2000 F150 - coil or boot replacement

[Brent_G]

Tonight I just finished replacing all spark plugs in my truck. All the plugs and 7 of the coils are original with 140k and hundreds of idle hours. Old plugs had .090 to over .100 gap and the truck had noticeable misfire cold and under load.
I reused all the coil and boots after cleaning and there is no misfire under load. However some of the boots were looking quite rough but with no visible carbon traces or damage. I am wondering if it is worth replacing coils and boots or if just boots would be sufficient. Truck is a daily driver and in perfect mechanical order. Until recently however matience was non existing and I have just got it caught up.

I am going to replace the boots in the next month or so, should I do coils as well or just replace as needed?

 

[bdcardinal]

I would do at least the boots on every cylinder.

F7TZ-12A402-AA is the P/N for the boot.

3W7Z-12029-AA is the P/N for the coils.

FWIW when I replaced the intake on my mom's Grand Marquis with around 115k miles I replaced all the coils with new Motorcraft ones.

 

[AdRock]

Look for Visteon coils. They're Fords brand overseas. They're Ford parts just under a different name. I replaced all the COPs in my 2002 Mustang with the Visteons for $175 rather than $400 for them branded as Motorcraft. Perfect fit and have been working great. I got mine off of Amazon.

 

[Brent_G]

Definitely all ignition parts will be motorcraft, we have learned with all our 6.8, and 5.4 trucks that aftermarket doesn't last.

Main thing is the cost. Truck has been amazing with reliability, and I don't like wasting money throwing away good things. At the same time getting shop space can take a few days, and I can't say I really want to do coils in -40.

 

[Brent_G]

Originally Posted By: AdRock
Look for Visteon coils. They're Fords brand overseas. They're Ford parts just under a different name. I replaced all the COPs in my 2002 Mustang with the Visteons for $175 rather than $400 for them branded as Motorcraft. Perfect fit and have been working great. I got mine off of Amazon.


I'll take a look at those. Cost is the main reason I haven't did coils and only aftermarket brand we have ever used is OReilly bwd which lasted about as long as a oci.

 

[Vikas]

Won't computer let you know when the coil dies? coil itself is not a maintenance item with specified miles/years life.

 

[AdRock]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Won't computer let you know when the coil dies? coil itself is not a maintenance item with specified miles/years life.


Well it won't let you know the coil died specifically. It will just register a misfire ant turn on the CEL. The coils might not be considered a maintenance item but they do start to get weak after a while.

Mine were ok for the most part. But I decided to replace them when i replaced the intake due to a small coolant leak. There was a noticeable difference with the new coils in there. Mileage went up some, smoother idle and acceleration.

 

[yonyon]

Originally Posted By: AdRock
Originally Posted By: Vikas
Won't computer let you know when the coil dies? coil itself is not a maintenance item with specified miles/years life.


Well it won't let you know the coil died specifically. It will just register a misfire ant turn on the CEL.


This is true enough. When a Ford starts throwing a P035X DTCs to try and tell you a coil died it usually means the PCM itself is ill.

 

[ford46guy]

Make sure the torque on those plugs is on the ball! No joke on that engine. If you have a scan tool you can monitor misfire counts on that engine. If everything is in spec and they are low you can leave the boots and coils be. Then again it is not a bad PM to replace all that at this age.

 

[Vikas]

I don't even think the coil got replaced as a maintenance item in good old days when you only had one single coil for the entire engine. When that coil died, you would be stranded. Even then nobody replaced the coil just because it reached a certain milestone. With eight coils in your engine, when one dies, you can still make it home.

Having said that, I do have a brand new spare coil along with the hex key need to replace the coil stowed in the trunk of the minivan.

 

[ford46guy]

Those COPs are subject to much more heat and abuse than a coil that sits away from the engine.

 

[artificialist]

Sometimes the wiring in a coil fails in such a way that at cold temperatures, everything is close enough together to function normally, but when things heat up, the expansion causes the weakest wire to break away, leaving that coil with no spark.

Diagnosing it isn't easy.