Yeah this is very true, I have heard from many people that they had nothing but great luck with them so I probably just happened to get 2 that were defective or who knows, maybe something else on my truck is to blame, I just figured I would bite the bullet since it is only 2 I'm replacing and go with the motorcrafts.

I mean, they are a LOT cheaper, and not only that but like Bluejay mentioned, you will always have the old CoPs to be able to switch out for spares in the even something happens. So economically speaking, I can't disagree with getting them.

I swear, I have the worst luck though, when one of my newer coils went out I went and grabbed my old stock ones they replaced and the first one I was about to use I pulled the boot off to check for rust and such and started putting some di-electric grease on the spring... so I pulled the spring apart a bit and it snapped in half. So I trashed that one and grabbed another old Motorcraft one from the bunch and I put it on and it must have been bad because it was one of the two that wasn't firing and I had to pull back off... so I was left with only 1 or 2 of the ancient stock ones and since I have a 97 with 200,000+ miles on it and with the luck I had just seen trying to re-use 2 of them I just gave up and didn't want to mess with it anymore. I'm sure that had some influence on buying the expensive motorcrafts for me lol, I was ready to be done with it!

 

Let me say a bit about coils.
.....Some of you pass them off to lightly as either work or don't and as simple devices.
.....Bewhare, 'that position' may come back to bite sometime.
.....The coils live a harsh life mounted to and inserted into the heads, subject to cooling system heat and exhaust manfold heat especially for about 5 min. after engine shut down causing bay temps to rise quite high for a short time.
.....Coils suffer either open primay, open secondary or shorted turns.
.....The shorted turn condition most often does not set a code to ID the cylinder.
.....The constant temperature cycleing expands and contracts the windings, breaks the connections and wears the enamel insulation between turns causing the shorted turn problem that is not a hard fault because it only lowers coil output and causes missfires during OD light throttle cruise and sometimes under other conditions
.....If the coils are aftermarket, you have no way to judge there quality.
.....The OEM unit is the standard as used in production and still, they fail in time from the conditions under which they live.
.....There is no expectation that an aftermarket coil is better in any way for relibality.
.... In these motors, the coils are considered a wear-out part same as plugs, tires, brakes, filters and anything else that could be expected to be replaced over the normal life of the truck. It's just that many can't get over the fact there are 8 coils instead of 1 or 2.
Good luck.

 

I had an E-350 van I hated working on and if I recall correctly the local dealer only charged me $100 to put my plugs and coils I bought off E-bay on for me. I used motor-craft plugs I got from Rock auto for about $4 each VS the dealer price of nearly $15 each and of course the coils were $80 for 8 from global on e-bay VS the dealer price of god knows how many hundreds of dollars. Ask your dealer if they'll put your parts on..

 

For the price, buy a 10 pack so you have a couple spares.

Uneek - LIFETIME warranty - $99.50 shipped

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ford-...item19c498c397

Global - LIFETIME warranty - $92.95 shipped

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/IGNIT...item588f285bd7

 

Thanks everyone. I think I'm going to ride it out until another one goes bad, then just have them all done at that point. Like one other mentioned, there was a substantial amount of time between his first bad COP and second.... That just wasnt the case on my '97, it was like a month between fail #1 and fail #2...

I guess I'll ride it out and see what happens. Then again who knows, I might need to just go on a change them all while I have the cash to do it! lol

 

LIFETIME WARRANTY?!?! SON OF A BITCH! lol
...I paid that for 2 from Ford

 

Well Actually I found better yesterday, $75.00 Shipped for 8...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...ht_2686wt_1165

 

LOL I bought my expedition with 188k on it, have had it for 3 years, now has 223k and have swapped 3 COPs that crapped out, they were all original ones.

The last one i changed was on the passenger side under the fire wall, it was a nightmare!!!!

 

That's for 8 - I posted the link for 10. I'll pay 18 bucks for 2 spares..........

 

He payed $9 each as well lol

 

Can somebody who has purchased these tell us where they were manufactured?

 

exactly so I dont see what the deal is there... lol... Save 2 old ones for spares if that's the case = $0.00

 

I also bought mine from Uneek about a month and half ago, for 92.50 shipped to my door, 8 motorcraft plugs, for 31.95, 2 1/2 hours of labor by yours truely. it was a very simple process, everyone says that its a hard task, maybe it was just me, im a lil bit mechanically inclined, but never replaced them before. all in all it was well worth it to do it myself saved about 400, which is good no matter how you look at it.

 

Those of you who bite on the high output sale pitch; do you have any idea about the ignition needs of a motor under varying conditions and the complexity of it?
Just some short hints.
Any motor does not use it's coils full output except under very lean conditions such as when the the EGR system is called to open during cruise and 'light' throttle application.
Even then it does not use it all.
Said another way, even if you used coils with potentially higher output, it is never used and a coil cannot make any power above the fuel and air compressed in the cylinder.
Said yet another way, the average motor uses about 7 to 10,000 volts out of a reserve of about 40K.You can see any extra is of no consequence.
During EGR opening, the fuel is cut back and ignition advanced.
This causes a very lean mixture in the 20 to 1 range. This is the worst condition the coils are asked to fire, not high rpm full power.
Under these conditions the voltage requirement does go upward but still never gets to a coils full output. There is always a design reserve unless a coil is faulty.
Why 7 to 10k: the air fuel ratio in the cylinder under compression will allow a spark gap breakdown in this voltage range. When that happens the rest of the reserve is lost.
Under the very lean conditions of EGR, still the remaing voltage above the fire point is also lost.
Put no value on any claim of high output coils for a stock motor.

 

I would assume China. I betcha the OEM's are too.