Recently, I found myself confused by the lit up engine light in my car. When the light first
went on, I began to pay attention to my car’s performance. It wasn’t rattling or making any
usuals noises, but I became aware that I was needing to forcefully press down on the gas
pedal to accelerate. I also began to observe that I was filling up my gas tank once a week
instead of every two weeks. I wasn’t driving any more than usual – just quick trips to the
library or grocery store as needed. I knew it wasn’t any oil or fluids that needed to be
replaced as none of the other indicators on the dashboard were lit. I looked at the mileage
and observed that I was approaching 175,000 miles. When I first purchased the car, it had
148,000 miles on it and according to an official car history report, scheduled maintenance
was consistently performed at Honda dealer mechanics. According to the report, the spark
plugs had not been replaced in 3 years. This led me to the question: Do I need to replace
the spark plugs?
I looked at the maintenance report from when the spark plugs had been replaced 3 years
ago. I found that they had been replaced with Denso skj20dr-m11 model plugs – the same
plugs recommended in the Honda user manual. On the manufacturer’s website, the
longevity specifications for this spark plug model is between 80,000 to 100,000 miles.
With the combined information I had obtained, I hypothesized that the engine light
