Jeep says no to Champion OEM plus

When did Jeep change there OEM plugs from Champion to NGK! Bought some from the dealership today for my Cherokee Limited 2001.The parts dude gave me the box of 6 to inspect and Whooo Nelly they were NGK's in Mopar boxes! I asked "Are you sure?" When the parts dude showed me the part number on his computer screen, there was a addendum note stating the change. When did this occur! What happened to the Champion RC 12 ECC. MOPAR/JEEP has replaced these plugs with NGK ZFR5N with V -groove! Either this is a money thing or the Champion plugs sucked. Comments, suggestions, what say you?

I know this will start much controversy and personally I dont care but I run NGK plugs in everything I own (all 3 XJ's, Harley, boat,lawnmower, snowblower,weed trimmer, chain saw ect.) I like them never had any fouling problems or any failure due to bad plugs. Now I know opnions are like a$$holes everyones got one so lets hear how everyone else hates NGK's.

My 01 came with Champeens. I replaced with Truck Champeens.
#4412 I think. It runs just great.

NGK are pretty good plugs, I ran them in my motorcycles. I haven´t done a resisitance check on the NGK´s but did notice, there was a marked difference in the plug resistance values from make to make (Bosch, Autolite and others), compared to OEM Champions. Could be the NGK are pretty close to the same values, but a marginally better plug.
My early XJ´s 88 and 96 both seem a little sensitive to the plug resistance values, I get fewer, low idle, misses with the Champs.
My plugs seem to last forever anyway, I change them every so often, but it is rarley really necessary to do so. A little re gap and a cleaning, they´d probably work for a couple of more years.

I have run OEM Champion plugs since new. But if thats what they're specing than use them. They spec a certain plug because it gives good performance. Yeah they want to save money but they aren't going to put something in there that doesn't work properly. For very long anyways.

I have Champions in my '01 right now but I can say for sure that NGK makes an awesome plug. I have been running them in my wife's subaru for almost 180k miles and they are absolutely flawless at 60k intervals (laser platinums). I don't know yet if I'll try NGK's in the XJ when I change the plugs this spring. The champions have performed pretty well over the last 25k, though I am starting to experience some harder starts. NGK v-groove are definately a good plug, I have seen them after 30k and they looked like new.

I just looked it up at www.sparkplugs.com and they list this OEM plug for '99-'01 only. My guess is that the NGK plugs hold up in the coil-on-plug wasted-spark ignition a little better. In a wasted-spark ignition half of the plugs fire one polarity and the other half fire the other polarity, causing them to wear differently.

FWIW I run NGK's or Bosch in all 4 VW's I own...

Every situation where I've had a miss it had nothing to do with the plugs..

My favorites are actually the Bosch Copper Super - Dual electrodes..

OEM for the 16v motor..

When I replace plugs in any car I try to get either the OEM plugs or the bosch super 2 electrode plugs...

I personally think Platinum plugs are like putting in new plugs with the spark consistancy of half worn out copper plugs. They last forever, but only at half efficiency..

For the most part you can get 2 sets of copper plugs for the price of one set of platinum... and for the first 10K miles the coppers burn some 30% hotter!

Not sure if the number of electrodes has as much effect as the manufacturers would have you believe.... But I like dual electrode plugs as opposed to triple or 4.... With duals you can still adjust the spark gap fairly accurately if you want to..

the distributorless (coil over plug) requires a platinum plug (the NGKs)

Those with distributors and plug wires will find that a platinum plug will run worse and can cause coils and ignition modules to fail... these need the old school plug,,, best iv'e found for the 4.0 is the champion truck plugs.

Personally and professionally I have found that champion plugs run very well in Mopar (jeeps included) but not in much else. Vice versa is also true..other brands (like AC Delco or Autolite) do not perform well in mopars.

Me too.

Not sure if this is why, but back when I bought mine and I went to alldata.com to do a recall search, I noticed there was a recall out for the spark plugs. The free version doesn't go into detail, but it did show they had been recalled.

Perhaps they had a problem with the origional OEM ones and then switched to better ones, and began calling them OEM. Not sure if the same recall applies to a 2001 or not, but it is for 99's.

