Broken plug extenders after very few miles

Broken plug extenders after very few miles

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dnb

Original Poster:

3,330 posts

241 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
I bought a complete new set of plug extenders mid 2014 as part of a complete engine rebuild. For one reason or another I have used the car very little for the last 2 years - total of about 500 miles at the most. I looked at it today with a view to getting it an MOT and using it for the summer, but I couldn't get it to run right.

I soon found the reason - a bit of arcing might be happening:


They claimed to be the correct Beru part and as ever were not the cheapest option. I am going to speak to the supplier, since it is a reasonable expectation for them to last a bit longer than 22 months and 500 miles... The only issue is that I am not sure I want replacements if they are going to do the self same thing. Is anyone else having trouble?

Has anything happened in the last year or so to design these horrible unreliable things out of RV8 TVRs?

Thanks

ClassiChimi

12,424 posts

148 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
I removed my extenders and use socks over the plug caps and just keep the leads tight so they can't turn and rest on the manifold,, I use resistive plugs and I've not had a misfire for over 6 months.
Other people seem to have had problems with replacement extenders too so your not alone!

carsy

3,018 posts

164 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
There`s quite a few people on here recently Dave who have had problems with newly acquired extenders.

Leads straight onto the plugs is the way to go with socks on the end of the leads. OR these ceramic ended leads as in this thread also seem very good.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

http:
//www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=8&t=1552564[url]
|http://thumbsnap.com/dsIKDfPM[/url]

Edited by carsy on Monday 25th April 10:19


Edited by carsy on Tuesday 26th April 14:27

dnb

Original Poster:

3,330 posts

241 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
Thanks. Nice to know I'm not alone with this. Can't say I was very happy when I found out!

Note that the latest extenders do not have the 5k ohm resistor built in to them, so you should use resistive plugs with them.

GlynMo

1,140 posts

248 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
dnb said:
snip... Note that the latest extenders do not have the 5k ohm resistor built in to them, so you should use resistive plugs with them.
Just out of interest, what happens if you don't? Burn the plugs out quickly, or something more drastic?

dnb

Original Poster:

3,330 posts

241 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
Nothing drastic. Just the chance of loads of electrical interference.

dnb

Original Poster:

3,330 posts

241 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
Just spoke to the supplier and as I suspected they are prepared to do nothing about it. They are over a year old, so no warranty and apparently they were fit for purpose so I must have cooked them by running in a "highly modified" engine over 500 miles.

Best advice here seems to be don't buy the new Beru parts and expect them to last a decent length of time in a TVR in a good state of tune. (The older parts seemed to use much better material and I have seen none of them crack like these - the old failure mode was usually to fail to grip the spark plug and slowly rotate until the HT lead was on the manifold.)

Oh well, another one chalked up to experience. It's not worth my time arguing further over £50, so it looks like I am going to import a set of the ceramic things.

TV8

3,118 posts

174 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
dnb said:
so it looks like I am going to import a set of the ceramic things.
I was after some Moroso heat protectors and stock/deliveries seemed a long way out speaking with UK suppliers.

On another thread, I saw Steve at langysrodshop recommended and he got them imported and delivered to home within a week. It worked out about £-$ on the pricing including import and postage etc. Decent bloke to deal with and I will post up his number if you are interested?.

spikep

468 posts

281 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
I would be interested in ceramic leads too. Would you pm me the price you paid out of interest. Typical I don't go to the states anymore with work.

MPO

264 posts

111 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
dnb said:
I bought a complete new set of plug extenders mid 2014 as part of a complete engine rebuild. For one reason or another I have used the car very little for the last 2 years - total of about 500 miles at the most. I looked at it today with a view to getting it an MOT and using it for the summer, but I couldn't get it to run right.

I soon found the reason - a bit of arcing might be happening:


They claimed to be the correct Beru part and as ever were not the cheapest option. I am going to speak to the supplier, since it is a reasonable expectation for them to last a bit longer than 22 months and 500 miles... The only issue is that I am not sure I want replacements if they are going to do the self same thing. Is anyone else having trouble?

Has anything happened in the last year or so to design these horrible unreliable things out of RV8 TVRs?

Thanks
DNB

I too purchased some BERU replacements (Last Year!), only to find one was cracked just the same as yours. TVR Parts immediately replaced the cracked one (sent a replacement), I didn’t think to check the rest. A job for the weekend…

Who was your supplier?

MPO

dnb

Original Poster:

3,330 posts

241 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
Clever Trevor after being taken over by Racing Green. I should say this is in no way naming and shaming - they haven't done anything wrong. (They have however shown no good will either and declared I have used the parts inappropriately which is why they have broken. This is even though there have been a number of issues with them.)

