spark plugs They are one of the main elements of any gasoline engine. The main mission of a spark plug is to ignite the necessary spark so that the ignite the mixture of air and gasoline inside the cylinder of our car.
In each cylinder there is usually a spark plug with its respective Spark plug cable, although there are engines with two spark plugs per cylinder. Taking this into account, we can say that the most common is that most cars have four spark plugs, since most vehicles sold in our country are four-cylinder.
What are spark plugs for?
Indeed, the spark plugs are the ones that generate a spark we ignite fuel-air mixture in gasoline or gas engines (LPG, CNG, etc). Inside of the theoretical cycle of a four-stroke engine they do so after the compression phase, in which the air-fuel mixture has been compressed in the upper part of the cylinder and the combustion chamber.
However, this is just the simplified theory. In fact, it takes true ignition advance so that the gasoline or gas engine takes good advantage of the explosions. The reason is that the mixture does not burn instantly and the spark plug should light it before the end of the compression phase. Namely, while it's still going up piston. In this way it is achieved that the correct fuel ignition arrives at the right moment so that it pushes the piston down in the expansion phase.
El time in which the spark plugs occurs Is not fixed. It depends on the needs of the engine at all times. The current engines can do this thanks to electronic injection system. The car's control unit receives information from the multiple engine sensors and adapts the ignition of the spark plugs according to the operating conditions.
The vintage engines They adapt the moment of ignition of the spark plugs with mechanical systems. For example, him vacuum ignition advance, which modify it only depending on the amount of air entering the engine, and the centrifugal ignition advance, which modify it only based on the number of revolutions per minute. Systems much more rudimentary and less adaptable than current electronic systems, which take into account many more factors.
How spark plugs work
To understand how spark plugs work, you need to know that they don't work by themselves. They are actually part of a set composed of the spark plug wires, ignition coils and the spark plugs.
The spark plug wires lead the 12V from the car battery up to the ignition coils, what are the responsible for multiplying that voltage until it reaches tens of thousands of volts. The coils are in direct contact with the spark plugs, who conduct that voltage peak to its central electrode.
The reason the voltage peak has such a high voltage is for electricity to jump through the air, from the central electrode to the ground electrode or electrodes. Which it couldn't do with such low voltages. In reality, it is a small beam that passes through the air, whose temperature is very high and ensures that the air and fuel mixture is ignited.
For this reason, A spark plug must be a conductor of electricity inside and an insulator on the outside. so that this high voltage current does not jump anywhere except between the electrodes at its end.
To these three components can be added the engine control unit, which is the one that controls the current supply to the cables. Specifically, the Drivers of the switchboard are in charge of this function. We recommend that you go to the links in this section to find out how each part of the system works.
car spark plug price
spark plugs they are not an expensive item, that is why it is not worth opting for second-hand brands, which do not guarantee proper operation throughout their useful life. Its price can be between 3,5 euros and 30 euros per unit, but the most common is that they cost between 5 and 10 euros each. You will see that even the top brands They move in those price ranges.
The most expensive are Platinum, because of the cost of this material. Although in return they are the ones that last the longest. Normally between 60.000 and 80.000 depending on the model. There are also spark plugs nickel and iridiumwhich are cheaper and last less.
What spark plugs does my car use?
Although there are many types of spark plugs, no experiments should be done, serious engine damage may be caused. You should always choose ones compatible with your model, for which the most comfortable thing is to use a compatible parts finder. That link that we just put takes you to Amazon, where they tell you if the one you choose is compatible with your car. You just have to enter your model previously.
If you don't use a parts finder to get it done for you, you'll have no choice but to look in the workshop manual of your car. Thing that is not always easy to find for all vehicles. They are usually shared in various brand forums or found on pages that are not always reliable.
spark plugs of a diesel car
Diesel-powered cars also have spark plugs, but they have nothing to do with the spark plugs described in this article. They are also commonly called diesel heaters, but are also known as glow plugs.
They have nothing to do, because they use the current of 12V from the car to heat your metal tip until red hot. That way preheat the combustion chamber so that the diesel engine can start easily. Otherwise, older engines often start poorly and emit abnormal smoke at first.
Modern engines, on the other hand, do not usually have problems starting. So much so, that there are models that only activate the heaters when it is very cold.
Botton line
Thanks to the spark plug you get the spark necessary for the proper functioning of the engine. The process is repetitive, obtaining the mechanical force that is transmitted to the crankshaft and then to the gearbox. In this way the movement of the wheels of our car is obtained.
It is necessary to take into account that each engine has its type of spark plug, so we can't put any spark plug in our engine, because it might greatly damage our car.
As the kilometers pass, the spark plugs wear out, so it is necessary to replace them with new ones. All spark plugs are usually replaced together and not separately.
On many occasions, spark plugs in poor condition can cause our car's engine to not work properly and can even cause consumption to skyrocket, so we must review them periodically.
Spark plugs may have a approximate duration of 40.000 or 60.000 kilometers, depending on the number of electrodes they have. However, there are also other types of spark plugs, platinum, which can last longer, up to 80.000 kilometers.
You also have to keep in mind that platinum plugs are more expensive than conventional spark plugs, although they also last longer, so it is interesting to take them into account.
Images – UBC Micrometeorology, The.Comedian, Mathew Bedworth, Ben Loomis, Sunny