Folk, I've been cruising ebay and other places for replacement ignition coils. Looking for a better deal than the stealerships. I would like to find a good price but am also willing to pay a reasonable premium for a better product.

Does anyone have comments to share on your experience been with aftermarket COPs? I just started looking, but this is Accel product is an example of some I might consider.

ACCEL :: Product Details

Or should I stick with OE parts?

Your comments, experiences and advice is appreciated.

Thank you,

 

I plan to stick with the Motorcraft coils. There is one other name they go by, it is the company that manufacturs the coils for Ford. I have heard of problems occurring with pretty much all of the others, not a lot of problems but some. The OE's seem to be the most reliable. The Mustang guys also claim that stock COP's are good for about 600hp levels so not much point in an "upgrade". I think if you search enough you can find Motorcraft or the equivalent for about the same price as the Accels.

 

Dealership gets around $90 per COP, aftermarket goes for around $80 for 8. Even if you had to replace a bad one at some point, you are way ahead going aftermarket.

 

You can find OEM coils on the web for $35-40 a piece, you do not have to pay dealer prices.

There is more to getting a reliable part than just cost. If one fails on one of my many trips over the mountains I may have to try and negotiate extremely dangerous roads on 7 cylinders. Certainly you are still way ahead money wise to go with $10 coils but they have been known to fail.

 

Interesting "data" on the coils failing. I've never seen a post here that anyone has been disatisfied with the aftermarket coils from any source. To each his own.

 

It has been brought up on here before that a lot of the coils being replaced could only need the boot replaced or the boot and spring. All tho even that price is getting close to the cost of the e-bay coils. I have owned a lot of cars over the years ( man am I getting old) and I can not remember replacing a coil on any of them. I am sure there were some, but I did replace a lot of wires and caps. I just wonder if a lot of thew coil assemblies being replaced out there really need to be replaced or have the boots replaced at the least.
Just my two cents worth.

 

Your remark is more accurate than you can imagine.

 

Omaha and Alloro,

Both you guys bring up an interesting point. The night I bought mine, I had a misfire on one of the cylinders and it landed being a bad wire according to the previous owner's mechanic.

When I did my tune up, I never replaced any of the coils. While two were Motorcraft replacements, 6 were original. At the time I wish I had replaced the coils but since I didn't have the funds, I did not. I only replaced the boots and wires on all 8 cylinders. Now my truck has 111,500 miles on it. 3500 since the tune up and so far I see no reason to touch it.

 

My truck has over 180,000 miles and I have replaced 2 coils. The other 6 are original. I replaced 1 at 65,000 miles, and it is still going! The other was replaced at 115,000 miles. Both were the #4 coil! I bought 1 at Advance Auto, and 1 at Autozone. I have often wondered (I guess not important enough to research) but when people say that they only use OEM, do they really have a unique Ford plant that manufacturers everything that Ford sells, or is it an authorized aftermarket plant that puts the Ford stamp on all of them? I guess it's time to find out....does anyone know?

I guess my reasoning is, I use Autolite plugs, and have never bough a Motorcraft plug, but a friend of mine told me Autolite makes Ford plugs, they just aren't allowed to say that. Makes perfect sense to me. Autolite probably makes nearly all manufacturer's plugs. Why would Ford re-invent the wheel here? I wonder how many other aftermarket parts you can buy and "really" be getting OEM. Probably all of them!

 

Boy you really got me on that one Seems like you provided about the same amount of "data".

I have read about people unhappy with aftermarket versions. You may need to expand beyond this very limited audience. The F150 forum has some, as do the Mustang forums.

99Expy, You are defiantely on to something. There is a manufacturer for the Ford coils. I searched and found it once, I just can't recall the name. These were still quite a bit more than the ebay coils, but much, much less than the dealer price.

There is also a thread on autolite vs motorcraft plugs, I think it is on the F150 forum. Yes autolite makes the plugs for Ford but that doesn't always mean they are the same specs.

Clearly there are lots of choices. It is most often a matter of opinion as to what the best choice is. Saving some money is always a good thing. Saving money by choosing substandard parts is a bit of a gamble. Are the cheapies substandard? I certainly can't say for sure. I just know I will only go so cheap before it worries me, and I try to stay with OEM when possible.

 

This is really showing my age but at one time Autolite was the ignition and maybe the electrical arm of Ford. From light bulbs to wires, just like Delco Remy was for GM. I brought uo the point about the boots as to what was said about the OEM coils. If only the boots need to be changed then you can keep the OEM coils with new boots.

 

Thanks for all the comments. I love my truck it has a couple quirks that I could live with and unless something goes drastically wrong, the current plan is to keep it for a while. I'm not looking for a cheap solution. The reasonable balance between cost and quality/reliability. I've see some postings on ebay for a set of 8 coils w/boots for around $80, the Accel product (referenced at the top of this thread) I've seen online for around $130/set. The local dealer parts depot wants almost $80 per coil. I'm definately not going to shell out $600-700 at the local dealer. But I don't want some unknown product for the sake of cheap. The language in the e-bay posting are not always clear and specific that you are getting a Motorcraft product, so if the Accel product is reliable, then its definately better than the dealership or trying to figure out of the ebay item is some knock off or the real thing.

Sorry for the rambling, but I hope you get where I'm going with this.

 

I found a couple of sets on ebay, genuine Motorcraft, under $200/set.

 

I bought a set of aftermarket cops off of ebay and put them on my 98 Expy over 2 years ago and haven't had a problem.

 

I have had both dealership and the autozone specials and all work fine for years. Coils are between $45-$50 no matter where you get them.