Accel Ignition Coils

[1955moose]

All the cars and trucks I worked on over the years, and motorcycles, I've only replaced 2 coils. And they were both on my own motorcycles, due to cracking. Even on these more sensitive coil on plug units, unless you get them wet, they for the most part keep trudging on. If Ford could have ran the coolant lines away from the coils, I'm betting most of the original coils would last the life of the vehicle. The wire from the coil to the plug is a wearable item, sorta. 9 times out of 10, failing coils usually can be traced back to water or coolant. Kinda why they tell people don't bring your hair dryer over to the tub with you. Never ends well!

Sent from my N9131 using Tapatalk

 

[TobyU]

As I already stated, I run every vehicle I own into the ground. They've all had 225-400K+ on the clock when I sold them with the exception of a Ford Probe that I sold with 98K on the clock because it was a completely unreliable money pit. That said, I didn't say or imply they don't fail. I said they're not a maintenance item. There's no logical reason to replace them on a routine basis. Replace them when they fail or replace the rubber boot when it starts to show signs of deterioration. You can also test them w/ an OTC 6589, which will cost you less than a single coil. Replacing an entire set "just because" is just throwing money away.

I got misled when you said you had never had a coil fail.

Agree with replacing when they fail.
That's the only way I did it when they were 72 each and lots of shops did too.
( the ones that didn't fish for the 950 tune up)
In 08 when I saw they were so cheap, from then on I just stick a set in when I have a bad one or when I do plugs in used vehicle I buy. I keep the oem and any replacement ones already in there for back ups and test purposes.
I just did a 32v navigator with 117400 on it. Ran perfect when I bought it. Drove it home 4 hours and let it sit a couple of weeks.
Drove it 50 miles Let it sit 2 months. Wet weather. Next time drive drove it it had a dead miss. Scanner showed 7 and 8 both with misfires.
It had almost new plugs in it motorcraft, 2 factory, 6 aftermarket from 3 DIFFERENT BRANDS!! All this is 117K ....ridiculous. Should have been on original or recently done plugs and coils with maybe 1-2 replaced. They are all probably fine. 7 and 8 had some moisture in the wells and boots. I drove it 45 miles missing (kicked out of overdrive to help) and didn't dry it out though but I bet with new boots they would be ok but for 36.00 I'll take the new ones and test them. I have already had a set of yellow ones in 08 go 7 years until first one started randomly misfiring.

Even though plugs looked perfect..OUT THEY GO.
New pretty red ebay ones and new Motorcraft plugs. Runs perfect.
I will see how long they go.

 

[Kryo-Genik]

For the 2v 5.4l stick to ford coils....period. we in the lightning community are making upwards of 800 horses without issue. We almost always see issues when folks start using a cell? Weapon x? MSD etc.
Stick to ford coils.

 

[johnboneske]

I have the " cheap" ones of Amazon for $35/set. Have used them twice now and have over 60k on this set without one issue. I used Bosch Iridium plugs too

 

[jeff kushner]

HI,

does anyone have experience with Accel ignition coils? i have a power on acceleration issue,flashing light under hard acceleration with a misfire, so i think i have a bad plug or coil. im replacing all the plugs and since im in there im debating swapping out the coils as well. Accel coils are only $150 ish for 8 and a motocraft coil is running about $60 each.

so, any experience with the Accels or am i throwing away my money and stick with motorcraft?

I build high performance two stroke engines and most who know will agree, motorcycle coils generally are crap so I always use Accel coils if possible. Remember that my two stroke engine at 12,000 rpm is spinning as fast as your 4 stroke does at 24,000rpm..... So iggy is important. I also run them in my 18psi turbo bike.

All that said, Motorcraft like the other MAJOR players has as excellent QC implementation program. For the road driver, I think there is no cost/performance benefit equation possible when comparing to any of the "premium" options.


jeff

 

[TobyU]

For the 2v 5.4l stick to ford coils....period. we in the lightning community are making upwards of 800 horses without issue. We almost always see issues when folks start using a cell? Weapon x? MSD etc.
Stick to ford coils.

