Spark plugs

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by Bob Don

There's an old urban myth that plugs in blister packs sold in dept. stores are somehow inferior to ones at auto parts stores. Any truth to that?

With many things that are manufactured, there are varying acceptable quality parameters. When one manufacturer makes the same product for many companies, each company can have its own acceptable quality window.

Realize that this is intentionally vague and simplified:

Company A says they'll take x,000,000 parts, at price point 1, and their acceptable quality window is >....................<

Company B says they'll only take x00,000 parts, at price point 3, and their acceptable quality window is >.......<

Now, company A will sell that product for $1.00, selling 10 times as many as company B, and accepting a relatively high warranty rate.

Company B will sell the same product for $1.75, selling less, but having a relatively low warranty rate.

You can often go to a big box store and see that they have cheaper prices, but then look closely and find out the product is made cheaper, and often it is made cheaper because the big box store has the buying power to convince the manufacturer to make a lesser quality product to sell at a lower price point, but in a higher volume. And they hope that the consumer will simply decide the product is so cheap that when it fails, they'll throw it away and buy another rather than deal with the hassle of warranty.

Now, about 20 years ago, I had a guy from a major automotive parts supplier tell me that they actually had five tiers of parts. Tier 1 was OE, best quality, tier 2 was new car dealer, tier 3 was "professional" parts houses (at the time, NAPA, Carquest, J.B. Cook, etc) tier 4 was cheap parts stores (Autozone, Advance, etc) and finally tier 5 was Walmart/KMart, etc. At the time I was working at a high end shop that was in a building shared with a "professional" parts store that was actually owned by a company that was a warehouse distributor for an OE parts supplier.

I'd say at least a couple of those tiers may have gone away. The "professional" parts stores are getting fewer, and the Autozone/Advance stores more numerous and powerful. At this point, it is possible that the OE and new car dealer tiers are now one and the same, as are the "professional" parts store and the Autozone/Advance tier are likely one and the same.

[Jeff Niceswanger]

I just bought 2 sets of AR 23's..Maybe they were 24's....Put them in and had a miss..Went to put second set in and found the porcelain and the terminal stud in two pieces. It was all together, but when I tested the collar to make sure it was tight, it just spun freely and when I turned it upside down the metal guts just fell on the floor.. Poor quality,,,,,,,, Junk ..

[Wayne W]

Not plugs, but, I once worked for a company that made lights for GM. There was one standard for assembly line headlamps and tail lamps and then a lower standard for service parts .

I also had a salesman tell me the same thing about fan belts he sold, box stores had next to no quality inspections and looked after their own warranty. Big box stores bought them cheap and hoped the guy never came back for warranty.

Manufactures that sell the stuff with out warranty on their part love it as there are no headaches later.

[jcw31]

Where I work we sell alot of champions to some chrysler dealerships, ne ver had any problems with quality. The only thing i know is in the mass merchandisers they take care of their own warranty which in turn the mfg. gives a deeper discount so they can sell cheaper and make the same or more profit. Also alot of autolite is now made in china.

Joe

[Keith 944]

Thanks Alan, I had no idea the same item could be made into several "grades", again, thanks for that eye opener

[Dave Gantz]

Years ago I was at a Glad plastic factory. They also made "store brand" plastic bags and wraps, etc. It makes sense. They already made the investment in all of what it takes to produce the product.

Alan, we've pointed out several places to get RC12YC's. Are you saying that the "tier 1" RC12YC plugs are not available? I'm confused.

[GTX JOHN]

Anyone understand the difference between the three different RN12YC?

Is there any reason on running a resistor style plug on a Drag Car?

[Ed Wright]

If you have no electronics (EFI, data loggers, etc), metal plug wires and non-resistor plugs should be fine.

[rallye bob]

I run NGK R5671A-8 4554 Racing spark plugs, in my SB Olds...

[nickh]

I run Autolite AR 3910's in aluminum headed SBC