Ok so I was taking my truck apart and I managed to destroy this thing that was attached to the front timing cover bolt. There is one on both sides and I think I found it in a post somewhere on here. It's called a radio frequency interference capacitor or something like that. It's right at the end of the wiring harness on both sides of the engine just connected to a metal tab. Does anybody know what this is and where to get one? I can take a pic if needed. I know my description kind of sucks.

Thanks guys

 

what year is it and engine also a pic would help if you can get one up

 

Sorry. It's a 2001 f150 supercrew with the 5.4 4x4. I have a pic but I can't seem to get it to upload

 

I do not recall what that looks like, do you have a repair manual, if so look through it and see if you can trace it from a source, sorry with out pic I cant tell you more I have the same engine in my 03.

 

load it to ur garage first the open it and copy the URL open the reply on this post and click the mountain looking icon paste the URl and bam!!

 

It is a Capacitor. I had to have one installed on our '10 Fusion and our '12 Fusion came from the factory with one installed. Radio frequencies interferred with starting the engine.

 

Learn something new every day, I have never had to deal with the one on my 03, have installed them but thats y like my 56 so much simpler!!

 

In my wiring diagrams it's called a ignition transformer capacitor. You can also call it a radio interference capacitor. Exact one's probably only available at Ford but there's always the junkyard to explore.

 

Thanks guys. I took the good one off so I could look at it better. I have the part number but I can't find anywhere to buy it. Even ford parts websites will find it with the part number but won't let me order one. Guess it's off to the salvage yard tomorrow.

 

The engine will run just fine without the capacitor. However, if it's missing, the engine is more likely to produce electrical noise that will interfere with radio reception in the truck and in nearby vehicles.

 

I went to a Ford dealer and they did order me one. It was $9. I wasn't going to worry about it but I have some threads online about engines not starting until they unplugged them. I don't know why that would cause a no start issue but for $9 it's not worth the risk. Thanks for all your help!

 

I'm sure your not going to fully understand but here is the way it works.
The coils cause a huge inductive 'kick' in voltage called a spike when their circuits are 'opened' each time to fire the coils.
The capacitors, one for each bank absorbs the spike to a large degree.
If this is not done the spike voltage radiates to other parts of the harness and can upset computer processing, allow noise in the radio and to others outside the engine bay.
They are subject to engine bay heat as high as 275 degrees and can go faulty over time by losing capacitance, go open or shorted.
If they go shorted, likely would blow the fuse powering the coils and injectors.
Open, cause rough running.
These devices do the same thing as a single condenser in an old points ignition to greatly reduce the 'arc' produced accross the points contacts.
They have to have a very high voltage rating of thousands of volts to handle the 'spikes' even through accross only 14 volts DC.
Good luck.

 

Thanks Bluegrass. You explained it very well. At least now I know why some people have had to disconnect them. I will try to remember this in case that fuse ever gets blown.

 

My daughter's '94 F-150 (5.0L) had a miss since we purchased a couple of months ago. I checked the plugs, wires and cap. Ran lots of fuel injector cleaner (has 150K+ miles.) The miss was intermittent some days, and very bad others, and hardly noticeable at times. When it was bad it also very bad when cruising about 40 mph and forget trying to accelerate.

During a driver's training trip with my daughter, I had her pull to the side of the road so I could manipulate the plug wires while the engine was running to see if we had a shorting plug wire. While inspecting the coil wire plug at the coil, I unintentionally bent the wire to the Radio Condenser, which happened to have 1/4" of exposed bare wire at point where it enters the top surface. This bare wire contacted the outer edge of the condenser's case and the truck immediately died.

A 20 AMP Maxi-Fuse blew. It controls the coil I suspect. Replaced it and we were down the road.

That condenser is not readily available so a nickel's worth of RTV to seal the wire solved that issue.

Although this fixed the miss, I installed a new coil for good measure. The old one looked original anyway and the truck shows 209,000 miles.

Incidentally, the plugs, cap, wires, EGR Valve, vacuum hoses, etc, all look new. I suspect the previous owner changed them in an attempt to fix this miss. I got lucky.

 

It sounds like that is what happened to me. Fuse 33 (controls ignition coils, shift solenoid and I think CMC #12 and #22 (whatever those are)) in my truck kept blowing as soon as I tried to turn the truck on. Truck would continue to crank but never start. Long story short, with the help of a techy friend, we discovered it was the coil capacitor aka ignition transformer capacitor, aka radio ignition interference capacitor on the drivers side. Unplugged it and the short went away. Truck starts up with no issues now. I have not driven the truck yet; I will wait for the replacement part. Not sure if it's OK to drive it or not as is.