I have a 2004 Escape V6 with about 114k miles on it. Over the past week or so my car has been running pretty rough. When I first start it after its been sitting for a few hours it starts to sputter when I put my foot on the gas and when I am going uphill. After a few minutes of driving it, it seems to be running fine. Yesterday as I was driving my check engine light came on. I took it to my boyfriends shop at Nissan and he scanned the computer and the computer said Cylinder 2 Misfire. So his co worker and my brother said I need a new coil pack. After reading around online at a bunch of forums I have read that other people have had the same engine code and changed the coil pack and spark plugs and it wasn't the answer. I have a call into Ford right now to get a price for a new coil pack and spark plugs. We changed my spark plugs in my car about 7 months ago. The original ones were in the car and I replaced them with ones from Napa (autolites gold I believe). When I just talked to the guy at Ford he said to run Ford ones only. He said other ones will cause a bunch of issues. Has anyone had this issue with the running rough/sputtering check engine light code and what solved it? Please please pleaseee say the coil pack and new spark plugs fixed it!! I dont know how much more I can take with this car.

And another thing...since my car has started running like crap once in a while when its doing the sputtering all the gauges in my car go shooting up(saying I'm driving 120mph, doing 8000rpms, saying I have a full tank of gas and my car is hot. Also Ive noticed the car is eating gas up like crazy. I had a half tank yesterday morning. Maybe driving 30 Miles I was down to a quarter of a tank. Can this all be from the coil pack?

 

Can you tell us which code you received on that misfire? There should be a number... like P0352.

 

Im not sure of the code. I replaced the coil pack and spark plugs with Ford plugs and the car runs smoother now than it has in a while

 

P0302 would be the code for cylinder #2 misfire, I believe.

Having gauge needles fly all over the place indicates a flaky connection or a voltage spike somewhere. You could have bad grounds, loose relay connectors, failing relays, or loose fuse connections. A bad battery or voltage regulator could also cause problems.
I would check grounds, check the battery voltage, engine off, then start it, and check the voltage with the engine running.
From what I know, the fuel injection system is 'returnless', so the fuel pumped to the injectors does not flow back to the tank if it is not needed, the pressure is regulated. If the regulator got some bum information, it *could* bump the pressure too high, and flow a lot of fuel. Should maybe throw a code for O2 getting a 'rich' condition all the time, I'd think. If an injector were to hang open, it could add a lot of fuel too. I'd think there'd be some smoke out the exhaust, and possibly a melted converter.
Ford had a problem with the factory installed spark plugs at one time causing bad feedback to the COP and on to the computer. In the worst case, it would melt the COP, and even take out the ECM/PCM or whatever the latest acronym used calls it. I would suggest getting the platinum-iridium Motorcraft spark plugs. They're relatively inexpensive compared to the dual-platinum or the multi-electrode 'special' plugs. Plain old single electrode plugs work fine. I installed SP417 as spec'd to be OEM equivalent for my 07 model.
tom

 

9 times out of 10 the symptoms you experienced is caused by a bad coil pack. I had two of them go in a matter of 3 months. The other 4 are original in my vehicle with 151K.

The Ford guy you talked to is correct. Replace your sparkplugs with the orginal Ford plugs. This also goes for other componets in your vehicle. Even your fuel filter should be replaced with a Motorcraft or Ford filter. Yes they cost a little more, but a much less chance of a having a problem, and, if you do have a problem just return it to the Ford dealer you bought it from.