Hello Everyone,

I just want to ask what would be the best spark plugs to use for my 2004 Jaguar X Type 3.0? Is there any specific brands better for the X Type? Platinum, Double Platinum, or Iridium? Sorry if its a dumb question, I'm pretty new to these things...

 

Sylvester, lets first start by weeding out the ones you don't want. I say this because today, there are lots of spark plugs that will do exactly what you need.

As for what you don't want. This is pretty simple. If they advertise "multiple spark" or any other words essentially saying that it fires in different spots or multiple sparks at the same time, STAY AWAY!!!! Our cars seem to hate these plugs and will more than likely give you more problems that it will ever solve and the claim of "gain XX% in fuel efficiency" are fairly accurate if you change the word "gain" to loose.

The other plug that you want to stay away from is the $0.99 plug that is your classic plug for a 1970's car. You know the non-platinum, cheapo plugs. With they work in your car. Yes. But, plan on replacing them every 30K miles if not more often because of the high energy coils in the car. After replacing the plugs, you will understand why spending a little more on the plugs will make complete sense. 4 sets of plugs at $0.99 each or 1 set of plugs at $2.99 each over the same period of time.

As for what you want, the whole double platinum, platinum, etc are all pretty much saying the same thing. Only when you get into the iridium plugs is there a difference and in the big scheme of things as I see it, they are still on par with each other (ok, the iridium plugs last a bit longer, but at 100K miles between plug changes, are you even going to have your car still then?). So, a (double) platinum plug is what you are after. From there, stick with a known name: Champion, NGK, Bosch, etc. The quality will be there and the cost is right in line with most of the others.

The one final thing that I will say and this is probably the most critical is DO NOT TRUST THE FACTORY GAPPING!!!!!!!! End of story, lets of guys here that will tell you the horrors of trusting the gapping. Two issues. The bigger being that over time, Jaguar put out a TSB about gapping the plugs to a different distance (should now be 0.052" vice the original 0.044" as I recall). This was done to get a more consistant spark over the life of the plugs. The other being that you don't know how hard the plugs have been handled and whether or not the gap has been altered. A small difference can make a cylinder run different than the others, making the car do funny things.

 

The Bosch plugs I just bought for my tune up are gaped at .052.

Gee