How to Diagnose and Replace Bad Coil - Lincoln/Ford 4.6L

How to find and replace a bad coil that is causing a misfire. This is for the Lincoln/Ford modular engines, but will be similar to other engines with coil on plug (COP) as well.
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Note: Do this repair at your own risk! I am not responsible for any injuries or deaths. Improper use of tools, vehicle lifts, jack stands, electrical equipment, cleaning/penetrating oil/fluid and other chemicals and tools used in this video can result in serious injury and can be fatal.
Channel tags: Mighty Mechanic, MightyMechanic
1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
Lincoln - Mark 8, Continental, Town Car
Ford - Mustang, Crown Vic

[@heartofdixie67]

My suggestion is that after you change the coil or coils, you use some silicone gasket adhesive around the edges of the coil covers where the old rubber gasket is. Water tends to leak in and cause misfires and crack porcelain spark plugs . This knowledge comes from my experience !!!

[@hectorterrazas8415]

Thanks a lot young man for taking the time out of your schedule to tutor the naive ....like me lol .

[@ruben2365]

You got yourself a subscriber

[@haraldm.1275]

Thanks man, you pointed me in the right direction and after pulling all of these coils on my Continental I discovered that # 1 was dead. I was wondering why there is no 'Check Engine' light flashing at me with a dead coil, but discovered today that the 'Check Engine' light also seems to be dead. I assume that it was already out at the time I bought the car. So next time I will fix the burnt out bulb of the 'Check Engine' light.

[@mitchcornacchia968]

Very helpful thanks

[@davidk1579]

I have a 1997 Lincoln continental 4.6 doc 32 valve intec. And it has two coil packs with 1-5 and 6-8 on separate coils.

[@ruben2365]

Have you ever had to change the cross member k frame on this car? I bought one and the previous owner hit a curb and i had to bend the strut bar a bit just so i could get it aligned. It worked for a while till the bushings for the strut bar gave out. I want to change the frame but i wouldn't know how. And since i need the car for work, I don't want to remove it unless I'm sure what I'm doing and finish the job within 24 hours.

[@SUBJECTISOLDMOVEON]

yeah motor craft coils so expensive around 600 complete set. next is brand you got is good one. i found a set just under 200. good video thanks

[@Chris-pt2wb]

I have the same intech motor, and it seems to misfire when driving down the road, at a stop it seems to me running rough. I changed all the spark plugs but no coils. Could that be a coil issue as well?

[@DarkLinkAD]

Coils go out routinely on these engines..

[@MaxAC]

Mine does the same thing, and misfires real bad when revving to about 4,000 rpm. Plugs didn't fix mine either.

[@moviegoer9021]

Hi,I have a 2004 town car 4.6,i get the random misfire,sometimes at lower speeds and at higher speeds,while accelarating,i do not feel the misfire or jerk of the misfire,and what is the firing order, and location number one thru 8 ,

[@whiTmanxX]

Do I disconnect the battery before?

[@shartingfish5761]

If you get a 40.00 code reader with live data it will tell you straight out which coil is faulting even if it doesn’t generate a cel.

[@shartingfish5761]

Martin M you just need an odb2 code reader, just go on amazon and look for one that reads codes, runs diagnostics and has live data capabilities.. mine was 40.00 usd.. it’s some cheap chinese reader, works fine..

[@sheldonkowlessar7591]

Mercury Marauder has same intech covers and coils. Not like the other 4.6

[@SPECIFICREGION]

Won't that hurt the programming of the car can it shock the main circuits. Pulling them out while the car is on.

[@Omararmendariz9565]

To make it easier on, how i do. I JUST UNPLUG THE WIRE NOT THE WHOLE IGNITION COIL & look out for the same thing(rpms dropping). Its way easier than un screwing before removal.. T.I.A.

[@fatkat311]

I tried that method myself the problem is I would only get a misfire under load. Not a single problem at idle.

[@AutOdometer]

I think my BMW is doing that. It almost seemed like it was about to stall out at an idle but when I pressed the gas everything was fine and it rode smooth. Could this be an ignition coil?

[@MightyMechanic]

That doesn't sound like an ignition coil. Sounds more like an air/fuel mixture issue. Maybe broken vacuum hose, MAF sensor, 02 sensor, fuel filter, or something along those lines.

[@RoGuExPaNcAkE]

I replaced cyl 8’s coil pack on my 03 crown Vic but the engine light is still flashing and it’s still misfiring.

[@flyhigh8113]

Spark plugs? I'm not super mechanically inclined but that should be the problem

[@shartingfish5761]

Could be fuel quality caused, could be a bad fuel filter, bad pcm, bad ground, bad or improper gapped plugs.. get a cheap obd2 reader that supports live data and data record and you should be able to take it for a ride, when it misfires it will tell you what cylinder or ders is/are having the issues. It should also give other details on the fault at the time it occurs..

