1.2TSI Spark Plugs: Iridium or Platinum?

[2226]

Without having any proper evidence to back me up, I also consider that Castrol products tend to be priced to support the Castrol name/brand, so quite a bit of your money goes just into you using that brand. I know that they do take on a lot of lab testing which will be funded by engine manufacturers - but that does not always guarantee that the product being sold to the end users is top class, I'm sure it is not pure rubbish, but just not a good reflection on the price that you end up paying, also, at least in UK, they do or used to protect their image through monitoring what outlets are charging for their products - which usually means if you trim a bit off the price, and so drop below their "intended" selling price, then they will make trading life slightly difficult, ie they protect their image and so unit selling price over everything else. Some outlets used to get round this by including "gifts" but even that seems to have stopped.

I'm currently putting together a kit of parts so that I can service my older daughter's 2019 SEAT Leon Cupra 290, and as I have been using Mobil One 5W-30 ESP on our own 2 cars for quite a few years, I was going to use Mobil One 5W-30 in this Leon Cupra 290 service, and conveniently, some outlets are currently selling Mobil One 5W-30 ESP at a discounted price, now I think that I know why this might be, and also the reason why some of the big sellers have no stocks of that oil, and that is that Mobil have revised this oil and now include the statement that it meets with API SP, which is the API rating that includes improved control of LSPI, now I don't necessarily see that as being an issue for the bigger EA888 DI Petrol engines, but it has said to be an issue with the smaller EA211 D1 Petrol engines, which these 1.2TSI engines are, so if I'm correct, then when this new formulation of Mobil One 5W-30 ESP appears, it will be better suited for use in these small engines.

Edit:- by the way, again with having no hard facts to back me up other than experience from using them, over using only them over a period of 23 years, I prefer to have Eldor coils in my VW Group engines.

The LSPI thing is also weird. When reading up on it they didn't know what was causing it.
But look now how the oils are the things that changed to control LSPI and not the engines.

Well if you engine wasn't consuming oil then they wouldn't have LSPI issues!
Oil in combustion mixture reduces octane rating. Shove that into a high compression, early-boosting turbo engine and see what happens.

I have no idea, but I'm guessing LSPI is an issue in the smaller engine due the smaller combustion chamber. Everything is just a little more intense in there, every little edge of a valve or corner in very close proximity making little hotspots everywhere.

The BG MOA also indicates reduction of LSPI. It claims to prevent build-up in the piston rings.
Is that the key then?

Prevent the build up, improving the seal, reducing the oil in the combustion chamber and therefore stop octane reduction and therefore no pre-ignition?
Or is the additive package just an octane booster and you still wind up consuming oil?

Mobil 1 is a rare find down here these days as well. I used to run it in my Audi 200 back in the day. Now you might find it on the other side of the country in a specialist shop.

You should hang around BITOG for a bit. Oil science will do your head in like it did mine.

Ban low tension piston rings!

[Le_Combattant]

Well, I have also the branded oil cap Castrol on my CJZC engine.

But since 2020, Shell is the official manufacturer of VW Oil, plus some other like Wolf.

Normaly your rings shouldn't be clogged.
I'm doing oil change every 10000 km.

The next one is at the end of the week.
The oil I will be use is the SHELL HELIX ULTRA PROFESSIONAL AV-L 0W30.

Officialy approved by VW.

But I have an other question : what is the year and the serial number of your engine ?

Because at the begenning of manufacturing process of this New engine in Skoda Factory, some issue were made.
And the biggest one is too high tolerances for the valves guides.

Problem was solved in May or June 2014. I don't remember.

Are you also doing long life maintenance ? I mean what are your timing interval for oil changing.

502 is outdated.

504/507 cover 502 spec with more performance.

Maybye you should consider to try and see.

[ciclo]

This is the s**t oil that I will use again to lubricate my EA211 engine. (60,000km)







https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/en/owners- ... l/oil.html


When the engine reaches 90,000km I will check again with my diagnostic tools that the engine performance is still optimal.

There are so many variables or reasons why an engine may perform one way or another (good or bad) that I can only stick to what the engine manufacturer recommends.
Additional additives to improve engine lubrication do not inspire any confidence in me.

These are the spark plugs I will use.

[2226]

Well, I have also the branded oil cap Castrol on my CJZC engine.

But since 2020, Shell is the official manufacturer of VW Oil, plus some other like Wolf.

Normaly your rings shouldn't be clogged.
I'm doing oil change every 10000 km.

The next one is at the end of the week.
The oil I will be use is the SHELL HELIX ULTRA PROFESSIONAL AV-L 0W30.

Officialy approved by VW.

But I have an other question : what is the year and the serial number of your engine ?

Because at the begenning of manufacturing process of this New engine in Skoda Factory, some issue were made.
And the biggest one is too high tolerances for the valves guides.

Problem was solved in May or June 2014. I don't remember.

Are you also doing long life maintenance ? I mean what are your timing interval for oil changing.

502 is outdated.

