Worn sparkplugs triggered EML and other cautions/warnings ⚠️

[AisinW]

On 10/3/2023 at 12:51 PM, TonyHSD said:

I knew and warned few members about this man. I have been following his trade of fake Toyota parts on eBay, he started with fake plugs bought from Aliexpress and offered to the uk public at much lower price. Since his grey business was discovered by many he has changed his name and closed his website, reopen new ones and continue. He may offer some real parts too, but there is no guarantee plus his customer service is horribly as per the reviews online. I don’t know why people will prefer to buy a genuine parts from a non genuine seller? Now he sells his parts at even greater prices than dealers on eBay and if you visit local garage. There is absolutely no point of even looking at his stock at all. 
Here how a genus paper box of genuine Toyota plugs look. 
 

This kind of seller should be reported to police. Like I had done before. It was crazy Russian immigrant  who got fired everywhere from being trouble makers, and start selling fake Toyota parts from Alibaba and resold in eBay. 

When I confronted and proof his fake products, he was furious and sending all kind of discrediting emails to my HR, and head quarters. I was the first person give him negative feedback over hundreeds of product. I ended up call the police and report the harassment.  His eBay account was closed few months later. 

A good guidance, never buy any electronic and toyota parts not from known dealer/seller.  Denso SC16HR11 is always more than $40 for a pack. The benchmarks is Rockauto or Autodoc. 

[Konrad C]

I found set number 1, that I first replaced 8 years ago. I think this set were the originals from factory.  They were more oily around the threads compared to the sparkplugs I fitted after. The second set of sparkplugs which I showed in the original post above, are genuine Denso from Snows Toyota Exeter. Both these previous sets went well with the tips intact upto December 2019, with a total of 90,000 miles combined. The Fake set of plugs were installed in December 2019. The car had some other minor running issues, Battery and waterpump needed changing, but car use was reduced due to pandemic. 

I have compared the three sets included the boxes.   

The first couple of images showing the boxes. The only difference is the tongue is rounded on the fake while flat on the genuine boxes. 

The genuine plugs have grey plug tips, fake is black.

The plastic protective sleeve has 3 inner ribs to grip the plugs until use. The fake is smooth all round. 

The print on the genuine plugs are closer to the hex and a lighter shade. Obviously the tips are not Iridium after 12,000 miles on the fakes. 

You can clearly see the genuine plugs on the left, fakes on the right. Note the rounded rib between the hex and the lower section on the fakes. 

The final picture is the melted tips of the fake compared to genuine Iridium. 

Due to my much reduced car usage, it took longer to realise the plugs were causing the weird revving issue when idling. The misfire that triggered the EML, only happened the day before I investigated the plugs. Before that, I thought the rev bomb was faulty throttle system, vvti, temperature sensor or MAF sensor. I did diagnostics and all was fine. I didn't intend to replace any parts until I was really sure. It was the fake plugs. 

The new 4th set are working very well. The engine is running nicely. These are from Halfords. 

The seller of the fake set is still trading on eBay and is based in South London dealing with Lexus and Toyota. There could be lots of unsuspecting customers. Some parts are not as critical, but the sparkplugs definitely are, especially since they are fit and forget for a few years! 

As an ending note, I showed photos of the fake plugs to a mechanic friend, and he blamed cheap petrol! Said he has seen it many times before, even though I told him the plugs were fakes. He does general cars, and never touched mine. Hope he sources his plugs from a genuine source!

[AisinW]

You can use ohmeter from the tip to the other end of the spark plugs. Genuine Plugs have consistent resistance, 30% or less. Fake plugs are all over the place 100% or more tolerance.  

We also can see from the good laser welding quality on the tips and ground.  

Lastly,  don't buy online cheap stuff with Toyota box.  Get Denso box instead from known seller.  

[Konrad C]

12 hours ago, AisinW said:

You can use ohmeter from the tip to the other end of the spark plugs. Genuine Plugs have consistent resistance, 30% or less. Fake plugs are all over the place 100% or more tolerance.  

We also can see from the good laser welding quality on the tips and ground.  

Lastly,  don't buy online cheap stuff with Toyota box.  Get Denso box instead from known seller.  

I saw a YouTube video showing how to use a multimeter, to check the resistance of the spark plugs. All the genuine new and used plugs were within a certain range, but the fakes had high readings! 

Won't be buying from an unknown seller again! My current genuine set are from Halfords. As I stated above, the previous genuine set were from Snow Toyota eBay site.

But the 'fakes' were from a seller of Lexus/Toyota and Hybrid on eBay, and currently still trading!

One other tip to add - if the engine idle is behaving strangely and not showing EML, check the spark plugs if they were replaced within weeks/months!   

[AisinW]

120k miles interval. Don't replace it with much worse fake plugs at 60k miles.