I have a friend that thinks a coil pack is going bad on him. Would my superchip microtuner be able to plug into his truck and run the diagnostic test on it? and if so, can it recognize a bad coil pack?

 

If his vehicle is an OBD-II FoMoCo vehicle, yes, you can plug in the 1715 MT and scan for codes. I would suggest spending some time reading up on that in your MT documentation, as that is covered, as well as a list of the OBD-II DTC's & what they mean.

DTC's do not tell you what to do to actually repair the vehicle, all that codes tell you is what part of the system is reporting a problem - from there you still have to do proper diagnosis. Experienced mechanics can, in may cases, tell what part needs to be replaced by certain codes, just as a matter of frequency & doing that same work every day - but for non-mechanics/technicians, the codes just point you in a direction, and from there you still need to do diagnosis.

Your friend can easily determine this for himself - just pop the hood, swap a coil pack from another cylinder to the one he thinks is bad, and bingo - he's got his answer instantly, without even scanning for codes, by doing the most very basic troubleshooting. Although I still would scan the vehicle for any codes anyway.

The bottom line is, scan the vehicle, swap a coil pack, etc - if it's really a coil pack problem, it's usually easy to find.

Good luck!