The more things change, the more they stay the same, I guess.
Way back when, Platinums were just coming out, and they were a disaster. In the then new engines, they were great.
Good firing, last forever.
But, in almost every case, when put into an older car, you got a skip or misfire. Personally, I never totally understood why, Platinum has less electrical conductivity than copper, but at those voltages, you would not think it would make that much difference.
Part of the problem, was that most of them were Bosch back then. But some of the other names came out with them and they caused misfires too.
I was hanging out on the Cserve Auto forum, which was fantastic. Imagine this place with actual factory engineers and techs dropping by to answer questions.
There were some reoccurring questions that got asked so often, that we created what you would now call a sticky that we could just point the person to.
The most common one was timing belts and water pumps.
Folks would post about how their mechanic was trying to cheat them by telling them that they needed to change the timing belt even though it was not worn out.
Or, they were trying to pad their bill by suggesting a new water pump at the same time.
So, we got tired of explaining about interference engines and how all the labor was already done so go ahead and drop in a new water pump now instead of later.
We never created one about platinum plugs, but one night late, I was about to got to bed and someone posted that their car had been running OK, but they changed the plugs and wires and now it was skipping.
They did not say what they put in, but I just posted "Take out those Platinum plugs and put in the regular ones and it will be fine" and signed off.
Next day there was a shocked reply wanting to know how I knew he had put in platinums, and that when he changed them it ran fine.
Since then, I have read here where some folks have used them with no apparent problems.
I suspect some of the trouble has been related to brands, and some of the ones here might have upgraded spark systems.
And maybe some engines just like them. I know I will not put them in my older truck, but will put them in my newer car that came with them.
cause I was thinking of asking a similar question about what plugs are preffered over all.
