- Joined
- Oct 16, 2016
- Messages
- 411
So I decided to buy a couple of plugs. I normally buy NGK, I also normally use the basic ordinary plug (as it happens probably a good thing).
Anyway I wanted to buy a couple of plugs for the race engine (Commando) but they have been discontinued. I phoned up NGK support and they suggested an Iridium plug that had replaced the previous one.
So I started scouting out online and as usual ended up scanning through Ebay. I noticed some huge price disparities and being a natural skeptic started to wonder why some were so cheap. So a Google while later it turns out cheap fake copies are rampant, if you are going to copy something better a 50 quid note than a fiver, hence earlier comment about basic plug.
I did a bit of research about how to tell, it is not so easy!
Then I remembered a couple of years back I had bought a couple of Iridiums for the road bike and had been distinctly unimpressed, one had given up after a few hundred miles.
I had a rummage in the plug bucket and there they were, I remember thinking when I had changed them out (on the bike for no more than 500 miles) how corroded they looked. Sure enough I spotted them straight away from the others without having to read the label.
Differences were from a selection of other NGK plugs (using magnifying glass), so what I think were the fakes 1. Print was different (on the insulator), not quite as defined, a little smudged. 2. Metal work corroded. 3. The white of the insulator was slightly off white. 4. There were some differences with the side/ground electrode but I wouldn't be able to tell without more comparisons.
I can't remember where I bought these, knowing me probably cheap off Fleabay.
Moral....buy another make (apparently Denso are popular to fake also), pay a few quid extra from a reputable source.
Everyone probably knows this already, I am always late to the party!
Anyway I wanted to buy a couple of plugs for the race engine (Commando) but they have been discontinued. I phoned up NGK support and they suggested an Iridium plug that had replaced the previous one.
So I started scouting out online and as usual ended up scanning through Ebay. I noticed some huge price disparities and being a natural skeptic started to wonder why some were so cheap. So a Google while later it turns out cheap fake copies are rampant, if you are going to copy something better a 50 quid note than a fiver, hence earlier comment about basic plug.
I did a bit of research about how to tell, it is not so easy!
Then I remembered a couple of years back I had bought a couple of Iridiums for the road bike and had been distinctly unimpressed, one had given up after a few hundred miles.
I had a rummage in the plug bucket and there they were, I remember thinking when I had changed them out (on the bike for no more than 500 miles) how corroded they looked. Sure enough I spotted them straight away from the others without having to read the label.
Differences were from a selection of other NGK plugs (using magnifying glass), so what I think were the fakes 1. Print was different (on the insulator), not quite as defined, a little smudged. 2. Metal work corroded. 3. The white of the insulator was slightly off white. 4. There were some differences with the side/ground electrode but I wouldn't be able to tell without more comparisons.
I can't remember where I bought these, knowing me probably cheap off Fleabay.
Moral....buy another make (apparently Denso are popular to fake also), pay a few quid extra from a reputable source.
Everyone probably knows this already, I am always late to the party!
