Best Plugs and Wires for Daily Driving

[3800SERIESII]

I am looking for plugs and wires that are reasonably priced, supplement fuel economy and provides sufficient performance (if all of this is possible of one particular type). This is for my 3800 firebird.

[00Beast]

Any factory replacement plug will suffice. There is no "magic bullet" plug. Some can maybe save you a few percent, but cost a LOT of money (E3). I'd go with a factory replacement Iridium plug, and a set of Beldin Premium wires from NAPA. Lifetime warranty and high-quality.

[2003 SSEi]

the OE AC Delcos are tough to beat for the price and the warrenty

[3800SERIESII]

Ill check out the Beldin wires. I should rephrase, are there any brand of plugs to steer clear of?

[00Beast]

Bosch.

[redzmonte]

no Bosh, no Splitfire, No E3, No +4... If it sounds like a gimmick it probably is. Platinums are cheaper the Iridiums but don't last as long (~60K vs ~100K). Copper Cheapy plugs will work well as well but only last ~30K miles.. Copper plugs i would gap to stock gap, the others i dont think are suggested to regap to prevent scoring/damage to the tip (very fine), get the better plugs (platium or Iridium) so you dont have to change them again any time soon. and agreed Beldin wires seem to be decent, steer clear of Accell and DIY wire kits. stock style plugs either NGK or ACDelco (i perfer NGK) will do you just fine.

[00Beast]

Platinums are also bad-news-bears in S/C engines. Copper or Iridium in 3800's is the general rule of thumb.

[redzmonte]

Platinums are also bad-news-bears in S/C engines. Copper or Iridium in 3800's is the general rule of thumb.

In the sig I see 1996 SE Bonnie and a 1997 Firebird, so no SC to worry about..

[terrancew3]

Can I ask why Bosch is bad? I've never had any problems with that brand, but everyone on here seems to hate them. The Bosch Iridium plugs, and wires are working fine for me, as well as the O2 sensor worked great on my old '94. Have I just been lucky and got some descent parts, or are they going to fail on me in the near future?

[Krenzy]

I, personally, have only ever had bad luck with Bosch. I used their platinum plugs and o2 sensor in my last Turbo Grand Prix, and they all had the shelf life of a truck stop sandwich.

[redzmonte]

work great in volvos & Merc Benz... have seen poor fuel econ, miss fires and rough idles with them in GMs when i worked at a independent repair shop.

[1oldman]

Can I ask why Bosch is bad? I've never had any problems with that brand, but everyone on here seems to hate them. The Bosch Iridium plugs, and wires are working fine for me, as well as the O2 sensor worked great on my old '94. Have I just been lucky and got some descent parts, or are they going to fail on me in the near future?

for whatever reason, my ole car runs better (better fuel economy and performance) when no Bosch products are used. I can increase my fuel mileage 1 to 3 mpg by removing a Bosch O2 sensor and installing a Delco, Denso, or Delphi O2. Same for plugs. - BC

[3800SERIESII]

Just bought Belden premium wires and 6 ngk iridium ix plugs. Was about $75.

[rustyroger]

Can I ask why Bosch is bad? I've never had any problems with that brand, but everyone on here seems to hate them. The Bosch Iridium plugs, and wires are working fine for me, as well as the O2 sensor worked great on my old '94. Have I just been lucky and got some descent parts, or are they going to fail on me in the near future?

In the '80s when leaded gas and point ignition was still commonplace in the UK Bosch started marketing platinum tipped plugs the repair shop I worked at fitted some to our customers cars. We had a lot of complaints about hard starting and misfiring which we cured by replacing them with NGK items.

I think the tips of the plugs got fouled with lead additive, however with lead free gas and potent sparks being universal now I doubt that is still an issue, however I'm still reluctant to use Bosch plugs.

To address the original post I agree oem standard wires and plugs will be fine for an unmodified engine.

Roger.

[terrancew3]

Alright, so now I know what I will be switching to when these plugs and wires go out.

[repinS]

Nobody on this forum has had good luck with them. In my almost 10 years on this club, you might be the first. O2 sensors failing within 30 days, plugs causing all sorts of drivability issues (even on non supercharged applications), you name it. They seem to have much better luck on European applications, whatever the difference is.

[terrancew3]

Nobody on this forum has had good luck with them. In my almost 10 years on this club, you might be the first. O2 sensors failing within 30 days, plugs causing all sorts of drivability issues (even on non supercharged applications), you name it. They seem to have much better luck on European applications, whatever the difference is.

Hmm, that is strange. Here I thought these were a fairly descent brand, lol. So when I go to change out my plugs and wires again, what would be the best brand to get for something better than stock plugs/wires. Like more of a performance quality plug/wire?

[Jrs3800]

There are issues with Bosch plugs and the fine platinum used... The other part of the issue is that on a DIS system the plug will be fired twice, once on the compression stroke and again on the exhaust stroke.. This didn't help the plugs, I think part of the issue may be that the coils for the GM's do fire pretty hot... I have never seen a GM DIS ( Magnavox or Delco ) that could tolerate a Bosch for long... Even saw this problem on the HEI's, the plugs would last longer than a DIS but again you would end up with the same problems as the DIS system...

So for that reason we recommend AC Delco, NGK, Autolite among a couple of others...

[Squilliam]

We have major issues using Bosch for O2 sensors and plugs over on our Mopars too. There's just about as much hatred for them over there as there is here. Before I got into the Mopar scene too much, I changed the plugs on my Intrepid with some Bosch plugs...lasted 1 month before I was missing and throwing multiple misfire codes out the wazoo. A set of OE NGKs fixed it.

[BonneMe]

There are issues with Bosch plugs and the fine platinum used... The other part of the issue is that on a DIS system the plug will be fired twice, once on the compression stroke and again on the exhaust stroke.. This didn't help the plugs, I think part of the issue may be that the coils for the GM's do fire pretty hot... I have never seen a GM DIS ( Magnavox or Delco ) that could tolerate a Bosch for long... Even saw this problem on the HEI's, the plugs would last longer than a DIS but again you would end up with the same problems as the DIS system...

So for that reason we recommend AC Delco, NGK, Autolite among a couple of others...

What Don said! It's not really a matter of Platinum vs S/C cars, there are some S/C cars come with platinum plugs from the factory.