[mike-y]

Originally Posted by kiwi29

i figured that much, i was just curious on using the wrong material but for the right motor? like using iridium instead of platinum

The material mostly affects the life of the plug. You can use copper plugs in your car, and it will be happy, but they don't last as long as platinums, so you'd need to changes them much earlier, like at 25k miles. On my old integra, it took 5 mins to change plugs, so I always got coppers. on the BMW it takes a lot longer, so I'm sticking with platinums.

Either way, heat range and gap are what you really need to pay attention to. Cars that run higher cylinder pressures (hi compression and/or turbo cars) typically need a cooler heat range plug, and a smaller gap. There was a website I used to go to that would show all the different types of plugs that were compatible with your car (heat range and gap), and separated them by type (platinum, irridium, copper, etc). I can't seem to find it anymore though :-(

If you go on sparkplugs.com, irridium NGK's for a '09 N51 are $8.48 each. that's cheaper than the platinums which are $12 each.

[bhmax16]

BMW used both Bosche and NGK plugs from the factory. I vote to use the same plugs that came out of your vehicle (some part numbers are supersceded). You don't need to get them at the dealer, you can get the same plugs (that just don't say BMW on them) from many local and online vendors and save a few bucks

[VTECaddict]

Bumping this thread.

So for my 330i, the original factory part NGK ILZFR6D11 (iridium) was superseded by the NGK PLZFR6A11S (Platinum).

If both are essentially the same price, aren't the iridium plugs the 'better' choice even though BMW superseded them with platinum plugs?

[kiwi29]

Originally Posted by VTECaddict

Bumping this thread.

So for my 330i, the original factory part NGK ILZFR6D11 (iridium) was superseded by the NGK PLZFR6A11S (Platinum).

If both are essentially the same price, aren't the iridium plugs the 'better' choice even though BMW superseded them with platinum plugs?

if youd like to take over the thread to find out more answers, go for it. but please pm me when you find your answers. id like to know them too lol

[StealYourFace]

A little OT but the post above made me think of something that happened to me a while back... my aunt had a really cool 1992 328i with a stick forever... my cousin and I did the plugs and a few other PM items and when we changed the plugs there were 3 different ones installed! The car had like 200k miles at that point and ran like a champ, but obviously she had the car 'tuned up' in the past and some loser cut some serious corners.
What a great machine that thing was though.