The High Cost of Low Price

In 2021, we're living "fake."

Our bodies are fake.  Our news media is fake.  Our food is fake.  Our politicians are fake (although that's nothing new).  Our money is fake.  It's no surprise that we now have fake "NGK" spark plugs marketed as the real thing offered at a significantly lower rate than normal suggested retail pricing. 

NGK is one of the largest, most recognizable spark plug manufacturers on the planet, and they are standard equipment on nearly every modern Honda/Acura product.   Spark plugs are in every gasoline-powered engine on the planet, meaning the market is huge; so huge that if counterfeiters were to snatch as little as 0.1% of NGK's yearly sales, they'd be looking at millions of dollars a year in revenue.

Now that you know the incentive for these guys, what can you do?  Learn to spot the fakes.  Let's touch on a few points.

• "If the price is too good to be true..."
  Spark plugs for most newer cars are iridium, platinum, or ruthenium-tipped.  These plugs often come with retail pricing ranging from $15-50 per plug.  Most of the counterfeit variants of these plugs are usually listed for half (or even a quarter) of the retail pricing.  I've seen counterfeit NGK 95660 plugs (popular L15/K20C spark plug replacement part number) listed for $30 for an entire set of four on eBay and Amazon.  This is another example where the old adage of "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten" holds particularly true.
  
  
• "All that glitters is not gold."
  One defining characteristic I've found in common on the fake plugs is the "luster" on the hex set is much more vibrant compared to the more "matte" appearance of the authentic NGK plugs.  (See photos below)
  
  
• "If you're a grinder, you're not a welder."
  The weld on the ground strap to the plug base is very poor, and ground down inconsistently.  (See photos below)
  
  
• Poor thread quality.
  The threads on the counterfeit plugs are very poor quality, with pits and burrs visible.
  
  
• Crush washer integrity
  The single biggest give-away I've found regarding the fake NGK plugs is that the sealing crush washer literally falls right off the plug with little effort.  On the vast majority of authentic NGK plugs, the crush washer will not fall off the plug without prying it off forcefully.  (See photos below) 

What's the big deal, though?  There's plenty of "fake" products on the market that "work just as well" as their authentic counterparts, right?  Unfortunately, these don't, especially when we're talking about an engine that is driven hard... these counterfeit plugs fail pretty spectacularly.  Often, they lack the ability to properly dissipate heat into the cylinder head, leading to detonation in the cylinder, and/or cracking, and melting of the plug itself.  When these things happen, the spark plug is not the only casualty.  I've seen coilpacks roasted, pistons damaged, and cylinder head castings crack as a result of this.

So how do you avoid even getting yourself in this situation?  Source your plugs from an authorized retailer that purchases directly from NGK (like most big-name auto parts stores), and the likelihood of ending up with fake spark plugs gets much lower.   

Fake on left, real on right

Fake

Real NGK