Engine Suddenly Running Rough

[xceptional]

Good news. I changed the coils last night. This morning not a miss-fire, no short, no static in the audio system, no engine rough idle or missing under load. All good. Happy

Thanks for all your help.

Till next time.

Cheers

[John_K]

Great to hear that mate!

[ebxmple]

Good stuff mate,glad you got it all soughted and are a happy ford owner again. Did you find the coil that was at fault? If you did take a pic and post it up so others know what to look for. I had a good example of a arching coil in the shed and was going to post a pic for you so you knew what to look for but its been thrown out and you have fixed it already. Good work.

[xceptional]

I checked each coil one by one. Could not see any whiteish residue or melted plastic anywhere on any of them so I put it down to just faulty coil. Don't know which one was faulty and haven't go the time or inclination to swap each of them out to determine the bugger. When I put them in I wrapped the heads with quality electrical tape to try and add some resistance to any arcing that may occur. None of the tape was damaged or disfigured either which really confirmed that it must have been one faulty coil.

Thanks for you input MA77Y.

Cheers

[SAM80R]

Hi all.

I am having similar problems to the above. Rough at idle (although not to bad) and under power over 3000rpm it mises and lacks power, like it has lost a cylinder. Anything below 3000rpm seems to be ok, and she runs pretty smooth and the lack of power is noticable but nothing violent, the biggest indicator is the change in the exhaust note. I have removed the coils and found some white residue (corrosion looking) in the holes going down to the spark plugs. The car is an 04 turbo with 87000 k's.

Just wondering before I go buy all the coils and plugs if there is any way to confirm that they are all buggered? I have read comments that the above symptoms can also be due to a broken catalitic converter and I obviously dont want to replace all coils if its more likely the cat. Is there any more info any one can give me to distinguish between the two types of problems.

How often/likely is it for the cat to fail on a car its age? I have heard that the cat may rattle when broken... I have noticed a slight exhaust rattle however I have had a lot of trouble with the under car heat shield rattling.

I am assuming my plugs are ok as the electrode comes up to a narrow point that is close to the gap dimension given in the ford book...???

From what I have read above it sounds like any white residue in the coil recess is an indication they are stuffed and possibly arching. Is there any other indication that the plugs are arching? I have noticed some bubling and flaking of the red paint on the engine in the recess where the coils sit, is this an indication they are stuffed also.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sam