Well
I bought the Torque Master plugs finally and things were going great put about three hundred miles on the car. Then I was taking friend to the airport at 6 in the morning and I heard a wierd poping noise. I pulled over and popped the hood and one of my coil packs was popping. I called tow truck and had it towed to my friends shop. After they pulled it apart the spark plug must of been bad they said cause it more or less blew up in the hole. Got lucky though it did not need to be sleeved. BUT I did need a new coil pack. They checked rest of the plugs and all were fine. Makes me kind of upset though that after putting the new plugs in I am now 300 dollars poorer Any ideas on what I should do?? I would like to call Carson Toyota and see if there is anything they can do but I am not sure it is worth the headache. Plus I still need one more plug. Just cause there is one bad apple in the bunch doesn't mean I am going to throw then out. I still think they are good lugs and car ran great until it blew....

 

Wow, I just recieved my TM's the other day and i havent even had a chance to put them in yet. Is this a common problem? Im a little nervous about putting them in after reading this...

 

I did some searching before I posted this and it does not look common. But it has happened before with other plugs from what I understand. Maybe a few more people chiming in will gove some incite. I would not be scared of the plugs I was just informing all of my issue. I still have the other 7 in and plan on leaving them in.

 

First I've read of this type of issue (with any plug). I'd call and see if they can get you just one plug to replace the bad one.

 

That is what I am going to do. It is a good product. I think that... well I don't know what I think anymore.

 

I have been running TM plugs for the past 4 or 5 years I believe, and in two different GS's with no problems for me. Top notch product! Sounds like you just caught one bad one. I would imagine that they would stand by their rep and ship you another plug...now the coil pack

 

Could also be that your coil pack went bad and screwed up your plug. Sounds like this is more likely to me.

 

Did you notice a substantial difference for the first 300 miles?

 

yes I did notice a difference it seemed. car seemed more responsive and shifted a lil harder.

 

I DID have this happen recently, however.

 

I changed to TMs back in July. Since then, I've driven from New Orleans, to Atlanta, to Washington DC, to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, and Back to Atlanta. Haven't had any issues with the plugs and I still feel the difference they've made.

Sorry you got a dud. Probably a glitch in the Matrix. Modding your car has risks involved. Make sure you have enough money to repair a part that you may damage when modding. At least it was the coil pack and not another engine!!

 

not to sound like an idiot, but what is a coil pack ?? and what is its relation to the spark plug. also, how much do these Torque Master plugs cost?? i have read many good things about them sorry about the mishap buddy

 

The coil pack "sits" on top of the plug and provides the power to the plug for it's spark.

quote:
"Many of today's vehicles are equipped with D.I.S. or distributorless ignition systems. These vehicles do not use a distributor. In place of the distributor they use sensors to fire an ignition coil pack. There are two styles of ignition coil packs. The first type of coil pack has all the coils mounted on one mounting pad. If any of the coils are found to be defective, the entire coil pack must be replaced.

The second type of coil pack has all the coils mounted individually on a mounting pad. On this system, if one coil is found to be defective, it may be replaced as a separate unit. "

 

hameed, u r the man now which coil pack do we have in the GS's?? and which one is better??

 

On the GS they are individual coil packs on each plug.

quote:
"The coil is the device that generates the high voltages required to create a spark. It is a simple device -- essentially a high-voltage transformer made up of two coils of wire. One coil of wire is called the primary coil. Wrapped around it is the secondary coil. The secondary coil normally has hundreds of times more turns of wire than the primary coil.

Current flows from the battery through the primary winding of the coil.

The primary coil's current can be suddenly disrupted by the breaker points, or by a solid-state device in an electronic ignition.

If you think the coil looks like an electromagnet, you're right -- but it is also an inductor. The key to the coil's operation is what happens when the circuit is suddenly broken by the points. The magnetic field of the primary coil collapses rapidly. The secondary coil is engulfed by a powerful and changing magnetic field. This field induces a current in the coils -- a very high-voltage current (up to 100,000 volts) because of the number of coils in the secondary winding. The secondary coil feeds this voltage to the distributor via a very well insulated, high-voltage wire. "


On our cars we have a Solid State Ignition
"
In recent years, you may have heard of cars that need their first tune-up at 100,000 miles. One of the technologies that enables this long maintenance interval is the distributorless ignition.

Instead of one main coil, distributorless ignitions have a coil for each spark plug, located directly on the spark plug itself.

The coil in this type of system works the same way as the larger, centrally-located coils. The engine control unit controls the transistors that break the ground side of the circuit, which generates the spark. This gives the ECU total control over spark timing.

Systems like these have some substantial advantages. First, there is no distributor, which is an item that eventually wears out. Also, there are no high-voltage spark-plug wires, which also wear out. And finally, they allow for more precise control of the spark timing, which can improve efficiency, emissions and increase the overall power of a car"