504/507 cover 502 spec with more performance.

Maybye you should consider to try and see.

My one is 2017 reg (build November 2016). I'm not doing long life maintenance intervals.
Perhaps I will try a 504 on the next change. Will see what Ravenol have. I plan on doing the change in 2 months again.

Clearly what the manufacturer recommended didn't work out so well especially since they were the ones puting in the oil.

As for the 508, etc, what constitutes an older engine? Is the CJZD now considered an older engine and therefore, according to the wording above, could lead to engine damage, etc.
Our fuels are most likely not EN228 compliant.
I am not averse to additives but I do a ton of research before even thinking about it.

[ciclo]

A VW dealer is NOT the manufacturer, in fact, it was not clear to you what work was done on your car... when money is involved anything can happen...
So that you understand me, if I had to buy a used/second-hand vehicle, the first cars to discard would be those that claim to have had all their inspections signed/carried out at official dealers.

[2226]

A VW dealer is NOT the manufacturer, in fact, it was not clear to you what work was done on your car... when money is involved anything can happen...
So that you understand me, if I had to buy a used/second-hand vehicle, the first cars to discard would be those that claim to have had all their inspections signed/carried out at official dealers.

Exactly my thinking too.
They did me in on this one, but I'll get it back up to scratch again.
If I can't stop the oil consumption then I'll ditch it for an older car. (Or get my mk1 Golf up and running again )

I bought this at just over 20,000km on it. By 45,000km it was churning oil.
I kept the dealership service as it is requirement of the warranty. Newest car I have ever had so cost of repairs was concerning as I was unfamiliar with these cars at the time.

[ciclo]

Well, I guess you weren't lucky with your car purchase, incidents happen in all vehicles, in yours they were revealed too soon.
The key to all this seems to be how those first 20,000 km were traveled. The use by dealers of this type of vehicle is usually not very friendly (dealer staff, replacement car, renting), the worst use is the one given to them by employees dedicated to sales ...

However, despite everything, your engine seems to be within the allowed tolerances.

---
I am sincerely sorry that you have to worry about this problem instead of fully enjoying your car (in my humble opinion, it is a good car model and a good engine model).

[RUM4MO]

I think that all VW Group marques made it clear that using these "newer" oils, ie 508/509 is not something that you should do in "older" engines, I think that the words they used was that this newer 508/509 oil was not to be assumed to be backwards compatible - so I've avoided moving on to that spec of oils in the "older" cars that my family run.

Although, my younger daughter runs a 2019 SEAT Arona 1.0TSI 115PS which is a "later" engine from the EA211 family and as it is a DKRF, that engine uses or can use 508/509 oils.

I'd doubt if any VW Group engines with a "C" engine code have "approval" for using these "newer" 508/509 engine oils, so I avoid it for that reason, even the DNUC engine in my older daughter's 2019 SEAT Leon Cupra 290 has a "504" sticker on the panel under the bonnet, so I'm sticking with that spec of oils for it.

On the fact that adding in engine oil to the combustion mix will effectively reduce the octane rating of the mixture, that was initially not something that I had taken into account when my wife's previous car, a 2002 VW Polo 1.4 16V 76PS started pinging/pinking, I just got around that by feeding it with 97 RON petrol, then discovered what the root cause of this pinging/pinking was, so replaced the oil separator and that stopped the engine using too much oil - I never ever got round to changing back to feeding it with lower octane fuel, basically as my wife would not have been very impressed about me doing that as when you used higher than necessary octane fuel in that "slug" of an engine, engine code BBY, it vastly improved the lower rev range drivability - which meant a lot when driving that car!

[RUM4MO]

Incidentally @ciclo, the engine in your Golf has the same engine code as the engine in my younger daughter's 2019 SEAT Arona 1.0TSI, the spark plugs that were the factory fitted original ones, were 04E 905 602 D, and as VW Group now tend to print the NGK model/part number on the packaging now, at least the new plugs, were Iridium versions, ie IKER7A8EGS - which I was left wondering if I could have left these spark plugs in for another 2 years instead of the just over 4 years that they were in that car.

This change to Iridium might have been something that had just taken place in the engine assembly plant prior to this engine being built, I don't know, but "normally" or at least in the past, where VW Group fitted spark plugs with a Platinum centre electrode, the recommended service life was 4 years, and where VW Group fitted spark plugs with an Iridium centre electrode, the recommended service life was 6 years - which made some sense as the Iridium plugs were always more expensive than the Platinum ones.

When I bought these new spark plugs, as that car "lives" over 500 miles away from me and its owners are not "car people", I just played safe and bought genuine VW Group spark plugs, for our local cars, I buy genuine VW Group spark plugs if they can be bought cheaper than NGK ones, currently I'm having an issue buying new Iridium spark plugs for my older daughter's 2019 SEAT Leon Cupra, but that is mainly down to most aftermarket sellers still list the Platinum versions which the previous "C" version of that engine used - but this car has a "D" version of the 2.0TSI EA888 and a GPF - like the Arona 1.0TSI, so has VW Group, this time round, "tied" the need to use Iridium spark plugs to the change to including a GPF?

