I just today had the #4 coil replaced on my 99 F150 Lariat w/ the 5.4 V8. A good friend works as the lead troubleshoooter at the Ford Dealership I deal with, and was gracious enough to show me how that particular #4 cylinder's coil has a unique problem that causes it to fail. It turns out that one of the heater hoses is connected to its engine tube with the connection lined up directly above the #4 coil. Ford has had a rather common history of that hose starting to leak a small amount after a couple of years, and the antifreeze drips right on the coil. Eventually the coil shorts out, and you get the typical cylinder misfire. If you haven't already heard about this issue, and have one of the 5.4 V8 rigs, Ford recommends via their internal service bulletin system that the hose connection always be checked on all of these trucks, and tightened sufficiently to prevent the drip, and the coil failure. I mentioned that it would really be nice if Ford would notify owners of such things, but I'm not holding my breath on this one.

Anyway .... thought all you 5.4 owners could benefit from this little bit of info. I wouldn't be surprised that it has been mentioned before, but a reminder can't hurt.

Bob in Spokane

 

Funny, I accually had that happen to me shortly after I bought my 99 f150 5.4L, went off roading and appearantly that came loose and I had to have my #4 coil pack replaced. Wish I would have known about that sooner I would have had it checked out and made sure the hose was tight.

 

The bottom line to this is the stupid hose clamps used to keep it tight .

Beware those spring type clamps have been known to crack and break at the worst of times when your driving !

I recommend that they be changed to stainlless
steel screw type ,never had one of those fail yet.

Just my .02

Rich

 

My '01 V10 that I bought new (25 miles on the OD) in June 2002, had all the hose clamps replaced with stainless screw-type before I even bought it.

It's a known issue in general... I wonder if it left a puddle one day?

ak

 

I had a hose clamp (lower radiator) fail with less than 1000 miles on my truck. The hose was replaced, along with all the clamps on the hose. The ford dealership used screw type clamps

Now I just need to change all of the others. I do not trust the spring clamps.

Charles