NGK Iridium plus for 2,8 BMW

[Dino D]

Are there any benefits to fitting these to a 1998 z3 2.8?
They are £43 for 6 vs £23 for normal ones.

Search on here brings up some threads with mixed views but that was in relation to a RV8 engine - is my 2.8 modern enough to benefit from iridium plugs or just snake oil?

[trickywoo]

I doubt you'll be able to feel any performance gains but the iridium ones have a longer service interval.

They tend to be 18,000 miles against 6,000 miles for the standard ones (typically).

[Dino D]

Good point re the extended life so will give them a try. Tend to do oil every 10k miles so the plugs may last 2 changes.
Will see how thy get one - update in in 12 months!

[AJB]

I'm not sure what's Iridium and what's not, but if your engine takes the same ones as my 1998 528, then the standard fit was:

NGK BKR6EK

Later models got:

NGK BKR6EQUP

Which is long-life, and is recommended for retro-fit to older cars too. But costs a lot more. IIRC, I think the main advantage of the later ones (other than longer life), is that they handle very short start/stop cycles better. The older ones don't like starting the car to move it a few feet, and it tends to misfire when next started. The newer ones are meant to cope better with that.

Having said that, I don't start/stop mine often at all and I'm not planning to keep it forever, so I put the cheaper ones in when I changed them last year.