What would you do?

[soccerplayer2007]

Hey LvC. Quick question for you. I have the following real life scenario:

I have a 2003 Lincoln LS Premium Sport with ~136,000 miles on it. I owe roughly $3,000 on it. With it, I'm getting about 24mpg, mostly highway 44mi a day.

Today, it started missing and the check engine light starts flashing, then goes away. My first thought was great (OK, not actually). I had this problem two years ago at around 80,000 (I use to put 90 miles on it per day), which was fixed under warranty.

Money wise, I don't have a problem spending $800 or so (is that a good estimate to replace the COPs?) to fix the problem. However, I'm leaning towards getting one of the ~40mpg cars that are out there (Forte, Focus, Cruze) or perhaps even a used Civic.

What would you do?

 

[BlackLS06]

LOL...screw a civic.

I dont care about mpg to be honest i love my car. You want a car payment on a used 4 cyl?? Or a paid off luxury car thats not a common everyday car?

 

[pektel]

If you want a good mileage car, buy a used 4 banger for to/from work. But definitely keep the LS.

If you want your mind made up easier, go test drive one of those economy cars.

 

[Rich88LSC]

Coils are easy to change and realtively cheap if you use the auction site. To me it's a no brainer to fix the car.

 

[soccerplayer2007]

Coils are easy to change and realtively cheap if you use the auction site. To me it's a no brainer to fix the car.

That may be what I look into first. Revisiting the tech article on how to accomplish that makes it look pretty easier. For some reason was thinking it was harder and more involved than that. Perhaps I was remembering the V6 version.

All-in-all Just curious as to what you guys thought. I by all means love my lincoln and the luxuries that come with it. However, having been in some of the newer high mpg cars, they do have some pretty nice offerings.

 

[1LoudLS]

well you can spend around $100 per coil at the dealer, or much less from Max, or about $120 for a full set shipped from Ebay.

however, if you drive it too much while the CEL is flashing, your repair bill will be much much higher.


it takes less than 30 mins to change the passenger side, and maybe an hour for the drivers side.

 

[joegr]

Be sure to change the spark plugs too. The bad coil(s) could have damaged the plugs, or it could be that the problem is a bad plug that has damaged a coil. Either way, the safe thing to do is to replace them as a set.

Worst case DIY, it should be about $500 for factory plugs and coils from Max.

 

[soccerplayer2007]

Be sure to change the spark plugs too. The bad coil(s) could have damaged the plugs, or it could be that the problem is a bad plug that has damaged a coil. Either way, the safe thing to do is to replace them as a set.

Worst case DIY, it should be about $500 for factory plugs and coils from Max.

Thanks for the advice.

As far as the coils, I'm assuming all aren't created equal.

On ebay I'm seeing part numbers C517-6, DG515 and DG516. Any idea on which is best? From a search on the forum it appears that that it doesn't really matter.