seadog

Greetings from Noobville...

I have been having some rough idle/notchy accelleration problems with my truck lately ('01 F-150 4.6), so I took it to a tech friend of mine yesterday. He checked it out, and told me I need to replace the DPFE sensor and the coil on the #5 cylinder (you know...the one that's hard to reach).
So, I ran over to AutoZone and bought an aftermarket coil and sensor, and a new set of NGK plugs for good measure. Then I found this place...
While scouring the threads in this forum, I've seen several posts suggesting that these replacement parts are a bad idea, while others seem to indicate that they're just fine. What's the straight skinny here? Do I really need to return the aftermarket stuff and fork over the extra bucks for OEM hardware, or am I o.k. with what I have?

gemi64

You might as well use them, as i have gotten coil packs from AutoZone and could not return them. SO far so good, they work just fine.

Jim

tryan037

coil and sensor are ok. return the plugs and stick with motorcraft. you could really regret ngk's if you have to get you head fixed.

brochf

#5 is easy to get to its the front drivers side cylinders go as follows

5, 6, 7, 8 drivers side front to back

1, 2, 3, 4 passenger side front to back

seadog

Maybe your truck is different, but the #5 cylinder is a b***h to access on mine. Every system from air intake to power steering seems to have some piece of apparatus that wants to keep your hands and your tools away from where they need to go. Two extensions, two u-joints, and twenty minutes just to get the bloody spark plug out. Nobody is ever going to confuse me with Bob Osborne when it comes to spinning a wrench, but still...
At any rate, I went with the aftermarket coil (although I re-used the boot from the OEM unit, because the one on the replacement part was flimsy and loose-fitting), but I switched back to the Motorcraft plugs and DPFE sensor. The truck is running great, and the CEL has not reappeared after a 200 mile day that included towing my boat from Boston to Cape Cod. So far, so good.

zacknolden

Any updates for this man? I would like to see if I still need to see my mechanic or just do y myself.