I bought a 1998 F-150. It has a 4.6 L triton v-8 with 78,000 miles. My check engine light started coming on and going of every so often. Yesterday it started blinking and the engine skipped or misfired. I took it home and parked it. If it is a misfire, can i simply replace wires and plugs to remedy the problem or do I need to take to a shop for repair. I would rather do the work myself due to economics. Please make any recommedations on the repair procedure. Thank you in advance for any advice.

 

Plugs, wires and coil packs. Plugs and wires first, if you still have a problem, then start with the coil packs Should be able to do it yourself, but it takes a lot of patience!

 

Is it driveable? I wouldn't go out just replacing parts just yet. Chances are your gonna have to do those wires and plugs soon enough, so its not a big deal, but if your out to save money do so.
First i would just check to make sure everythings connected up nicely. I had a bad misfire once, ended up the injector plug wasnt on snuggly. Once thats done, if theres an autozone nearby that you can limp to, go get the code checked. If it is indeed a misfire i would say buy the plugs and head home and change em.

Changing the plugs first is probably gonna solve it, and since it costs about 15 bucks to do it yourself and you have to do it soon anyway, its probably not a bad place to start. Those wires are actually probably ok still and will last you awhile, but you just cant tell without testing them. Pickupman is right except i would just change plugs first since the wires could well be ok, and since they are about 60 bucks, it could be 60 bucks you save.

 

I just changed plugs, wires, and coil packs. Had an annoying misfire and loss of power and it cleared it right up. In this case it was idling fine, I only noticed on acceleration.

Once before it was misfireing pretty bad and had a very rough idle... in that case it was a single wire (#8) that had gotten water around the boot where it connects to the plug. You might just want to pull all the wires, let the dry and put them back on with a heeping helpin of the jelly that goes in there, that solved the past problem.

 

It has been raining for the past two months. Might be moisture?

 

Kronzy,

There is a problem with the 97-98 4.6 that the plug wires like to back off the plug. The plugs are pretty deep in the head and it is hard to get them seated properly. Sometimes it take a while for one to back off enough to cause a miss fire. Just check each one and make sure it is seated. When this happens, the plug wire will miss fire to the block and you will get a blinking check engine light. Push down each plug wire and then try restarting.
If everything smoothes out then do the battery disconnect high beams on to reset the computer.
If you don't know how old the plugs are then it may be a good idea to schedule a plug change. At that time put a little di-electric (spark plug) grease on each boot and make sure it is snug over the plug.