SamMcClurg

Hey everyone.. hopefully someone will be of help to me because the dealership has been absolutely none, all theyve done is take my money. A few weeks back I noticed that my truck was beginning to jerk when i am driving at a steady 45-50mph and I accelerate. Took it to the dealer and they said spark plug in cylinder 8 but i had just gotten them replaced around 14k miles ago so they said ignition coil. they replaced it along with fuel and air filters, problem not fixed after $450 dollars. took it back today and they hooked it up to a scanner and drove it, said it was loose spark plug in cylinder 1 and bad coil in 5 and 1...$350 dollars later, drive it off the lot and test it, what do ya know not fixed. Im done with the bills and I'm doing it myself like i should have. anybody have ideas on how i should go about this? Im pretty positive its coils and possibly spark plugs.

sorry for the long post, very frustrated as of right now

BadFish523

If you have an android phone or tablet then,


Get this.... https://www.amazon.com/BAFX-Products...ords=bafx+obd2


And the Torque PRO app. Total cost is less than $30 and you can then drive it and have a passenger monitor what's happening and see where the miss is happening at. I would never pay someone to replace a coil. Its very simple to do and I'm a firm believer in reworking the coils before ever buying a new one. Then after you figure out what is acting up come back here to this thread and tell us what you find. We can give you some pretty good ideas of where to start. Or just jump in and rework ALL the coils at once and see if that fixes your problem.

nrivera04

I'd be suspect of possibly a cracked plug somewhere. Were the boots and springs also changed at the tine the plugs were?

Dirttracker18

Well it is a crap shoot unless you have a scanner with live data and that can read all engine parameters. Most cheap scan tools cannot. Attempting to do this yourself without the tools for diagnostics is just guessing and throwing parts at it and hoping for the best.

I have to ask a couple of questions, why would you take a truck this old to the dealer anyway? They always have a much higher cost per hour then an indy dealer.

Secondly, you noted the plugs were changed not long ago. What brand plugs did you put in and why did you change them?

Finally, you need a shop you can trust that really knows their stuff. It sounds like the dealer was guessing and tossing parts at it instead of doing a proper diagnosis.

COPs are pretty cheap now, you can get an entire set for a reasonable price and change them all. For the price, if you really want to tackle this yourself, it is a good place to start. However there are so many small problems that new COPs can mask, again its a crap shoot.

Good luck I hope you manage to figure it out if you take this on yourself.

garden spyder

I took mine to a dealership under warranty in may, and they found it had bad spark plugs and COPs on cylinder 3 and 7. They replaced them, and it fixed it.


Same exact thing you are describing.

SamMcClurg

I am saying f the dealer. My cousin had the same issue so we replaced the coil on cylinder 4 hoping it would fix it like it did with his truck, and it improved the power imo and the jerk is slightly less. In the morning I may head to autozone and just get 4 more coils and change the ones that are left..

SamMcClurg

To answer your question about why I'd take it to the dealer, I really am not sure, if I would've known it was this simple of a problem I would've done it myself..I was thinking at first it was something with the transmission so I was trying to be safe and ended up being bit in the ***. As for the plugs, they had never been changed I don't believe before I bought the truck so I took it to tireman and had them all done for a good price, I'm assuming they used motocraft plugs. Luckily none of the originals broke on the way out. But they were changed because I was getting engine misfires. Tomorrow I'm going to change another coil that I suspect that could be it and if it isn't that coil I will just do them all (or what's left). I'm positive it's the coils I just don't know which one or all of them for that matter if that could be the case too.

SamMcClurg

At the dealer they hooked up the scanner and found one bad plug that was actually loose but other than that the plugs were okay, and they should be they're only 14k miles old. I've read quite a few places that just one coil can cause this problem so for me it's a matter of finding out which coil is causing a misfire around 45-55 out of cylinder 2,3,6 or 7

techrep

iTrader: (1)

It's people like you that the shops love.. you don't know what brand plugs were installed and evidently the job was not done correctly due to the plug found loose.. boots and springs should of been replaced at the same time plugs were.. this could be why they are saying cop's are bad..using cheap inferior parts will not help you out. Troubleshooting by swapping cop,s and checking DTC's would save lots of money.. the $800 you spent already would of replaced all 8 plugs.. boots and springs and coils all motorcraft parts

SamMcClurg

Well I have an update. I went ahead and changed the coils in the remaining 4 cylinders and I took it out to test drive it, still does it but the force of the jerk has been reduced greatly.. now I'm thinking that its a spark plug somewhere that could have damage.. no check engine light so I'm not sure if it would throw out a code or not.. going back to school tomorrow so i may have to deal with it until i have time to change the plugs if i decide that.