the NGK Iridium's I put in the bike. Almost 60k km on them so far, no issues so far, will replace them soon and see how they look

Edit: Are you sure your R1 specs Iridium's? On the NGK site, it lists a standard plug, even for the current gen
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First one guy questioning whether Im sure if the interval is in KM or miles and another questioning me on whether Im sure its iridium or copper..... hehe :)

Yes, they are CR9EIX irdiums.

The type of use your bike/car sees will dictate how long they will live, so YMMV.
 
mma01 said:
First one guy questioning whether Im sure if the interval is in KM or miles and another questioning me on whether Im sure its iridium or copper..... hehe :)

Yes, they are CR9EIX irdiums.

The type of use your bike/car sees will dictate how long they will live, so YMMV.
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Hehehehehe, only reason I ask is because the regular plugs have the same interval

Edit: I pulled up the owners manual for an 09/10 R1 and it specs a NGK Lmar9e-j which is a standard plug

Further, pulled up an 07 R1 which specs a CR9ek which is a plain plug
 
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RockerGuy said:
I'm really surprised then, if u said that u had an oil analysis done. To the ppl that I have spoken to, nobody had to do a valve shim. I do 10k km on my synthetic oils and still have life in them; 10k on the filters too.

What did your oil analysis say after 6k??
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Wear numbers are fine but the viscosity at 100c starts to break down quite a bit (rotella T synth). Who did the testing for your oil and what did the numbers look like at 10k?
 
mma01 said:
Wear numbers are fine but the viscosity at 100c starts to break down quite a bit (rotella T synth). Who did the testing for your oil and what did the numbers look like at 10k?
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blackstone
See my sig for further details.
I just set out a sample to be tested for Rotella syn.. Lets see how that goes.

Ps. Don't want to insult your intelligence but did you run the bike at highway at operating temps before u drain the oil?
 
RockerGuy said:
Ps. Don't want to insult your intelligence but did you run the bike at highway at operating temps before u drain the oil?[/QUOTE]

Ive put about 180K km's on the sportbikes Ive owned. Ive have about 300K on the street/track cars I have owned. Collectively, Ive done about 100 oil changes, not including stuff for friends etc. And up until reading your post, I never knew I was supposed to warm up oil before draining it! :rolleyes:

Seriously, guys. What did I say in this thread to suggest that I dont know: the difference between km's and miles, how to read the word "iridium" in my owners manual and that warm oil drains more readily than cold oil? hehe :)
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mma01 said:
RockerGuy said:
Ps. Don't want to insult your intelligence but did you run the bike at highway at operating temps before u drain the oil?[/QUOTE]

Ive put about 180K km's on the sportbikes Ive owned. Ive have about 300K on the street/track cars I have owned. Collectively, Ive done about 100 oil changes, not including stuff for friends etc. And up until reading your post, I never knew I was supposed to warm up oil before draining it! :rolleyes:

Seriously, guys. What did I say in this thread to suggest that I dont know: the difference between km's and miles, how to read the word "iridium" in my owners manual and that warm oil drains more readily than cold oil? hehe :)
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As I said, didn't want to insult your intelligence. But just because u've done 100 oil changes, doesn't mean you were collecting the samples right. When you are examining something scientifically, it requires a scientific approach to sample collection.

When u are collecting the oil sample you are supposed to warm the engine and run it for around 30mins (don't quote me)at highway speeds. This is important because:
1. It gets rid of the moisture
2. It gets rid of the fuel in the oil when the engine is cold. This is important because fuel dissolved in the oil and affects viscosity.

Now, back to viscosity in your results from your test. If u did not warm the oil sample you collected and run it at highway speeds, most likely your argument for the viscosity results is invalid.

So in short, thats the reason I asked if you did the sample collection properly.

cheers dude

edit: forgot to mention, u're also supposed to take the sample in the middle as the oil drains, not the initial stream of oil. There are other things you're supposed to do, but I will not get into that.
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