[2226]

Well, I guess you weren't lucky with your car purchase, incidents happen in all vehicles, in yours they were revealed too soon.
The key to all this seems to be how those first 20,000 km were traveled. The use by dealers of this type of vehicle is usually not very friendly (dealer staff, replacement car, renting), the worst use is the one given to them by employees dedicated to sales ...

However, despite everything, your engine seems to be within the allowed tolerances.

---
I am sincerely sorry that you have to worry about this problem instead of fully enjoying your car (in my humble opinion, it is a good car model and a good engine model).

I still enjoy it. It just does these things that worry me.

I think I've shown before what comes out with the old oil. Sparkly things at the bottom of the oil change pan. Yet no worn engine noises. I suspect those are deposits, but they look awfully like aluminium or copper/brass. They just don't feel like it though. Could actually be ash deposits as well. Yet it drives absolutely fine apart from the oil consumption.

Very wide range of tolerances though when it comes to "acceptable oil usage". I think I'm just old from times when it was totally unacceptable for an engine to consume this much oil. But I think will try a 504 oil next time and see how that works out.

[ciclo]

@RUM4MO
First of all, I would like to say that on our POLO 1.2 TSI CBZC I tested both spark plugs, platinum and iridium, both worked perfectly.
Currently (76,000 km) the iridium ones are installed (16,000 km running), and although other elements may influence, the engine runs smooth as silk, so far I have not had any small symptoms of malfunction at any rpm.
Supposedly the iridium ones need less voltage for their operation, which means a longer standby time and therefore greater durability.

For our VW GOLF DKRF with GPF.


both can be used according to the parts catalog.


For the SEAT ARONA DKRF, only iridium is specified. (as you mentioned)



I decided on the platinum ones for the Golf because the iridium ones were not available at the time I was placing a large order for many other parts.
Supposedly the platinum ones should last about 100,000 km and the iridium ones about 150,000 km, although I will stick to what is specified in the maintenance/repair manual.
I suppose we can deduce that the use of the particulate filter in these engines is not related to the spark plug model.

[2226]

I have to mention when I pulled the factory plugs and compared them to the NGK, the factory items seemed to be "double platinum". By that I mean not just platinum centre electrode tip, but also something on the ground electrode. Sort of a small raised area on the ground strap centre. Didn't see that on the NGK.

[RUM4MO]

At times it seems to be "a funny old game", I think that it was on the NGK UK website that I noticed that the "B" version of the platinum spark plugs were advised for all CJZC and CJZD engines fitted to Skoda, SEAT and probably Audi, for VW only, the CJZD engine recommended spark plug remained the "A" version!
I only discovered that after buying and fitting the later VW Group branded NGK plugs for the first plug change on my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS - which had "A" marked on the metalwork of the factory fitted original spark plugs and I had fitted "B" versions, so everyone except for NGK had moved onto the "B" version for the CJZD in VW, at least Polo.

Sometimes you have to accept that even the parts suppliers do not get things exactly correct, going back a few years, ago, sorry NGK UK website, I was getting my facts together before sourcing a new B1 S1 Lambda sensor - as far as the NGK UK website was concerned there was no B1 S1 sensor in that age of Polo with the BBY engine - but I found the part number reference in the SEAT Ibiza listing!

[2226]

At times it seems to be "a funny old game", I think that it was on the NGK UK website that I noticed that the "B" version of the platinum spark plugs were advised for all CJZC and CJZD engines fitted to Skoda, SEAT and probably Audi, for VW only, the CJZD engine recommended spark plug remained the "A" version!
I only discovered that after buying and fitting the later VW Group branded NGK plugs for the first plug change on my wife's 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS - which had "A" marked on the metalwork of the factory fitted original spark plugs and I had fitted "B" versions, so everyone except for NGK had moved onto the "B" version for the CJZD in VW, at least Polo.

Sometimes you have to accept that even the parts suppliers do not get things exactly correct, going back a few years, ago, sorry NGK UK website, I was getting my facts together before sourcing a new B1 S1 Lambda sensor - as far as the NGK UK website was concerned there was no B1 S1 sensor in that age of Polo with the BBY engine - but I found the part number reference in the SEAT Ibiza listing!

Maybe SEAT/Skoda get them first because VW wants to test on them first.
Get it wrong in a VW and everybody wants to sue them.

I also snoop around SEAT/Skoda forums. Often they have information that isn't found here, and vice versa. Gets coverage.

[RUM4MO]

snip snip
I also snoop around SEAT/Skoda forums. Often they have information that isn't found here, and vice versa. Gets coverage.

Oh yes, I do that just because, and also because the differing marques have different "types" of owners or drivers, when my wife got her first Polo back in 2002, the chances of finding out the answer to any technical issues was almost zero on VW Polo forums - so I joined the Skoda forum as Skoda owners tend to look after their cars themselves.