164 Fouled Plugs

["John Wiltshire" <John.Wiltshire@domain.elided>]

About a year ago I had some serious problems with rough running after the
car was at the panel beater.  The problem turned out to be caused by the
short trips in and out of the driveway, fouling the plugs badly (some
Digesti may remember this as several gave very helpful suggestions at the
time).  I replaced the NGK plugs that I was using with Bosch Plus 4s - not
the Platinum ones as these aren't available in Australia.

The problem has returned yesterday - after a weekend at home, the only
driving that the car did was four trips in and out of our driveway.  I
pulled the plugs last night - they were extremely fouled and furry with
carbon deposits.  A quick clean up has restored  normal running.

At the time of the original problem last year, I was working only a few km
from home, and the time at the body shop was the killer.  Since last
September however, I have been working about 40 minutes from home - the
first kilometre of this is in fairly heavy traffic - after this it is a
fairly good run including a 3-4km stretch at 80km/h.  The drive home is
over the same route, but rarely with any hold-ups.  With this sort of
running, I wouldn't expect to be fouling plugs so badly - certainly the
deposits on them were worse than expected after four trips in and out of
the drive at home.

Bosch say that these plugs should be good for 25,000-30,000km, and that the
silver tip and four-prong electrodes should be resistant to fouling.
Before I convince myself that I have bought the wrong plugs, should I be
looking for other causes of the fouling?  Could it have been a result of
the fuel pressure regulator feeding extra fuel in directly through the
intake plenum (see my post above)?  The EFI system is in good condition,
the air cleaner isn't clogged.

Any ideas most welcome!

Thanks Alfistsi,

Regards,
John Wiltshire



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