Spark plug NGK or OEM Mazda

I got a new set put in some NGK’s.

Yeah, NGK's are great. Get the best you think you can afford.

I like NGK's iridium spark plugs personally

NGK FR6AHX-S 94279

NGK Laser iridium. Buy from a real distributor like Rock Auto.

I went with NGK plugs and coil packs at about 95k miles on my 2.5. I'm about 40k miles later and. It's still running great.

On a 2.0T it's pretty darn easy. The Gen 3+ engines have the bolted down coil packs with the ground wires/nuts, which can be tricky. You might need to counter hold with a thin style wrench, but other than that it's fairly straight forwards. I'd be sure to use only legit plugs from reputable sellers--there are a surprising number of counterfeit NGK (and Bosch and Denso) plugs out there. Fake plugs can cause more than just pesky misfires too, they can break off in-chamber and cause catastrophic engine and/or turbo charger damage. Not worth it to save a few bucks and potentially end up in ruin. NGK are the OE most of the time so getting the Laser Platinum or Ruthenium HX are recommended. Whether or not you want to replace the coils is up to you. I'd say it's too new for that and if you don't have a ton of miles on it, probably not necessary. The spark plug interval on these engines is comically short too--I'm not sure why VAG does that but they do that across the board on their engines. The original plugs will go for 2x the specified interval without any issue at all. If you are not super high miles and you pull them out and see "they look just fine"? Don't be surprised because they probably *will* be just fine. That said if you're still under warranty (base or extended), change them as specified.

Also I like the NGK sparkplugs more than Bosch.

Had some problems with Bosch plugs once.

There is 0 performance or ignition upgrade to the ruthenium compared to motorcraft OEM ones. I tested the 2 back and forth for several weeks and saw no noticeable improvement in either. The car ran the exact same. Rutheniums run like $50 ish a set, motorcraft I can find for around $25 a set, no brainer, motorcraft. I am also stock. Don’t buy into the hype like I did.

Ngks are fine but be careful with them. I myself ran these and changed them at 10k intervals. I met someone at a car meet who recommended 5k intervals w these n I didn’t understand till my engine was gone. They can foul up and break inside the cylinder. Granted in my case it was my fault but it’s happened a few times w other ppl.