coil pack issues

[jamel16]

Hello, Well I have an 2003 Ford Expedition 5.4 with 142,00 miles. The issues I am having is about a week ago I recieved the check engine light code stating that I had a # 7 cylinder misfire. Well I changed that coil out with the accel brand and I also replaced the sparkplug. Everything has been fine until today when I recieved the same sputtering and hesitation with the # 7 cylinder misfiring code again. What could possibly be the problem ? Also I would like to put out there that for the last 4 years that I have owned the truck, I have had to replace the coils every year. The only brand I use is accel with motorcraft sparkplugs. I know this isn't normal. Can someone please help me or give me some insight of the possible problems? Thank you

 

[Richard Lewis]

Could be the injector on number 7 are you getting any other codes besides this one

 

[walnuts4x4]

check the wire to the connection on the coil... could be shorting out

 

[tvans]

Are there other brands besides ACCEL that are recommended? Thanks!

 

[jamel16]

Yeah this problem is baffling. Brand new coil on the number 7 cylinder is lasting a maximum of a week. I will check the wiring but i dont know where to go from there.

 

[EVO8]

Could simply be a bad coil pack. Maybe bring it back and have the store test it or exchange for another one. If this doesn't work, I would look at the #7 injector.

 

[jamel16]

ok checked the codes and it's P308 which is cylinder 8. I pulled the cop and sparkplug and the sparkplug is wet. Tried to do the sniff test but couldn't really tell if it was gasoline or coolant. Here are some pics.

 

[2k3Expy]

What are the gaps on the plugs?

 

[jkill351]

Has your expy had its scheduled matinence? The Injectors are supposed to be cleaned/replaced at 90000. They may not be the problem but if they have not been cleaned yet they need it. I use the accel cops and have not had a problem, but I did have to fix one of the cops connectors. It broke right at the connector so it was hard to find.

 

[TexasR.N.]

Just chiming in that I use Borg/Worner COPS. They have a life time warranty which is why I run them. So far no complaints.

 

[Captain Morgan]

There shouldnt be any water in the cylinders. Even if the injectors were bad, there should be such a negligible amount of water in gasoline that even if a plug misfired, the normal operation just blows the gas out when the exhaust valve opens.

That plug looks fairly fouled if you replaced them all within a year and I don't understand the amount of shiny debris in the pics. Did you use any radiator repair junk in the past?

It could be, that you have so much water in the gas tank that the fuel pump is just sending water instead of gas. You can check this by intercepting the gasoline on THIS side of the fuel pump, maybe at the fuel filter.

use some paper towels and absorb all of the moisture from the spark plug well, so that it is totally dry. Then use something like a coat hanger to carefully dab the inside of the piston chamber with paper towel. If you extract a wet wad then you probably really have water in there.

Assuming that you have a correct ratio of coolent in the radiator, if the moister comes from a leak in the water jackets or head gasket then the moisture should smell like antifreeze, not plain water.

Once you get down to an almost empty tank of gas, you can add treatment to remove the water from the gas. I use 91% rubbing alcohol, but I can't recommend that.

Throw in a bottle of gas\carb\injector cleaner and buy some good gas from Chevron, not the methenol crap from 7-11.