Howdy all,

Well, I started my 00 supercab with 70K and the 5.4 V8 up the other day and after a little while of driving, I noticed an erratic idle, then slightly erratic acceleration while driving. It seems to be getting worse...but I thought it was maybe a bad tank of gas (was just about empty). So I filled up with mid grade Mobil and still got the same feelings....so I got home and opened the hood, it sounds like somethings amiss on my passenger side of the engine. After researching up here, I am guessing one of the coils is shot...so I need to take back to the dealer to get fixed. I get no CEL... any other possiblities it could be? DPFE sensor?

Question is....is it safe to drive the car to the dealer, or do I risk damaging other parts of the engine running it with a bad coil? I figure I might as well have them do the sparkplugs at the same time, and the rubber boots on top of the other coils to keep this from happening in the near future.

Anything else you recommend having done while all this is being performed? Any idea how much this will run at a dealership?

Thanks,
Adam

 

I recently blew out one of my coils cleaning my engine at the 'quickie wash.' It was hard to believe that I was only missing one cylinder!! The truck felt like it was running on 2 of its 8. I probably wouldn't have kept driving except I have an extended warranty and the dealership was only about 2 miles, downhill mostly. If all you have is a minor miss I would think you are fine to drive it a bit, but I am no mechnaic. As for cost, I seem to remember is was around $250 for the one coil and the install. Overall not too bad.

 

Thanks for the reply..... I'll take it to the dealer tomorrow...I have a warranty on the engine, but spark plugs/coils aren't covered. After doing some more digging on the forums, I am curious if it's the coil closest to the firewall on the passenger side...being caused by a hose in the vicinity. I'm wondering about having all the other spark plugs changed while I'm at it....save on labor


As for $250...that doesn't sound too bad. You must have come from owning a foreign car at some point, too....I am used to shelling out $700 for a brake job on my Audi! So $250 doesn't sound as bad as I would have imagined.

Thanks, any other input and suggestions appreciated!

--Adam

 

That is the exact coil it was, I had someone else tell me that those are really prone to going out. I think they did say it was due to excessive heat around it. And you are exactly correct, I drove Toyotas for years before I got this truck. I don't even think the Toyota service center will sell you a latte for under $250, luckily I never had to go inside and find out