I picked up my ridding buddy's 2002 F4i (the one that put deisel fuel in his gas tank) at our local Honda dealer. I checked over his service bill. $94.60 for 4 spark plugs !! WTF ??? The service guy said they are special plugs made by Honda and the are so expensive because of a special pin in them. He said I would need the same plugs on my '97 XX. I recall a thread a while ago about using plugs that are like $5 each..

What plugs are you guys using and how much. Below is the Honda part number and description for the rape me dry plugs.

31912-MBW-E11 S/Plug IMR9C-9H

Rich
StPeteXX

FUCKING dealers.... yeh, i paid like 7 for iridiums from ron ayers i think.. don't have the item number handy though

They are 10.70 at ayers. I hope theres another, friendlier dealer in your town.

The F4i does NOT take the same plugs. Not even the same material. Yours are Platinum, while the others are made from Unobtanium (sorry, I mean, Iridium).

You can use a different Iridium plug in yours, CR9EHIX-9 (stock Platinum = CR9EHVS-9). I paid $35/set last time for the Iridiums, but my local shop gives me a discount. He had them marked for $40 I believe.

What's the difference between running the Iridiums and the stock Platinums?

The platinums are being phased out by iridium. The iridium is suposed to last longer than platinum. I looked at a 2003 VFR manual and they wanted the iridiums changed at I think 30k miles. I have them in my bike.

The A and H after the nine is Ngks designation for the firing end construction, by the book the A is slightly hotter than the H. And there are 3 other plugs in that style all progressivly hotter. The section of the catalog reads as follows. With the hotter plug listed at the top!

CR8EHIX-9 STOCK NUMBER 3797
CR9EHIX-9 STOCK NUMBER 6216
CR9EHI-9 STOCK NUMBER 6419
IMR9A-9H STOCK NUMBER 6966
IMR9C-9H STOCK NUMBER 6777

BUT JUST BE CAREFUL!!!!

You might want to go to your local NAPA auto parts store and check out the first 30 or so pages of the 2003 NGK catalog.

This listing is all plugs fitting the dimensions of the plugs you paid big bucks for...You can put any of these plugs in your bike, but as mentioned you have to be careful if your putting in plugs not listed for. But upon closer inspection of the 2002-2003 VFR-800-FI, The plug listed in the book is a IMR9D-9H, with a footnote showing it has a solid terminal nut. For what that's worth. Remember again the D is just some sort of firing end design.

Now that I've found the listing for an F4I 600 and not a VFR, here's the listing I see. 2001-2002 IMR9A-9H STOCK NUMBER 6966, AND 2003 LISTING IMR9C-9H STOCK NUMBER 6777. Hope this helps :grin:

My dealer gave me CR9EIX plugs. He treated me like I was an idiot and said the plug I asked for (CR9EHIX-9) was not the right one and insisted the ones he had were the ones. Not a single honda dealer here had the CR9EHIX-9 plugs.

They seemed to work alright but it would be nice to know the difference. They cost $39 for 4 of them, supposedly on sale.

I will be ordering the TP430c Splitfires from www.sparkplugs.com for $5.99 each. Their cross reference is: Autolite, Traditional spark plug 4303 for $2.24 each. They also show: NGK VX platinum CR9EHVX-9 for $6.40 each. This is for a '99 XX.
They just added these: NGK iridium CR9EHIX-9 for $6.95 . Hope it helps.

:shock: Not for the XX I hope. The split electrode technology has been well proven to be just a joke in cars, with no benefit but at least no drawbacks. But in the XX...