james:

a loose or under-torqued plug will overheat due to poor heat tranfer, and
that may be what caused the broken electrode.

i doubt the missing pieces will cause any harm.

i use O2-sensor safe anti-sieze, and torque plugs to spec.

dan

On Sun, 9 Jan 2005 17:12:00 -0800, James V <tornadored@EARTHLINK.NET>
wrote:

>After my van suddenly lost power, I found that one of the spark plugs
>(right/rear) was loose.  Before tightening it, I pulled it: The tip is
gone
>and one of the "electrodes" (bosch tri-electrode) is broken off.
>
>Would simply being loose cause the plug to break this way?
>
>I figure it wouldn't be such a good idea to simply replace the plug with
>broken bits in there...  So, what now?
>
>Thanks,
>
>James V
>90 Carat