Sorry, can't agree with this. Most people on here are not producing 800 horsepower and running their engines at high RPMs and on dynos. Most people on these forums except high performance Mustang forums simply want their vehicles to run without the engine shaking or missing and without the check engine light flashing or popping a code.
Motorcraft quality is not what it used to be but what is. I would assume some of the big players in the game like another poster has mentioned like MSD and Excel should make high quality coils and there should be some out there that function much better and fire stronger and fire at higher RPMs more consistently than Motorcraft but for the average passenger car or SUV that's just being driven back and forth to work on occasional vacation trip and as a grocery getter putting 10 to 15,000 miles a year on, these cheap Chinese ones for under 40 bucks of set have served me and several of my friends very well.
When I start having them fail app early years or miles I will be certain to update everyone but I will not condemn them until this happens.
I have only had to randomly misfire out of all the sets I have purchased and used and that was after 8 years. I consider that more than acceptable and decent quality.
Those two also could have simply been eroded plug gap because I didn't even pull the plug to check I just slapped in another used coil that I had and it stopped missing and then went on about my way.

So I will ask anyone who condemns these coils, how many have you had fail and and how many miles or how many months or years after installation?
Hearsay reports of simply repeating something we read once on a forum about a couple of people having problems with cheap coils hardly proves anything in my book. Especially when I have first-hand experience on exceptional results with them.
The last that I installed were on a second-generation Navigator in December of last year and they only have about a thousand miles on them. This is the newest set I have purchased. If I have abnormal failures then I will change my opinion and start to worry about these coils but as of yet I haven't had a single burp from them. They are working perfectly.

 

[Kryo-Genik]

Sorry, can't agree with this. Most people on here are not producing 800 horsepower and running their engines at high RPMs and on dynos. Most people on these forums except high performance Mustang forums simply want their vehicles to run without the engine shaking or missing and without the check engine light flashing or popping a code.
Motorcraft quality is not what it used to be but what is. I would assume some of the big players in the game like another poster has mentioned like MSD and Excel should make high quality coils and there should be some out there that function much better and fire stronger and fire at higher RPMs more consistently than Motorcraft but for the average passenger car or SUV that's just being driven back and forth to work on occasional vacation trip and as a grocery getter putting 10 to 15,000 miles a year on, these cheap Chinese ones for under 40 bucks of set have served me and several of my friends very well.
When I start having them fail app early years or miles I will be certain to update everyone but I will not condemn them until this happens.
I have only had to randomly misfire out of all the sets I have purchased and used and that was after 8 years. I consider that more than acceptable and decent quality.
Those two also could have simply been eroded plug gap because I didn't even pull the plug to check I just slapped in another used coil that I had and it stopped missing and then went on about my way.

So I will ask anyone who condemns these coils, how many have you had fail and and how many miles or how many months or years after installation?
Hearsay reports of simply repeating something we read once on a forum about a couple of people having problems with cheap coils hardly proves anything in my book. Especially when I have first-hand experience on exceptional results with them.
The last that I installed were on a second-generation Navigator in December of last year and they only have about a thousand miles on them. This is the newest set I have purchased. If I have abnormal failures then I will change my opinion and start to worry about these coils but as of yet I haven't had a single burp from them. They are working perfectly.

You dont have to agree with me it's been settled fact for years now in the Lightning community. None of us deal with shaking, missing, check engine lights and codes either. I've personally lost 3 accel coils in under 20k miles on a stock lightning that was used and abused as a daily driver and weekend warrior before my race truck. The Acells NEVER idled right and I dealt with spark blowout way too often even with my plugs gapped to .030. I lost 2 MSDs on the same truck in less than 6 months of use, which is why its now back to using factory COPS and also why my race Lightning uses factory COPS as well...I've lost ZERO motorcrafts. If you seriously think a simple grocery getter is abusing factory COPS and killing them at a higher rate versus a high horsepower build you're nuts. So again you dont have to agree with me....but both of my Lightnings and the Lightning community as a whole all say MSD, Accel suck ass.
I'm currently sourcing parts to Lightning swap my expy....guess what COPS will be getting used on it as well?
I've got way too much money invested in my two L's and have tried more than my fair share of parts and pieces for the 2 valve 5.4 motor......so again you don't have to agree. But weve got a whole community that says the factory units work just fine for high horsepower, high rpm, daily and weekend only truck builds.
If you wish to think that cheaper units are superior well I cant help you there.

