This is Ridiculous

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Fastbird

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Ok, as most of you know, I purchased a 00 LS8 for my fiancee on 17 December. On 23 December, a bad under load miss which was causing a lack of acceleration capability reared it's head. Turned out it was coil #3. So after spending a week in the shop, and a lot of heartache with the warranty company (which I've started the cancellation process for a refund) we got the car back last thursday, one week ago. Last night, I went to pass a guy in town after driving the car for less than 15 minutes, and guess what? EXACT same symptoms as before! Car ran up to 4K RPM and just stopped. Now the dealership told me it was fixed and they weren't showing any problems. I think that they just didn't drive the car long enough to let the ignition system totally warm up enough for a misfire to present itself (the tranny and fuel systems checked out 100% good).

So, I figure no biggie, let my fiancee drive it to work today. then in comes the phone call: "Dear, the car broke down and I'm stranded." :mad: Turns out the car wouldn't accelerate past about 20 MPH, and as she was pulling into a hotel parking lot, the steering wheel just locked (motor shut off). I get there and the car fires right up, but I"m not driving it anywhere. tow truck is coming later and it's getting towed to MY HOUSE where I'M going to fix it.

If I was a gold member on here, how much would a complete coil pack run me??? I thought I saw something about $36 but I want to make sure. Reason I ask is because the current plan is to find out what needs replacing, and doing a plug change while I'm at it, and then we're most likely going to sell the car. Too much trouble in too little of time. Not 100% sure yet, but it's likely.

thanks for the help everyone! :Beer
 
eL eS said:
is the car spontaneously shutting down?
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I can't say for sure because I haven't driven it today, but it sounds like it did when she pulled into the hotel parking lot.

It doesn't show any SES lights on the dash, and she said she never saw one either. I should be hitting it with my buddies Auto X-Ray scanner tomorrow to see if that will shed any light on the subject.
 
I think what's happening is the same thing as before, the longer the car is running the hotter the ignition coils get and the more the performance is degraded. Once I get a scanner on it I'll be able to have a better look.
 
not familiar with that scanner but if it can pull realtime sensor data on ford extended obdII code you are golden.
 
It's one of the universal Auto X-Ray scanners (the $500 model) with all the various OBDII manufactures interfaces. It should work.
 
So anyone know how much the Gold Members pricing for coils is??? Katie has already told me she REALLY doesn't want to get rid of the car but if it's going to continue to be a hassle she will. I figure if I can get it fixed we'll end up keeping it going off of what she said.
 
check fordpartsonline.com and fordpartsnetwork.com as well they typically offer about the same discount off of retail oem parts.
 
Sorry to hear you are still having problems. We have been living parallel lives with different cars. We sold my wife's Intrigue to the dealer a few days ago and my wife is driving my LS. :( Gotta love cars. The only way to get them fixed is to do it yourself. I just didn't want to work on that GM FWD POS. No offense to other GM owners.
 
Fastbird said:
So anyone know how much the Gold Members pricing for coils is??? Katie has already told me she REALLY doesn't want to get rid of the car but if it's going to continue to be a hassle she will. I figure if I can get it fixed we'll end up keeping it going off of what she said.
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Just go to rockauto.com I bought 2 ford coils for mine for $36 each plus shipping. They are pretty good to deal with. If you have a business, or a place you can ship to, you can get a discount on the shipping.

It's odd that your car ate the #3 coil, so did mine. I also have to replace the #5 (that's my 2nd coil) I'm not changing it until I change out the valve cover gasket on the driver's side. By the way, I did my passenger side in about 2 hours.... 5 hours a side, HA!!!!
 
