# Warning / Counterfeit / FAKE NGK Spark Plugs On eBay or Amazon



## CedarburgTDI (Jul 14, 2014)

I had no idea that this was even a thing...

Enterprising folks are copying and producing fake / counterfeit NGK Laser Iridium Spark Plugs and selling them to unsuspecting buyers on eBay or even Amazon. Buyers will have better luck getting authentic plugs if they buy from Amazon and the item is marked as "Sold and Fulfilled by Amazon". Or, just buy from a brick and mortar parts store.

I unknowingly sourced (6) NGK ILZKR7A Spark Plugs a year ago from eBay and installed them at 60K miles on my 3.6 VR6. I found out last week that the plugs were fakes.

About a month ago I started getting random misfires. After detailing the issue in this thread here:

https://forums.vwvortex.com/showthr...Quick-From-Stop-Suggestions&highlight=Misfire

I pulled the spark plugs and checked them last month and noted the gap was pretty far out of spec (weird for only being a year in), so I gapped them and reinstalled and the problem went a way for a few weeks. Last week I had another misfire, so I chalked it up to a bad batch of spark plugs and resigned to buy and install a new set. After finding my plugs on Amazon, I noticed in the description that they were listing all kinds of features so that the end user could verify legitimacy of the spark plugs. I found that odd, and then I read more about NGK dealing with this problem for several years! There are many websites detailing what to look for on the packaging and the actual plugs, just do some googling "FAKE NGK Spark Plugs".

I was shocked.

I pulled out my spark plug cartons that my plugs had come in last year (because of course I kept the cartons - haha). The cardboard cartons had all the hallmarks of the fakes. The color gradient was off on the "Iridium Logo", the standards seals were wrong or not present, the NGK website was not listed on the carton, and yellow exclamation triangle on the carton was not yellow on my fakes!

In order to source real plugs, I bought another set of 6 from Amazon (sold and fulfilled by Amazon) and a single plug from Auto Zone as a control for comparison. All the new plugs were legit, real NGK. Do yourself a favor and research this topic more on the web, and study my photos below. Don't buy fakes, their price is too good to be true.


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## OEMplusCC (Jan 27, 2013)

Interesting... thanks for sharing!

I would also think that buying from "euro parts" websites is also save.


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