Garage saying I have wrong spark plugs.
 

Took my MY03 UK STI Scooby in for it's 60K (6 year) service today. After doing my research and looking at getting a remap later decided to buy some NGK PFR7b spark plugs for the garage to fit in with the service (local Subaru service and parts only). Anyways to cut a long story short, went back to the garage to pick up my pride and joy, only to be told that they couldn't fit the spark plugs I provided as they were the wrong ones :mad: and instead they have fitted their own NGK pfr6b plugs. Have I got this wrong then, can the STi Type U.K not have pfr7b plugs fitted? :wonder: Also I have found I must have an oil leak as when opened up the bonnet I culd see the engine glistening, thinking the garage has de-greased the car in something noticed my oil preassure gauge is showing above 1 bar of preassure when idling and also the oil on the dipstick is off the full mark :mad:. This was normally 2 bar before. :confused:

What utter rubbish of course it can. Dealers really have no idea do they, if it isn't a part in their service schedule then it must be wrong :rolleyes: They are just colder plugs ffs and they are absolutely fine when remapping, I have them in my 05 STi on BRawles advice to.

Yep,what he said ;)

I hate dealers with a passion :mad:

Thing is no dealer garage worth there salt would fit anything other than what there meant to.Nowt wrong with 6B's mind.

There is lots wrong with them if your running big power.....

jpor, they will fit, so do them yourself mate :)

Cheers guys. That's what I thought, I compared them to the old plugs they gave me back and they are identical in size and shape, just feel I have spent twice on new plugs now :(. Just need to get the oil slick sorted out now :mad:

I asked my dealer to fit a set of 7B's to my car when I still used dealers due to warranty and they fitted them no problem. I also had the APS inner wing induction kit fitted and they were still happy to stamp my book etc

Graeme

if your running big power you wouldn't be going to a dealership anyway, how many time have you seen a f1 car in the local dealership getting it's oil changed!!

dealers are there to service the car to subaru specifications if you decide to make the car different to how subaru designed it to be then why go to them and moan when they use parts that were designed for your car but you need different ones?

i agree it's a bit tight of them to not fit the plugs but as the car hasn't been mapped yet to accomodate them if something had gone wrong and the plugs damaged your engine you would be back there having a go and wanting a full rebuild at their expense.
i think they done the right thing in not fitting them but should have phoned you to see if it was ok to fit the standard plugs.

An oil change is an oil change regardless of what power u are running. Also you don't need a remap to accommodate those plugs really. A bad or wrong set of plugs wouldn't damage an engine. Worst case it would just run rough or you would get starting issues. The dealer has no reason whatsoever not to fit them.

Yea you're right they should of called. I had a similar thing on my old classic where I used a new JR panel filter, but because the service schedule said so they changed it back to a standard paper filter and chucked the new JR one away :mad: idiots.

Mine was running 370bhp 364 lbs-ft of torque, I still used the dealers as the rest of the car was still in warranty. The dealers in my case were happy to warranty the rest of the car but only a limited warranty on the engine as it was modified.

I had to use warranty a few times after my car was modified like getting 4 new shocks, new steering column and rack and new boost control solenoid.
Dont get me wrong I still used specialists outwith the 10K mile service periods as I wanted it serviced more often but for the services stated in the book I used the dealer.

Now its out of warranty I just service the car myself

Graeme

Like everything, you get good dealers and bad dealers, I can say with hand on heart that my dealer is probably THE best out there (this includes speciallists) and its the only place I take my cars to :D

As for the plugs, it seems that UK cars (265ps) came with 6b's as standard from the factory, my JDM STI's both had 7b's as standard, but the dealer may not have been happy putting in plugs that they have not sourced as they would have ensured they were the correct type.

Tony:)

omg wait for the scoobynet massive to respond to the "an oil change is an oil change" bit!!
the reason they may not have fitted them is because as you say rough running or bad starting

eh? you're missing the point completely. The only reason they didn't fit them is because they are not noted as the part to use in the service schedule. Those plugs would work fine without a remap!

ok then, so everyone here likes semi syn which is the part to use in the service schedule?

huh? semi syn oil is what the dealers use.

AN oil change is an oil change isnt it ?Or have i missed something here lol

i asked if they could use fully synthetic and was told we only use semi synthetic (shell) as recomended by subaru

Ah right, well then there's another example of their ignorance ;)

Just a crap dealer, go somewhere else ;)

Tony:)

i did go elsewhere and my 60,000 mile service was £70 cheaper:luxhello:

Just because subaru recommend something doesn't mean there isn't a better option available, and i use fully syn and Pfr7b plugs fitted by someone i trust far more than a dealer.

Oh and a F1 car in a dealership what the hell are you on about:lol1:

Aaron

Thanks again for the responses. The garage I used this time isn't my normal one. Normal one being based in Stoke-on-trent, but as they have now moved and didn't have any time spare away from work decided to go to a more local one based in Northwich, and thought I'd give them a try this time, thus keeping the Full Subaru Service history. I even put together a list on paper on what I was providing to them, and this included Sylcolene 5w 40 Etha based fully-synth oil for the engine and sylcolene 75w 90 gearbox and diff oil, for which the garge had no quibble about using. All I got told was when I came to pick the car up is that they used there own spark plugs and mine were no good. No other explanation given :mad: If I used my normal garage I would think they would use them regardless. Oh well live and learn :Whatever_

The garage really thought they were doing the right thing by informing you that the plugs you supplied are not what Subaru recommend - so, they fitted what Subaru instruct them to .... for very good researched reasons.

Now, if your car in not standard then you really need to place it with a Specialist who will understand some of the quirkinesses of some Scooby owners ;)

so why did they use the fully synthetic oil when subaru recommend semi:wonder: just a case of them not knowing what their on about and making things up.

Aaron:thumb:

Because, Oil is Oil .... Semi is the stuff you need, but - if a customer 'thinks' fully synth is better, well, that's OK.

Fitting the wrong Spark Plugs could be spell doom for the engine .... somewhat different, I'm sure you will agree.

IMO the Garage was showing a professional, knowledgable attitude.

I do agree about the doom for the engine, but if he was knowledgable he'd know that they are perfectly ok spark plugs.

Aaron:thumb: