My brother-in-law is selling his racing boat back to it's original owner, and we're going to be heading north from Birmingham to Clarksville, TN this morning to make the transfer. I've posted our trip path below. I wish we would have some time to get together with some of our FTE family in TN, but it's going to be a fast in and out effort because he has another 14-hr trip tomorrow from Brimingham back to Miami, FL.

Reason I'm posting is as a heads up... he's got a bad coil on one of his cylinders in his '04 Navigator, we think it's #5, and it could always crap out big time while we're on the road. I've offered to use my truck, but he's insisting on taking his vehicle so he can repeat the problem and "know what's going on". Probably will not be an issue, but I'm also loaded with our new RHN contact info in case we do need any assistance along the way.

 

Man that's going to be a nice long trip. About how long will that take Pete?

 

Hey - pick up some of those White Castle gut buster burgers in Clarksville! They will keep you warm if you get stuck waiting for help...........Mike (Tenn01PSD) is right there, to bad you can't link up for a cup of coffee or something......

Have a safe trip......


P.S. Thanks for the F-250 mirror covers......I need to take some pics and post them, nice fit and I can't wait to try them out in South Dakota next week.

 

No offense Pete, but your BIL is a knucklehead. To go on that long of a roadtrip in a vehicle with pretty much a known issue, rather than take your "no problems" truck... what's next, chumming the water before surfing South Africa just to make things more interesting?

Enjoy the trip. Hope it goes smoothly for you & that he doesn't get to "know what's going on"... People like him are why many of us carry tow chains/straps.

 

I hate to be the moldy cheese in your refigerator of hope, but the same thoughts crossed my mind as well.......maybe you should follow behind him with the PSD Pete! Besides, your setup will pull that boat better than the Navigator anyway.

Hopefully you will have an uneventful boring ride.......

 

You cannot say "in laws" and "common sense" in the same sentence!
Sheesh, just throw a coil on #5 and THEN take the trip.

 

Rich, are you out of your mind???? Can you imagine two guys closed up in an SUV together about two hours after eating White Castles? Talk about a potentially explosive situation!

They don't call them slyders for nothing!

 

Yeah! But at leat it will take their mind off the car issues...

 

Pete,

I spent quite a bit of time in your town in 2008. My little brother was in UAB Birmingham University Hospital for almost 3 months. I burned up the highway between Lexington, KY and Birmingham. Those fillups when diesel was over $4.50 last summer were a little rough too!

Safe travels to Clarksville. My grandfather was minister at the Christian Church in Clarksville many many years ago.

 

OK guys... I share your opinions very clearly on all fronts, except there were actaully 4 of us in the car (my two oldest sons went with us). We ended up having lunch at Shoneys at Exit 4, which is where my BIL's buyer and two other racing friends were meeting us for the exchange.

No issues at all on the trip. Right at 4 hours gettings there and 3hrs-45 minutes coming back. Not a single hitch... CEL light never came on once, but you can still feel the rough running at idle.

The reason we did not go ahead and change out the coil yesterday is that there was a second code that said "Random Miss", and the technician, who used to be a Ford tech, said that it could actually sometimes be a random miss due to one of a couple other problems and that it would be best to run the engine until the CEL light comes on again, then re-check the codes, and if it still shows as #5, then change that coil... but could also be either the plug , the wire boot, or the injector, even though that engine is reportedly "known for killing coils".

Anyway, I sure wish I had had the time to contact Mike and get together with him, but I was "along for the ride" with BIL, so I was completely on his timetable. He, my BIL, is actually a really good guy, very smart, mechancially inclined, etc., but is rather picky at how he wants to go about things. Honestly, I can appreciate his desire to "see it happen again and verify the problem" before spending money on it, even though I would have rather taken the truck just for more security.

I did not get my belt and hose changed yesterday, anyway, and we would have preferred to have done those two things before leaving at 7 this morning, on top of moving his second power head and extra cowls and everything else from his Nav to my truck bed... too much monkeying around in a rush this AM to have done that, even though it would have saved him some fuel. The belt and hose wasn't really necessary, but he really wanted to see the engine run to see if the CEL would light up again for code verification.

Anyway... thanks for all the encouragement.

Bill, give me a call next time you're in town and we might just be able to catch a cup of coffee or something.

 

Cool Pete,

Glad it all went without a hitch......

hope Mike doesn't read this thread! He's gonna be pissed

 

Pete, I am so pissed about not reading this thread. I so would have been there, even just to say hello. 5 miles down the road. That is a shame, I did nothing but sit on my hands and work on trying to find out about arrangements for the TS event in Bowling Green in May.

You should have called me bro. Both my #s are on the RHN.

Anyway, here's what I did for the stupid coil problem on the wife"s F150. I pulled all the coils off, replaced the plugs, cleaned out the boots. Lubed them with dieelectric, and reinstalled. Been running like a champ since. As for the symptoms, it had a horrible miss, the truck would shake under load. AE said a miss. To this day, good to go. Hopefully at least with this, something positive can come from this.

Man, I still can't believe you were that close. Shame on you, and me.

 

Mike, I really feel so bad about the whole thing, too. I really wanted to call you... I started to several times, but I didn't want to hit you on such short notice.

What I really hate is that I knew I was going by Saturday afternoon and didn't even think of posting the travel plans or printing out the RHN list until this morning. That's when I found out that you live right there!


I won't forget it next time, though... that you can count on!

Regarding the coils... so you did NOT change out the coils, then... just replace plugs, clean boots, dope with dielectric and reinstall?? That's simple enough. I will pass that on to my BIL this evening so he can try that approach first. He is already planning on new plugs when he gets back to Miami anyway, so this will fit his plans nicely and hopefully save a few pennies as well. Thanks for the insight!

Well... gotta run for the evening to spend some much-needed time with teh wife and kids before starting teh grind again tomorrow.

Night all.

 

Pete,

Will do. Little brother is probably facing another round of surgery but it will probably be in 4 or 5 months. If you'll send me contact info in a PM I'll do likewise and try to look you up.

 

No, I did not. You need compressed air to blow out the area before removing the plugs. I bet you will find moisture in one or more of the coil boots. That is the problem. Clean and dry them out, liberally. Plenty of dieelectric and re-install. If problem persists, then there's a bad coil or wire. There is a way to test the coil and boot assembly but it may not be worth the fabbing VS getting a new one and replacing/swapping as you go. BTW, it will likely only be one coil. If more than one is on the way south, which is rare, it will drive like a total POS. Just one makes it feel like the tranny is about to fall out of it.

Sorry I missed you. I could have used an excuse to drive somewhere today. Maybe next time. Let me know if you have any more ?s on the Navigator.