The OTC genysis, or the Ford NGST will tell you in real time which coil is malfunctioning and when, not sure if the computer you have will. But, another idea: If you have access to a infrared (non contact) thermometer, remove the covers on both sides for the coils, and drive the car for a while, and read the temp on all of the coils and compare.
 
kleetus said:
By the way, I did my passenger side in about 2 hours.... 5 hours a side, HA!!!!
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You DA MAN! That's gotta be a record. But.......... how many beers did you consume during that job? :Beer
 
kleetus said:
It's odd that your car ate the #3 coil, so did mine. I also have to replace the #5 (that's my 2nd coil) I'm not changing it until I change out the valve cover gasket on the driver's side. By the way, I did my passenger side in about 2 hours.... 5 hours a side, HA!!!!
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Good time. I spent 30 minutes just cleaning up the bolts, cover, and surfaces! Of course, I took some pictures along the way for the site I haven't posted yet. :) I spent probably another 30 extra minutes cleaning the coils and connectors and such also. I guess I am slow.
 
mikepietras04 said:
If you have access to a infrared (non contact) thermometer, remove the covers on both sides for the coils, and drive the car for a while, and read the temp on all of the coils and compare.
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Whoa! Good idea, if it is failing enough. I knew that thermometer we got for my son would come in handy!
 
lsbit said:
I just didn't want to work on that GM FWD POS. No offense to other GM owners.
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That's funny, as this is the first Ford car I've EVER owned. All others but my daily beater have been GM (still have three currently actually) and I've NEVER experienced a "rash" of problems on those.

I don't think I'll be able to scan the car until Sunday at the earliest, so hopefully I'll be able to show something soon.
 
Fastbird said:
That's funny, as this is the first Ford car I've EVER owned. All others but my daily beater have been GM (still have three currently actually) and I've NEVER experienced a "rash" of problems on those.
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We all have different luck with different cars. I just don't like working on FWD cars.

Isn't the problem you are having still the original one that hasn't been fixed yet? Now that you are working on it yourself, I am sure you'll get it worked out.
 
lsbit said:
We all have different luck with different cars. I just don't like working on FWD cars.

Isn't the problem you are having still the original one that hasn't been fixed yet? Now that you are working on it yourself, I am sure you'll get it worked out.
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I'm sure it's another coil on the same side, but not the same coil. I'll know soon enough whether or not I can tell which coil(s) is bad. That's going to be the redeeming factor is if I can tell or not.
 
Well, got the car on the scanner today. That scanner show me jack s--t. It shows EVERYTHING I could want on my Trans Am's, but next to nothing on the Lincoln, go figure.

This was the first time driving the car since the latest problem, for me, and it was EXACTLY like the first time, only a LOT more pronounced and came on after about 5 minutes of driving.

I was in SST, and from a dig, throttle on the floor, took it to redline in first, second went to 6500 and then stopped, then the RPM's started dropping and the car started slowing. Once the RPM's had stabilized at about 4500 RPM and the car was still slowing, I upshift to 3rd and it starts pulling again up to about 4000 RPM when the same thing happens.

I NEED an easy way to find out what coils are the problems so I can fix those WITHOUT taking the car to the dealer, who conveniently wants to charge me $120 just for a diagnostic.
 
Go to autozone... I did. They plugged me into some cheap looking yellow handheld scanner, and said misfire condition on #3 and #5. Changed the passenger side valve cover gasket and #3, inspected the driver's side, no leaks (thank God) changed #5, car runs great.

Just for curiosity, I checked out the bad coils with a known good one, and electrically at room temp, they are identical. About .8 ohms on the primary (12v side) and I think it was about 5k Ohm on the secondary to the primary winding. Nothing to ground which kind of surprises me. I'll check them again tomorrow to be sure. I haven't tried baking one in the oven to see what changes... I'm just happy the car runs!
 
kleetus said:
Go to autozone... I did. They plugged me into some cheap looking yellow handheld scanner, and said misfire condition on #3 and #5. Changed the passenger side valve cover gasket and #3, inspected the driver's side, no leaks (thank God) changed #5, car runs great.

Just for curiosity, I checked out the bad coils with a known good one, and electrically at room temp, they are identical. About .8 ohms on the primary (12v side) and I think it was about 5k Ohm on the secondary to the primary winding. Nothing to ground which kind of surprises me. I'll check them again tomorrow to be sure. I haven't tried baking one in the oven to see what changes... I'm just happy the car runs!
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Were you throwing a MIL (SES) Light??? That's the one thing that I would LIKE to see at this point.
 
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