Hey you all, I've got a Ford Expedition 2003 Eddie Bauer ed. Wife and I noticed some rough idling at park and some minor hesitation in acceleration at varying speeds. It didn't happen often, but was progressively getting worse. So I changed out the spark plugs and coils and took a test drive. The shuddering started happening at acceleration and deceleration instead of at park. I left it overnight, and drove it again in the morning, and it ran great. Then there was a service engine soon light, so there's no code to research. The shuddering and hesitation have stopped, so do I need to do some sort of computer reset on that service light or could there be a problem with my fuses?

 

Most likely one (or more) of the COPs didn't seat well when you reinstalled them. It's also possible one of the COP 2-wire connectors didn't seat all the way or that one of the rubber boots on one of the COPs is cracked. A trouble code would help a lot here.

 

Read reply below please

 

Took a look again and it looks like the clips that hold the COP to the ignition coil broke - I'm at 158,000 miles, they looked pretty old. I used some electrical tape to secure 3 of them that were broken. My car ran so great I actually peeled out on the rainy road. So do you have any recommendations as to how to more permanently fix this? I have to admit I'm on a tight budget. A youtube video showed a mechanic using zip ties to do it.

 

The COP (Coil On Plug) is the ignition coil so correct me if I'm wrong but I'll assume you meant the 2-wire connector. You can go with the zip tie or buy replacement pigtails and splice them in.

Pigtail at RockAuto Parts Catalog

 

My apologies! I am dictating to my wife and she misunderstood me. She's a much faster typist than my pecking.

Anyway, yes, that is indeed what I meant. Your suggestions sound great! I appreciate it. Just from my very untrained eye I thought I was going to have to do a lot more work than that, but those seem like do-able fixes. Thank you very much!

 

Welcome to the world of every married man out there!