Bad Motorcraft Plug?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jul 15, 2003
Messages
3,605
Location
MN
My son is driving my old 97 F-150 5.4L with about 200K at college. Lately the original coils are starting to go. He gets a flashing check engine light for a particular cylinder and we change out the coil and the plug and all is good. I know I should do them all but the way this winter has been I haven't felt like it and was hoping the rest could be changed in warmer weather. I changed out cylinder 1 coil and plug and cleared the codes and all was good for about a week and he called me and said it was acting up and missing again on the same cylinder. I changed the coil and it still was missing, so then we changed the plug and it was fixed. Glad it was cylinder 1 and not 4 or 8 because those are a bear to get at! Took 10 min to fix.

I think this is the first time that I have ever had a plug go bad after a few hundred miles. Plug was a Motorcraft. Anyone else have this happen? Is quality going down?
 
Honestly I think its probably more of an isolated incidence than a trend. I had a bad AC Delco plug back in the late 70's, meaning one that actually just died shortly after installing it. I have not had another one since.
Plenty of short lived plugs, early excess gap erosion and the rest of it but that's not what we are talking about.
 
I agree with Trav, it's most likely an isolated incidence. I've been using Motorcraft spark plugs in my Ford vehicles for 39 years and never had a problem. I can't say the same thing for the Champion, Autolite or Bosch plugs I've used, but that's my experience.

Whimsey
 
I have seen it happen occasionally, really rare but it does happen. Sometimes they get dropped in handling before it gets to the customer's hands.
 
I've had a defective ACDelco plug. I suspect the shop that did the work dropped it and installed it anyway. It was for about a week after installation at which point the ceramic part broke and it made a ticking noise (no misfire though and it ran perfectly)
 
Originally Posted by tmorris1
He gets a flashing check engine light for a particular cylinder and we change out the coil and the plug and all is good.


Is it the furthest forward one on the passenger side?

That one seems to be a problem often for some weird reason.
 
Originally Posted by Linctex
Originally Posted by tmorris1
He gets a flashing check engine light for a particular cylinder and we change out the coil and the plug and all is good.


Is it the furthest forward one on the passenger side?

That one seems to be a problem often for some weird reason.


Those go bad because of the heater hoses that run over the coils. The hoses leak or can also direct water from rain/carwashes onto the coils.
 
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
I have seen it happen occasionally, really rare but it does happen. Sometimes they get dropped in handling before it gets to the customer's hands.


I ordered Motorcraft plugs for our 2.3 EB Explorer from Rock Auto a while ago. When I inspected them, 2 of the 4 look like they were dropped and the gap was almost closed totally and the plastic shield on the plug was cracked on both of them, yet the boxes were fine. RA replaced them quickly with good plugs. Other than this obvious problem I've never had an issue with the performance of Motorcraft spark plugs.

Whimsey
 
Originally Posted by Whimsey
Originally Posted by bdcardinal
I have seen it happen occasionally, really rare but it does happen. Sometimes they get dropped in handling before it gets to the customer's hands.


I ordered Motorcraft plugs for our 2.3 EB Explorer from Rock Auto a while ago. When I inspected them, 2 of the 4 look like they were dropped and the gap was almost closed totally and the plastic shield on the plug was cracked on both of them, yet the boxes were fine. RA replaced them quickly with good plugs. Other than this obvious problem I've never had an issue with the performance of Motorcraft spark plugs.

Whimsey



Sometimes the delivery people aren't the most careful. If I order spark plug from Ford they come in a pack of 96. I don't really need that many of 1 number in stock at any given time. I usually try to keep enough to do 2 complete jobs. So we order from a FAD, Ford Authorized Distributor, who lets us order in smaller quantities. Those are the drivers who mean well, but sometimes aren't as careful as they should be. I have seen some drop spark plugs and put them back in the box and bring them to us to accept the delivery. Others will drop them, come in and let us know, then call their HQ and tell them to replace them for us.
 
I owned the same truck as well ‘97 5.4L engine
Probably the best Ford I've ever owned
Sold it with 235K miles one tuneup was all it ever needed
But MC plugs are still high quality
This issue for you is just a rare deal
 
Originally Posted by Linctex
Originally Posted by tmorris1
He gets a flashing check engine light for a particular cylinder and we change out the coil and the plug and all is good.


Is it the furthest forward one on the passenger side?

That one seems to be a problem often for some weird reason.

That is one that had the bad plug, but I have changed others too.
I didn't notice any cracks, so the problem must be internal.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top