What does "do not perform well in Mopars" mean ?

I've been using Autolite's in my Jeep since 1991 and never had any performance problems... of course they have never been dyno tested on my particular application so I can't elaborate...

Digger87xj said:

Personally and professionally I have found that champion plugs run very well in Mopar (jeeps included) but not in much else. Vice versa is also true..other brands (like AC Delco or Autolite) do not perform well in mopars.

Click to expand...

Digger87xj said:

the distributorless (coil over plug) requires a platinum plug (the NGKs)

Click to expand...

That's kind of weird, the plugs that are in my '01 I got from the dealer, and I just asked for plugs for an '01, I didn't ask for Champions specifically.

99XJSPORT06 said:

Not sure if this is why, but back when I bought mine and I went to alldata.com to do a recall search, I noticed there was a recall out for the spark plugs. The free version doesn't go into detail, but it did show they had been recalled.

Perhaps they had a problem with the origional OEM ones and then switched to better ones, and began calling them OEM. Not sure if the same recall applies to a 2001 or not, but it is for 99's.

Click to expand...

I have an alldata account for my '01, and it lists four recalls.

B06 020501 Recall - Intake Manifold Debris Shield
NHTSA02V104000 020401 Recall 02V104000: Manifold Shield Installation
NHTSA00V366000 001106 Recall 00V366000: Child Restraint Instructions Missing
957 001101 Recall - Child Restraint, Owner's Manual Update

Chapions were "low bidder". Do you really think they cared?LOL

When I worked as a Tech for GM in Germany, all Champion plugs were removed from the vehicles. Period. Draw your own conclusions.

Well I just looked at my records and those plugs have actually been in there not quite 20k miles. Based on the fact that I have been experiencing some relatively hard starting I'm not impressed with their longevity. I will hopefully get a chance this weekend to take a look at them.

I have tried many different tpyes of plugs also. From bosch, bosch platinum +1 all the way to +4's, autolites's and the regular old cheap champions still perform the best in my 01 XJ.

Don´t really know much about the coil on plug set up. but S-90, Dr. Dyno and others have mentioned that the ignition seems to work better with a near OEM resistance in the cables and plugs (they were set up that way orginally). I used to have a constant low idle miss, that wouldn`t go away. Finally switched in a OEM coil to cap wire and half of it disappeared, then switched back to Champs from Bosch (multi electrode) and it idles like a sewing machine (old motor questionable compression).
I now try to match the resistance to near OEM values from the coil to the cap and from the cap to the electrode on the end of the plug. Not being anal, but near OEM works well enough. The internal resistance in the Bosch and the the Champion plugs, weren´t even close to being the same.
Champions used to run like crap and rarley lasted in my Chev´s, running the Delco´s really made a noticeable difference.
I spent a lot of time on an ignition oscilliscope in my younger years, I now do it by ear (it´s not a race car).

People trash dealer parts because of price. I have found Chrysler has figured out there is money to be made selling parts to customers at prices competitive with the parts stores. I will say my Buick dealer prices things so you don't buy from them, price it so you go else where.

There one little thing people forget about dealer parts, they HAVE TO work BY LAW. The manufacturer has to provides replacement parts that work by Federal law. The parts from the parts stores don't have to live up to that standard, when you buy they most likely they will work.

Also auto companies usually have multiple sources for spare parts, sometimes one source in-house, the other one an outside company. When Chrysler buys spare parts they add on requirements that you and I never see. The vendor then makes parts for parts stores, they make a part they feel will work but may drop some of Chrysler's requirements.

I installed dealer purchased Champions in my 88 XJ in the past year. The general rule of spark plugs is "put in what it came with". When I buy my next set of plugs at 180K miles I'll go to the dealer again. If they hand me NKG I'll install them, if they hand me Champion I'll install them in my 88 XJ. Remember "dealer parts have to work by law".

If Chrysler changed vendors then it was because of some technical/quality issue. Price may figure into the decision but they give a 12 month/12K mile warranty on everything so they don't want parts coming back, they'll spend the money upfront to prevent that. Remember the labor to change those parts is also paid by chrysler if they were dealer installed.