Tempest fine wire - issues

[tmo]

When did they move it in-house?  IOW, which plugs should be avoided?

[Yetti]

I would say moved in house prior to May 2018.

Here is the date code of mine that failed in May 2018.     Purchased in I believe Jan or Feb of the same year from A S

[Tempest]

[carusoam]

Hey, the Tempest guy is here!

Best regards,

-a-

[gsxrpilot]

I've got almost 1000 hours on the 12 Tempest fine wires, in my 252. All electrodes still intact. Fingers crossed, but so far so good.

[Krawietz]

Just found 2 more Tempest fine wires center electrodes missing in an IO550.  Found another one missing the electrode in an O-320.

Talked to Tempest, they asked for photo and issued RMA to return them for examination.  They did not offer a replacement.  Acted like this is the first they have heard about the problem. 

[Bunti]

6 minutes ago, Krawietz said:

Just found 2 more Tempest fine wires center electrodes missing in an IO550.  Found another one missing the electrode in an O-320.

Talked to Tempest, they asked for photo and issued RMA to return them for examination.  They did not offer a replacement.  Acted like this is the first they have heard about the problem. 

This is not the first time they have heard of it. I had the same problem with one cylinder of my IO360 A1A engine and a Tempest fine wire spark plug!

[Schllc]

I remember reading this thread last year, and I had read of the issues tempest had with this, a few guys actually had valve damage. Neither tempest or champion were really available, I had to hunt them down and found champion first and bought them. 
they were close to double the price of the tempest. 
Is this an issue they have resolved and these are old stock, or is it an ongoing problem?

[Bunti]

My understanding is that Tempest had a quality issue with the center electrodes a while ago and it had been solved in between.  See the detailed information in the post from the Tempest company.

[Fly Boomer]

4 hours ago, Krawietz said:

Just found 2 more Tempest fine wires center electrodes missing in an IO550.  Found another one missing the electrode in an O-320.

Talked to Tempest, they asked for photo and issued RMA to return them for examination.  They did not offer a replacement.  Acted like this is the first they have heard about the problem. 

I agree with Stefan.  If this was the first time this had come up, they would have sent a pre-paid self-addressed box for you to send the plugs in, and a new set would already be on the way to you.  I thought the more common failure mode was losing the ground electrode.