Upgrade spark plugs for tune Mercedes
coil pack or other part of the ignition system, vacuum leak , bad injector or clogged fuel system, failing fuel pump, or low cylinder compression (bad rings or warped or burned valves) worn lobes on a camshaft; a leaking head gasket or intake manifold gasket...etc, etc...
A cylinder needs three things to fire, proper fuel mixture, proper spark and sufficent compression. If any one of those are not present, you will get a misfire
if plugs didnt fix your misfire then time to look at next possible reason (coil packs)
i dont get whats not working for you? you car driving super slow or sputtering around town going into limp mode?
how many times do you misfire per day and have to clear codes?
Last edited by gaspam; Mar 23, 2016 at 03:22 PM.
i dont get whats not working for you? you car driving super slow or sputtering around town going into limp mode?
how many times do you misfire per day and have to clear codes?
After new plugs went in, I got a misfire within a week only under WOT and usually around 3-4000rpm (ie when i lay into it). It comes and goes. Its pretty infrequent. In fact on one dyno session, I made 12 plus pulls in an hour and did not have a single misfire. However a couple of weeks later, I got two misfires. Always happens when I am either pushing hard or going WOT. Never when I am driving around town.
So back she went to the dealer for new plugs yet again. Since it had a CEL, a whole lot of crap got replaced including two coils, my accelarator pedal and module, etc etc. Honestly I do not believe any of those had anything to do with the misfire. When you get misfires, you tend to get some unrelated codes like O2 sensors and some other crap. This time I re-gaped the plugs down to 0.021/0.022. Its been a month plus and no misfire no matter how hard I push her
coil pack or other part of the ignition system, vacuum leak , bad injector or clogged fuel system, failing fuel pump, or low cylinder compression (bad rings or warped or burned valves) worn lobes on a camshaft; a leaking head gasket or intake manifold gasket...etc, etc...
A cylinder needs three things to fire, proper fuel mixture, proper spark and sufficent compression. If any one of those are not present, you will get a misfire
if plugs didnt fix your misfire then time to look at next possible reason (coil packs)
if i am following this timeline correctly, then dealer didnt check gap or correctly gap set 2 ?
The Best of Mercedes & AMG
if i am following this timeline correctly, then dealer didnt check gap or correctly gap set 2 ?
I have the second (new un-gaped and used for about 1000miles) and first (stock 30k miles) set in the garage right now. I have gone through and checked the gaps on all 16. The new out of the box that was taken out is on average 0.003 larger gaps than the 30k miles set. That was also the case for the set that I gaped myself.
So recap. The 16 new sparkplugs I bought in the last 2 to 3 months had wider gaps out of the box than the 8 plugs that had 30k miles on them. Yes this is despite 30,000 miles of wear! they still had gaps of 0.024-0.026 leads me to believe they may have started life with smaller gaps than that.
Last edited by kponti; Mar 24, 2016 at 11:46 AM.
renntech recommends stock and weistec recommends their own plugs so curious as what AMS recommends
I can now run the heck out of my car without the misfires, I'm confident after having it back for over 3 weeks now and putting it to the test.
My car runs better with the diverter valve and adjustments, but I think reducing the gap in the plugs is the key and obvious first choice for anyone having the misfire issue with a tune.
The stock plugs were set between .027 and .028
FYI, RENNTECH really stepped up and took care of my issue and I will stick with them in the future.
Last edited by tlowry; May 9, 2016 at 09:25 AM.
I can now run the heck out of my car without the misfires, I'm confident after having it back for over 3 weeks now and putting it to the test.
My car runs better with the diverter valve and adjustments, but I think reducing the gap in the plugs is the key and obvious first choice for anyone having the misfire issue with a tune.
The stock plugs were set between .027 and .028
FYI, RENNTECH really stepped up and took care of my issue and I will stick with them in the future.
I don't know why the " big tuners" are not doing tighter gaps as a matter of basic course when modding these motors for more boost. Its common practice on every other boosted platform. There is effectively no downside to gapping down to around .022. Tighter still, and you "may" get some idle harshness, but a small trade off for consistent ignition firing, which is literally the only job a spark plug needs to do.
surly if tighter is better they would have done it no?

The spark plug issue is not new, was there with the first generation and hence why the newer ones have different plugs, so just got me wondering
the one common theme is its mostly the ecu tuned guys the complain the most about it and all tuners suffer from it including brabus
surly if tighter is better they would have done it no?

The spark plug issue is not new, was there with the first generation and hence why the newer ones have different plugs, so just got me wondering
the one common theme is its mostly the ecu tuned guys the complain the most about it and all tuners suffer from it including brabus
A gap that is too small means that the spark duration will be very quick and the spark will be thin and weak. If the gap is set too large, the ignition system will not be able to cope with the demands and a misfire situation will occur.... in the past people would set the gap manually by opening it very large and then closing in increments until misfires stopped. goal is to have as wide of gap as possible that doesnt misfire
rule of thumb is reduce the gap about .004" for every 50 hp you add over stock system... conversely if you add higher powered ignition system the gap can be opened more
Last edited by gaspam; May 10, 2016 at 10:41 AM.



Seems Brisk MR12S would be great on a Renntech platform if running decent boost. I have these on a very different platform running over 2.5 bar boost- been performing great. What does Renntech run in their kit (stage 3 I think)? Something like 1.5 bar? I never asked...
Seems Brisk MR12S would be great on a Renntech platform if running decent boost. I have these on a very different platform running over 2.5 bar boost- been performing great. What does Renntech run in their kit (stage 3 I think)? Something like 1.5 bar? I never asked...








