I'm thinking about replacing the spark plugs myself to save a few labour shekels, I have a pretty good idea of how to get at them, but I am stumped at Step 1.
How the hell do you remove the SC coolant lines?
I have fiddled and fiddled and fiddled with them and there must be a knack or a trick to releasing them, but buggered if I can figure out what it is.
Marked "X2" in the top pic in this excerpt from the Service Manual:

 

How many kilometres do you have on the vehicle that they need replacing?

 

Just over 39,000 km, but according to the service schedule they are due to be replaced at three years, and three years is up on 15 Jan 2018.
The existing plugs are probably perfectly OK but I want to keep the servicing "by the book" for warranty and resale reasons. The car is booked in for the three year service on 15 Jan 2018, with an independent mechanic.
That said, I don't intend to sell the car for many years and I will be doing all future servicing and simple maintenance myself, so now I am in two minds about getting the plugs renewed just yet (I already have a set of brand new plugs ready to fit) as the labour cost will probably be fairly steep, hence the reason for starting this thread.

 

It should be as simple as pulling back on the locks photo'd here and pulling away from the supercharger. They will just pop off:



Then you have to fish the plastic rubber cover out past all of the lines. Its a huge pain in the *** on the driver's side and an even bigger pain to properly install once finished. After that's done, you'll need to remove the bolts from the coil packs:





As you can see, the coil nearest the strut tower on the drivers side has almost no clearance. You'll need something like this for cylinder 4 and 8:




Took me 5 hours total. Good luck...

 

Thanks Stohlen.
I have a measly V6 so getting at the rear coil pack screws shouldn't be as hard as it is on the V8.
When you say "pulling back on the locks" what exactly do you mean?
I already tried pulling on those connections as hard as I physically could and they didn't budge a micron. They push in a couple of mm so I thought that might be the trick, but it didn't make any difference. I tried levering the top clips (well they seem to be clips) with a screwdriver and that didn't work either.

 

They might be pushers, i can't remember. However once you disengage the locks they pop right off with a little effort; while holding the lock disengaged of course. You shouldn't need any additional tools, don't want to break those.

 

They are push/pull. Squeeze the tabs...push the connector in. You will feel it slip over the lip of the fitting. Then pull if off (squeezing the tabs the whole time). When you do it, it will freak you out how easy it was....or maybe I am easily impressed. Take lots of pics and write this one up !!!!

I am about to plug chop soon so it will help to see the steps. Happy wrenching and Merry Christmas

 

Thanks Cherry.
I thought is was something like "squeeze and push", but exactly where do you squeeze? I tried squeezing in various places including what appears to be the tabs and nothing moved that I could feel.

 

OK, I went back out and had another fiddle with those damn coolant pipes, and still no go, I couldn't budge any of them. Squeeze, tug, push, pull you name it nothing worked!
Also, I don't have a tool like that shown in pic #3 of post #4, and I'm fairly sure the tools I do have that in theory will undo the coil plug bolts won't fit in the constricted space available. Maybe the same problem of not enough room with a 14 mm plug socket too, and then there is the hassle of getting those pesky rubber covers off then back on again.
Last but not least the car has only just done 39,000 km and Iridium plugs are supposed to easily last 100,000 km so I really doubt they need changing for ages yet, despite the service schedule saying that on a V6S they should be changed at 3 years.
I reckon I'll give this job a miss and save the new plugs I have for waaaay down the track.

 

It's interesting that the maintenance guide that came with my car says 6 years/96,000 miles for all F-types, but later versions have the 3 year requirement for our V6S.

The updated guide has 3 year/48,000 miles (78,000km). I would assume that spark plugs are like air filters - it's more the miles than the time.

Not sure if I'll change mine next spring @ 5 years/40,000 miles; probably.

 

I'm going to change mine at 3 years ... if the free maintenance covers it ;-))

 

Oz...its simple. You squeeze the tabs...push the connector in...and slide it out. I just went and did it on my car with no gloves and they slid right out.

 

I look at a lot of Jaguar maintenance schedule posts and that immediately seemed excessive.

There is inconsistency in the published schedules but the shortest figure I can find for the F-Type is every 6 Years OR 96K Miles:



No harm in over zealous servicing but unless you do a lot of short trips, the original plugs should be good for another three years.

Graham

 

Yep, that's my thinking Graham and why I have decided not to bother with a spark plug change for a few years yet.

 

Resurrecting an old thread, but I couple of pointers for reducing the psychological damage this job will do.

1) Drop the splash guard or have the 'magnet on a stick' handy to retrieve that thing you will drop down there.

2) Start on the oil fill cap side to get that soul crushing experience out of the way first.

Also, for reinstalling the rubber covers, there are black pins on the block which fit into the indents on the cover, find those and they can help guide you.

 

I finally got around to changing the plugs on my V8 S as it's now six years old, and the biggest pain by far was this rubber cover. I left the driver's side cover off for now as I couldn't figure out how to slide it past the ignition coils without accidentally breaking something. If anyone has tips on proper installation method, please do share.

Otherwise, with a proper , a couple of , and a cheap , changing the plugs wasn't that hard. Just make sure you don't buy a spark plug socket with a 12" extension like I first did, because it won't bend enough to access the last driver's side plug!

I used this with a standard 1" T30 bit for the ignition coil screws, but even then there wasn't enough room to completely open two of them on the driver's side, and I had to resort to using pliers to gently unscrew them. I'm not sure if shorter Torx bits exist, but I sure couldn't find any from Amazon.

Note that on the passenger side, which the workshop manual doesn't talk about, the ignition coils are "upside down" and the screws are at the top, which makes it easier to access them. Or would make it easier, if there wasn't a wiring harness with a plastic tray covering the screws. I unplugged the coils before removing the tray, and was able to access the screws and squeeze out the coils by gently pulling the tray down. I did find it easier to access the plugs by putting the tray back up though.


Passenger side coil screws are under the plastic tray.

Nevertheless, the passenger side plugs were far easier to change, and even the rubber cover wasn't much of a problem there. Of course, the plugs I pulled out still look perfectly fine after ~13k miles, so I'm sure this is one job that doesn't really have to be done after six years unless you have racked up plenty of miles.