Spark Plugs = Gas Savings?

We are all looking for ways to save some money and get a little extra in the process. While listening to the radio one day, I heard an ad from AutoZone, a car service company, which claimed that changing the spark plugs on cars would help people save some gas. I was wondering if the company was just trying to attract business, or if changing the spark plug would really make a vehicle more fuel efficient. And depending on the model needed, spark plugs range from $4 to $40, which seems like a reasonable price because of the fuel that could be saved and added mileage gain.

Generally, spark plugs do need to be replaced regularly, about every 30,000 miles, but replacing them too often does not result in greater fuel or miles per gallon. A car can have four to eight spark plugs which fire almost 3 million times every 1,000 miles. Dirty spark plugs can cause misfiring, which wastes fuel. But replacing the spark plugs regularly will prevent this from occurring, which will improve the miles per gallon obtained slightly. It isn’t a dramatic increase of miles per gallon or fuel saved, but there are some minor increases in mpg. But as long as these plugs are being replaced regularly, fuel will not be wasted, which would improve the mpg.

You can also save on labor costs of replacing the spark plugs by replacing them yourself, thus the only fee you will incur is the price to buy the spark plug itself. Here’s a link to a video that shows you how easy it is to replace the spark plug yourself: http://www.ehow.com/video_110_replace-spark-plugs.html. Below the video there are also step by step instructions that can be printed out!

So the next time that your car needs servicing, and they say that the spark plugs need to be replaced, find out if you can just but the part and replace it yourself, saving you the cost of labor. Or just keep track of every 30,000 miles traveled and then replace the spark plug yourself!

By: Rebecca Mark