 

[TobyU]

You dont have to agree with me it's been settled fact for years now in the Lightning community. None of us deal with shaking, missing, check engine lights and codes either. I've personally lost 3 accel coils in under 20k miles on a stock lightning that was used and abused as a daily driver and weekend warrior before my race truck. The Acells NEVER idled right and I dealt with spark blowout way too often even with my plugs gapped to .030. I lost 2 MSDs on the same truck in less than 6 months of use, which is why its now back to using factory COPS and also why my race Lightning uses factory COPS as well...I've lost ZERO motorcrafts. If you seriously think a simple grocery getter is abusing factory COPS and killing them at a higher rate versus a high horsepower build you're nuts. So again you dont have to agree with me....but both of my Lightnings and the Lightning community as a whole all say MSD, Accel suck ass.
I'm currently sourcing parts to Lightning swap my expy....guess what COPS will be getting used on it as well?
I've got way too much money invested in my two L's and have tried more than my fair share of parts and pieces for the 2 valve 5.4 motor......so again you don't have to agree. But weve got a whole community that says the factory units work just fine for high horsepower, high rpm, daily and weekend only truck builds.
If you wish to think that cheaper units are superior well I cant help you there.

I'm not arguing that those are not your results. And I certainly wouldn't disagree with any personal experiences you have and it seems like you have a good deal. It is a shame Excel doesn't make a high-quality product or higher quality than Factory because in the old days they did. So did MSD, and Holly.
But I also have to put even more faith into my own personal experience with cheap eBay aftermarket coils. Now I have never used a single Accel COP in my life. The last Accel product I used was around 1990 which was an externally mounted super supercoil. And I think I might have installed one in the top of an HEI distributor for a GM also around the same time.
I can however, say that I have installed a good number of sets of aftermarket coils from eBay some yellow in color some red in color and most black in color and have had nothing but positive great experiences with them.
No codes, no flashing lights no misfire counts stored or anything whatsoever. As I said, somewhere in for 8 years till I had a couple of random misfires. Others have only been in three to four years with no problems so far. I just put the last set in last December. Time will tell how long these last until I have an issue. I have lots of town cars and this is where most of my experience lies. I don't bother with higher-quality coils because I can throw one in the glove box and can change anyone out in 5 to 6 minutes even if it's freezing cold out.
So when someone blank Lee says that all aftermarket coils are junk I'm saying that's not necessarily true. I will agree that for most applications you need nothing better than a stock Factory Motorcraft coil. People have run around spending lots of money for high performance aftermarket parts for decades and some morning is good as the parts they were taking out.

 

[Kryo-Genik]

I'm not arguing that those are not your results. And I certainly wouldn't disagree with any personal experiences you have and it seems like you have a good deal. It is a shame Excel doesn't make a high-quality product or higher quality than Factory because in the old days they did. So did MSD, and Holly.
But I also have to put even more faith into my own personal experience with cheap eBay aftermarket coils. Now I have never used a single Accel COP in my life. The last Accel product I used was around 1990 which was an externally mounted super supercoil. And I think I might have installed one in the top of an HEI distributor for a GM also around the same time.
I can however, say that I have installed a good number of sets of aftermarket coils from eBay some yellow in color some red in color and most black in color and have had nothing but positive great experiences with them.
No codes, no flashing lights no misfire counts stored or anything whatsoever. As I said, somewhere in for 8 years till I had a couple of random misfires. Others have only been in three to four years with no problems so far. I just put the last set in last December. Time will tell how long these last until I have an issue. I have lots of town cars and this is where most of my experience lies. I don't bother with higher-quality coils because I can throw one in the glove box and can change anyone out in 5 to 6 minutes even if it's freezing cold out.
So when someone blank Lee says that all aftermarket coils are junk I'm saying that's not necessarily true. I will agree that for most applications you need nothing better than a stock Factory Motorcraft coil. People have run around spending lots of money for high performance aftermarket parts for decades and some morning is good as the parts they were taking out.

I have no issues with using Accel or MSD on a pushrod motor....I used it on my 91GTs 302. But flat out on the 5.4 2 valve have yet to see an aftermarket company make a COP that's worth a shit. The cheaply Ebay's etc I generally lump them in with factory style knock offs whereas the Accels, MSDs and Weapon X COPS are supposed to be high performance units.

Way back the Weapon X units were good but we had to use an aftermarket boot with them that sealed the plug hole or else water would get in just by looking at it.

For the small price difference between the factory stuff and what MSD or Accel wants...I'll go factory every day as both of my Lightnings and the many others in the community have shown they are just fine and worth the lower amount of headaches.

And since the expy has a 2v I'll use the same formula that's kept my Ls running wonderfully without issue.

Hell even the bolt that holds my COPS down are gone. I've been using flexishaft units for years. I can unscrew a COP, pop it out and replace it using nothing but my fingers. Its great.

 

[Roland A]

My Accels have been great - over 100,000 and counting!