[@Steve-mp7by]

Cyl #4 misfire so its in the back of the engine argh. 5 - 8 are right in front

[@Ruffbone85]

my 95 crown Victoria is stalling and jerking after it warms up while driving. No CEL. New plugs and wires.

[@Mr.Preston3991]

W.E.S sounds like an issue with your air intake.

[@sedemo7198]

I have a 2002 lincoln continental and I'm experiencing acceleration problems around 25-30mph. Itll stall if I keep going and the power steering stop working. I'll shut the car off, start it back up, then I can go around 20mph until about 100 ft then it'll do the same thing. If I hit the gas hard enough I can hear a misfire, it'll jerk. After awhile it gradually gets worse, until it doesn't start. Then after couple hours, ill give it a spin again, it'll automatically start jerking around 30mph unless I keep it around 20mph for about a mile at most, then the whole cycle happens again. I took it to autozone and got the obd2 free scan. Says it's a bad sparkplug and boot, but I get the code P0320. What could this mean? It's not saying a specific spark plug and I can't find anything out about the code. Any advice or info would be appreciated!! Also, my wires do not clip snuggly into the boot, perhaps they are the wrong boots? I haven't had a problem for awhile driving with them. My car has 130,000 miles and they were all replaced not too long ago before I got the car. I didn't check all spark plugs but the bottom ones still look new

[@macd9861]

What did u do?? I'm having same issue

[@macd9861]

Help what was it

[@macd9861]

Help help help what was it

[@macd9861]

I hope u got it I'm about to buy coils

[@macd9861]

Hay

[@uno-uno-seise6094]

What's the firing order on this engine?

[@MightyMechanic]

Firing order is 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8

[@davidk1579]

Ford is always passenger side , eng. Facing front, 1234, right side 5678 front to rear.

[@bumpfire556]

@@MightyMechanic thanks for the Vid. Fixed my problem

[@kccodex8931]

@@davidk1579 That clears things up...

[@JavierSLRC]

2:03

[@michaeldavis545]

Young Jaz thanks man

[@babyreps365]

Could you just unplug the cop connector rather than removing the cop?

[@chriswkellay123]

Ever get an answer for this?

[@aeyb701]

@@chriswkellay123 stands to reason that disconnecting is the same as pulling the coil. Either way the misfiring coil is now out of the ignition circuit and no more misfire (or any firing, so RPM’s would drop just like pulling each of the good coils one at a time) and the shake or jiggle would stop . Good question, I had to think on it but I’d say yes that does the same thing. Easier than pulling the coil especially if it has the screw that anchors it, as on other 4.6’s. I’ll give it a go.

[@PhuckHue2]

Just wait for the code. A bad coil starts off as intermittent failure then eventually it will throw a code

[@MightyMechanic]

Most of the time they do but occasionally you’ll get one that won’t. This car had been causing problems for about a month and didn’t get worse to the point of a misfire code over that period of time.

[@fatkat311]

I have an 03 cobra that would misfire under load for three months running like shit and will not throw a code. I finally found 8 used ignition coils and replaced them all because I was pulling my hair out. Fixed the problem. It would only miss fire under load so there was nothing I could do at idle to find the issue. There are some scanners that can load test coils but I don’t have one.

[@Steve-mp7by]

@@fatkat311 The new coils you find cheap on Ebay are good too. I've been buying them for years. I never had to replace one yet. Its all made in China anyway even the name brand stuff

[@emersonbigguns5196]

Dang just get on it with it. 2 mins of blabber

[@kalbazzi1790]

whats the firing order here?

[@tuberadar]

You didn't make any sense whatsoever until the 6:00 mark. All that mumbo jumbo to get to the point of pulling the correct coil won't effect the misfire. None of that other nonsense was effective.

[@jmflyer55]

Yes, what he was saying was wrong, and was just the opposite of how to find a bad coil. When motor is running, and you pull each coil off to test it, the coil is GOOD, when you hear a drop in RPM and more engine skipping. BUT, when you pull off the coil that IS bad, there will be NO CHANGE in the engine skip OR RPM. Hopefully those watching this picked up on that mistake. I think he knows that, but he was talking so fast about numerous ideas, he actually said it incorrectly when it came to the most important thing to listen for.

[@macd9861]

Stalling at 25 mph n dies no codes

[@denaotto6444]

Go on eBay ppl I paid 24 for 8 of them Ignition Coil 8 Pack For Ford Multispark Blaster Epoxy 4.6L 5.4L DG508 F-150 XL

[@eriv4735]

I paid 35 for similar coils a year ago and 4 of them are bad already..I paid $35 bucks for 8 so I’m not too mad about it lol

[@patrick_kyker]

Just buy 8 new ones for $50.

[@jorgemedrano1298]

Do you know or have site where I can buy 8 for that price?

[@lynneakin2737]

40,000 volts … sure you want to be pulling coil pack with ignition on??? 🤓

[@YU5CF-sv2cq]

too complicated when you explain🤷‍♂️