Looking at the old Beru parts - I have 4 resistive and 4 non-resistive parts still in working order - and the new cracked ones side by side the insulating plastic material is clearly very different. The old ones look and feel like bakelite while the new ones look more like a modern thermoplastic and feel cheap and nasty in comparison. I am still of a mind that the new Beru parts are not fit for the purpose of extending TVR spark plugs.

MPO

264 posts

111 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
dnb said:
Clever Trevor after being taken over by Racing Green. I should say this is in no way naming and shaming - they haven't done anything wrong. (They have however shown no good will either and declared I have used the parts inappropriately which is why they have broken. This is even though there have been a number of issues with them.)

Looking at the old Beru parts - I have 4 resistive and 4 non-resistive parts still in working order - and the new cracked ones side by side the insulating plastic material is clearly very different. The old ones look and feel like bakelite while the new ones look more like a modern thermoplastic and feel cheap and nasty in comparison. I am still of a mind that the new Beru parts are not fit for the purpose of extending TVR spark plugs.
Interesting...

I'm sure Racing Green Parts went to TVR Parts???

I'll check all of mine this weekend (Just incase its a bad batch!).

MPO

dnb

Original Poster:

3,330 posts

241 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
MPO said:
I'm sure Racing Green Parts went to TVR Parts???
Yes, they did. But this was not established in July 2014 when I bought mine.

It would be interesting to see who else has had problems with the new extenders.

stevesprint

1,114 posts

178 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
dnb, you brilliant picture is worth a thousand word.

carsy said:
There`s quite a few people on here recently Dave who have had problems with newly acquired extenders.
Carsy,
Arrr, newly acquired, I finally understand why plug extenders are like Marmite, I love my ancient extenders and everyone hates new ones.

Pupp

12,206 posts

271 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
Think I bought one of the very last set of old style Beru extenders from ACT; at least Tim told me that much and that no more were being made. Possible they have now been licensed to a pattern producer or are even being knocked off if out of IP protection?

Mine are the hard shiny type but were not resistive either - the Accel ceramic ends look the way forward to me if possible to add to custom lead lengths

dnb

Original Poster:

3,330 posts

241 months

Monday 25th April 2016
quotequote all
I have ordered a set of the Accel ceramic leads. They come uncrimped at the coil ends and come with a choice of ends. It looks like they are all the same length, so can be cut to custom lengths. Hopefully they won't take too long to arrive.

I have sent an email to Beru to see if they can say anything about the change of materials.

FlipFlopGriff

7,144 posts

246 months

Tuesday 26th April 2016
quotequote all
Dave,
I ditched the extenders some time back now. I've had BPR6ES plugs in with extenders which dont oil up as much as the 7's and the burn is correct. I went for Moroso leads and these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Black-Vulcan-Fire-Sleeve...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GM-LS1-LS2-LS4-LS6-LS7-S...
Runs much better now and no need to worry about extenders popping off or playing up. Not the cheapest options but neither are the extenders. Make sure you go for the global shipping programme on delivery (cost is fixed then) otherwise your items will get stuck in customs, and you'll not only pay VAT but also an admin charge for them to release them (as I found out recently on a low value item which doubled the price eventually).
I've just bought some NGK iridium plugs (same 6 resistive spec) to swap out the BPR6ES's. They were less than £55 delivered for 8. I don't have aln Allegro BTW.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8-x-NGK-BPR6EIX-6637-IRI...
FFG

Edited by FlipFlopGriff on Tuesday 26th April 09:55

griffdude

1,819 posts

247 months

Tuesday 26th April 2016
quotequote all
ClassiChimi said:
I removed my extenders and use socks over the plug caps and just keep the leads tight so they can't turn and rest on the manifold,
Yep, me too with no adverse results.

ou sont les biscuits

5,086 posts

194 months

Tuesday 26th April 2016
quotequote all
Pupp said:
Mine are the hard shiny type but were not resistive either - the Accel ceramic ends look the way forward to me if possible to add to custom lead lengths
I tried a set of the angled Accel leads, but thought that the car wasn't running quite right using them - they are quite low resistance at 500 ohms/foot, so I am currently using a set of conventional leads from TVR Power with straight ends direct on to the plugs - no extenders - (these don't foul the manifold on any of the cylinders) with a set of plug socks just in case. If you do go the Accel route, note that the angled leads are a bugger to get on cylinders 6 and 8 because of the pipes running along the bottom of the rocker box. They have a rubber insert that's a tight fit on the plugs, and it's hard to get enough purchase on them to push them on tight given the manifold below and the pipe runs above.




Edited by ou sont les biscuits on Tuesday 26th April 11:00

spikep

468 posts

281 months

Wednesday 27th April 2016
quotequote all
Anyone ordered the ceramic lead? And which set did you order to get the correct distributor ends?