Hello All,

I am a newbe to posting here but I have been watching this forum for quite a while. I
own a 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 2wd 5.7 HEMI....... I love this truck but I am starting to
get a little tired of the rough idle issues that I have been having......
At 32,000 miles I started having an issue with the idle being a little rough... I have had
issues with some MIL lights in the past but nothing that the stealership could not
fix and besides it was under warranty.........I have never been satisfied with the dealerships
in the area !! A few times I had to go back for the same issue but it always got fixed....
This brings me to TODAY...... I am having a miss at idle.......At 32,000 miles I had a
miss in the truck and I changed the plugs because the book said that the plugs need
changed at 30,000 mile intervals so I did and this time I used Bosch Platinum not the
Champion that the book said, No problems until 45,000 miles. The same
idle issue as before a slight miss Sooo I took the truck to another stealership to try their
service and I got a call from them saying the idle issue was due to having Platinium plugs and that they wanted to install the Factory type plugs Champion RE14MCC4 along with a
Throttle Body , Fuel Injector, and Combustion Chamber cleaning all for the bargan
price of $675.000 Sooo I let them do everything except for the plugs that they wanted
$350.00 to do......Now maybe I am wrong but I thought that the heat range for the
OE and the Bosch plugs were the same........ but they said that platinium plugs are a
hotter burning plug and would cause the truck to run hotter causing the idle issue... Has any
one tryed to find these plugs Champion RE14MCC4 Plugs........I tried to buy some on the
way home AutoZOne and Advance Auto parts ...... Neither of them carries them and they
unable to order them !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!......BUT ON THE BRIGHT SIDE THEY CAN GET ME SOME
DAMN NEON LIGHTS FOR UNDER THE TRUCK...........I will try KOI in the morning......
Any help would be appreciated

Thanks In Advance........

 

I had trouble finding my plugs at local auto parts stores, too, and ended up getting them at sparkplugs.com, which does have the Champion plug you mention, but doesn't list that as one of the recommended plugs for the '03 Hemi. Weird. You might take a look there and see what you think.

And no, I don't have anything to do with sparkplugs.com, just had good luck with them in a similar situation.

 

Some DF members have had bad luck with the Bosch plats in our trucks for unknown reasons, at least unknown to me.

I'd recommend getting a set of champions or even my favorite NGK and swap out the plugs. Sure it is a pain in the ****, but if you still have the problem, you can have some leverage with the stealership that did the "induction service" on your truck and getting them to fix the problem the second time around.

 

The RE14MCC4 would work, as well as the NGK LZTR4A-11. Both are the standard Nickel plugs, around $2 each (you can say stealership again) You may also want to try NGK's iridium plugs, iridium's are great at removing misfires and improving idle. Here's the reason why:

Iridiums are Fine Wire Plugs:
Fine wire center electrodes come under a variety of names depending on manufacturer, IETapered point, Ultra-Fine electrode, Taper cut electrode, Necked down electrode). Originally designed to improve starting and reduce fouling in two-stroke engines, this design was found to improve performance in four-stroke engines as well. All operate on primarily the same principle, a spark plug with fine wire electrodes will perform better than a traditional plug. There are two reasons for this, first is because a smaller center electrode requires less voltage to jump the gap. This means fewer misfires, which should be seen in higher mileage and more horsepower. The second reason is smaller center electrodes reduce quenching. The smaller center electrodes have required exotic metals such as platinum or iridium so that they can still maintain (and sometimes surpass) the longevity of a traditional spark plug. Currently the finest wire performance plugs available are made by Denso at 0.4mm diameter and by NGK at 0.7mm diameter, a traditional center electrode is typically 2.0 to 2.5mm.

In order to create fine wire plugs, however, the manufacturers had to start using metals like platinum and iridium, which are harder and stronger than nickel, because the nickel wouldn't last long enough. Iridium has a higher melting point than nickel (2x), and is almost 2x stronger and harder.

 

Glad to see some of our sponsors on here again.

 

Hello Guy's

I finially did find the RE14MCC4 plugs at a quality KOI auto parts store. I changed the
plugs and the best I can tell the miss is gone..... I still can't see paying a dealer ship
$350.00$ to do that job.....

Thanks for the HELP

 

Glad everything worked out for you.