Protege5 Cylinder 3 misfire, spark plugs

[03protege5]

Welp,

Backstory. I drive the car about 100 miles a day with 90 percent being highway. Car has just over 128,000 on it and when I got home from work after running the highway, I noticed a low idle at the light (not uncommon). Pulled in the driveway, went back out after about an hour and when I pulled up to the intersection again the check engine light came on. Seemed to drive fine for the most part so I checked with advanced auto and had them pull the code and it was the cylinder 3 misfire

My questions is what spark plugs are best to use? I saw some people say to use the NGK ZFR5F-11s but they aren’t for our cars then the manual says NGK BKR5E-11 V-Power.

Any difference in those? I had a Subaru before this and misfires terrify me. Subaru ended up being a bad head gasket

Thanks for any help

 

[03protege5]

Well decided to order everything I need before really diving into if it’s a misfire or something worse

I got 4 of the v power NGK bkr5e as well as NGK wires. I also went ahead and got two hitachi ignition coils as well to do at the same time. Am I missing anything? I wanted to try the ZFR5F-11 cause I saw they are longer so they sit further down thus giving some slight benefit but decided against it. May end up going with those longer ones on the next go round

 

[Saudade]

I had a random misfire on #1 on my 2003 P5. Found signs of arcing on the boot and, upon closer inspection, saw a small crack in the housing. I was able to use some electrical tape to get it running until I was able to replace them.

 

[katapaltes]

Well decided to order everything I need before really diving into if it’s a misfire or something worse

I got 4 of the v power NGK bkr5e as well as NGK wires. I also went ahead and got two hitachi ignition coils as well to do at the same time. Am I missing anything? I wanted to try the ZFR5F-11 cause I saw they are longer so they sit further down thus giving some slight benefit but decided against it. May end up going with those longer ones on the next go round

I've had a few misfires on my P5 over the last 21 years, and I think they've all been fixed by replacing the coils. The Hitachi coils you got are the OEM part, they're the best replacements, and they will last a long time (vs. Autozone coils that will invariably puke after a short time, regardless of any lifetime warranty).

If you look on this forum, you'll definitely find advice on spark plugs. IIRC, the recommendation is not to get adventurous and to just use the standard plug.