Coils and Plugs Life

[LSV8FAN]

What is the typical time period that some of you need to replace coils and plugs on the 2nd gen V8? My records show that my LS had no coil/plug issues during the 1st 5 years/39K miles - then two coils were replaced; 3 years later - 1 coil; 7 months later - 2 coils; and 1 year later 4 coils (all 4 on drivers side). And now, 9 months later, looks like another trip to the dealer for coils. Grant you that because of the extended warranty, when one or more coils fail, they replace only the defective coils and plugs with OEM parts, not all. But, once all coils and plugs are replaced at once, what is the expected life before another replacement? My LS is driven about 6K miles per year, mostly suburban roads (35 to 50 mph), driven 4/7 days per week average.

 

[grizzlyls]

Here is my experience. Car has 100k on it, original owner kept all receipts, and gave them to me. 3 cops replaced at about 90k with in theory the plugs too. Now what I dont know is how many plugs. Thus shortly, I am going to replace all COPS, and I think I will the plugs too for good measure. So to your original question, my car was kept clean and maintained, and you see only 3 failures. I still dont have faith in the original in there though, so thus why one reason I will change, the other reason is I cant trust what the small town mech did.

Also, alot has to do with the quality of the cop. I think a few years back when the cops were coming from Hungary and such, they lasted longer. Even the Motorcrafts are chinese now, so if you want to go with a better controlled/designed unit, you will have to follow the posts about accel/msd in here.

 

[joegr]

My 06 went about 90K miles before there was a coil failure (the plastic mounting ear cracked on one).
My 04 went about 60K miles before a few coils went marginal. The current set has been in for about 120K miles. (I did change the spark plugs a while back.)

 

[cammerfe]

When I first started racing, my '02 Sport had 90K+ miles on it. I put in a set of Accel coils and a set of plugs just as a preventive measure. I'd had no problem but supposed the extra load caused by a dose of nitrous oxide and methanol could probably use a bit of help. We raced four weekends that summer and just before the fourth trip I replaced the plugs again. That was the weekend I set four records in two classes---and the fastest of those records still stands.

Those coils and those plugs are in the car to this day---at 160K miles.

KS

 

[04_Sport_LS]

I bought my LS with 75k on the clock... and it strted dropping coils shortly after that. So I went to the LPS and bought 8 coils, (USA made), with lifetime warranty... and 8 plugs. When I went to change everything, I noticed that 2 coils had already been replaced with Motorcraft parts. I'm now coming up on 100k since changing everything,,, without a hiccup. But then again... I left the coil covers off. All they do is make the engine look pretty, and trap heat... which shortens the life of the coils.

 

[04_Sport_LS]

I meant 100k on the replacement parts. I should have said... now coming up on 175k

 

[LSV8FAN]

Thank you all for your feedback. I just had one more coil fail last week - 1st failure on cyl #1. So, in the past 2 years / 9k miles all coils and plugs have been replaced; we'll see how long it will go until the next failure. The LS has now just over 70k miles.

 

[04_Sport_LS]

Do yourself a favor and leave the coil covers off, (if you can live with the look). As long as the seal between the hood and cowl is doing it's job, you wont have to worry about water getting to the coils, (as long as you don't go deep sea driving). Even with the coil covers on... if the cowl/hood seal is leaking,,, the water will drip on the coil harness and migrate under the coil covers. IIRC Ford had a TSB about this problem.

 

[Ron Sircar]

How do you test to see if a coil is good? is it simply a continuity or resistance check with a multimeter?

 

[joegr]

How do you test to see if a coil is good? is it simply a continuity or resistance check with a multimeter?

Not at all. The problem is internal high voltage breakdown. You have to run the coil and verify the correct discharge under adverse circumstances to determine if it is marginal or not.
Here is how to test: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...KAHUDQlbQ&sig2=klI9cdBuBphTRDM73S015Q&cad=rja

 

[Ron Sircar]

Not at all. The problem is internal high voltage breakdown. You have to run the coil and verify the correct discharge under adverse circumstances to determine if it is marginal or not.
Here is how to test: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...KAHUDQlbQ&sig2=klI9cdBuBphTRDM73S015Q&cad=rja

Thanks once again for the advice, BTW I figured out my MAF issue, a small spider decided the slot sensor was a good place to spin a web and live, a few squirts of MAF cleaner got it working again, still have a check engine light though