So i left my truck out for a couple weeks while i was out of town and as I'm driving up to tahoe the car starts bucking up the hills. I'm assuming more water in the coil packs which happened to the car before I bought it. The first time I had my mechanic do it, but it costs 220 bucks per coil pack and they really aren't that expensive(40 bucks).

So essentially is it that hard to do it yourself with limited tools? My biggest car related projects have been changing out the air suspension and some electrical fixes. I don't want to end up over my head.

 

pretty easy. unplug carefully, unbolt and pull off. Some are a little hard to get to at times.

Anyone tried the really cheap coil packs from e-bay, or o'riley's

 

Advance Auto Parts: Late-Model Ford Super Coils by Accel - Part 140032

these are the ones i was looking at.

 

You can get a set of 8 on ebay for under $100, lots of people here have reported good luck with going this route.

 

Interesting, that is cheap.

What is the process for testing which one has went bad?

 

Do you have any codes? That would tell you.

 

DO NOT GET THE ACCELS!!! OK that said... I have the cheap 80 for 8 from Ebay. Had them in for a little over a year now no issues from them. The only way I know how to tell what cop went bad is by the CEL when comes on, even then a lot of people will swap cop positions and see if it throws a code on the new location. You COULD also just have a vacuum leak at the PCV valve or the elbow at the back of the intake. Either one SHOULD throw a CEL code.

 

Why bother trying to find out. For $80 a set, just replace them all and forget about them for the next 50K+ miles or so.

 

until more water gets in and they go bad again.

 

get a tube of dielectric grease to with the project. That will help keep water out - doesn't eliminate the problem but it helps.

 

BINGO we have a winner!

 

The water gets in only after the rubber boots have hardened with age and are less pliable. I put a set of 8 COPs in about 2 years ago and still power wash my engine without any issues.

 

ok, I am sold. Ordering the ones from e-bay.
Also, anyone have any idea what would leave a white powder in the spring?
I had this issue and a start issue, so I paid the $100 for FORD to tell me for sure what was wrong.

 

Oxidation? Lack of dielectric grease or the original grease turned to crap?

 

That was my thought as well.