I can see that happening if the coil shorts. You only have to unclip one wire to fix that though and drive it on the other cylinders.

 

It is technically possible, but definitely NOT engineered that way by Ford.

The PCM doesn't just decide to "shut it down" because of one COP.

But again, it is technically feasible that one COP could cause the PCM to have fits. But I still suspect something else is going on. Self-resetting circuit breaker in the +12 feed to the COPs? I dunno...

But again, in 9 years of reading the V10 and the 5.4L forums, I've never heard of one COP shutting down an entire engine. And if it was such a prevalent problem, I'm sure we would have heard about it here already

 

The CA diesels (at least for my generation) have programming to shut off fuel to the cylinders under deceleration under specific conditions with 0% throttle. If I'm coasting up to a light from anything over 35-40mph I can hear my engine go quiet for a brief period of time.

I agree. I had problems with the COPs on my '97 5.4L F-150 and the engine never shut down. It ran like garbage and it felt like I was going to crack a motor mount, but it still ran whether it shut down the cylinder or not.

Or you could carry a CPS in your glove box with a 10mm socket wrench so that you can perform a 5 minute swap to get you back on the road. I still have my original CPS "spare" since I've never had one go bad on me. Not bad for 208K miles...

Sorry, had to correct the typo.

 

I agree. I remember like it was yesterday when it first started coming out about the siezed plugs in the 3v heads in 05. 1 thing about it, if its on a ford its on this forum.

 

I had 3 go out on the last 7.3 I had. Traded @ 112K (a 2000, 4 years old) for a 6.uh-oh. The 7.3 was good otherwise, the 6.0 could not have been worse!

 

Sorry I call BS on the 3cps going out on a 7.3. You had other problems. I never replaced one on my 7.3 until Ford did it under the recall and that was at 130k, and Brian went 208k without having one go bad

and guess no one wants to believe me even though I provided info that you could check... oh well. I am not a ford Mechanic, (worked for GM when I was wrenchingfor a living) nor am I current but when I am told by real current Ford technicians that the COP can and did shut it down I generally tend to believe them..... But guess he is wrong cause the book says so.

 

If he used aftermarket ones, they very well could have crapped the bed on him... the aftermarket ones are junk.

Now if you are saying 3 ford ones went in 112K miles.... yeah, you had something going on. Mine had the original until the Recall was done, and had that one in there since. Makes #3 and #8 cylinders read bad on a CCT, but as long as you know it's the CPS and it's running well... nothing to worry about. Currently at 95k and running strong as heck.

 

Based on what I saw, it was possible. I saw trucks where it went barely 600 miles on one CPS.

Conversely, I have seen other trucks early 02 trucks (supposedly the most likely to succumb to the issue) do 300,000 miles and not have the problem.



I'd also believe the COP issue too - its distinctly possible that it going out caused other electrical issues, or it activated the knock sensor and shut down the engine when retarding spark wasn't removing the knock. In theory it shouldn't, as always, practice is a world removed.








Back to our topic, I always thought the issue with diesel was the powertrain combo, get a reliable engine (7.3), get a POS transmission (4R100), get a decent transmission (5R110), you are exposing yourself to potentially getting an engine that is less reliable.
It doesn't bother me, as I like trucks with automatics as much as I like herpes so a 7.3/ZF-6 combo works well, but I accept that I am the minority when it comes to transmission preferences.

The V10 on the other hand, while some early ones did have a habit of not building a strong relationship with their spark plugs early on (although I think the frequency of that occurring is much less than an injector going out on a diesel - and its a damn side cheaper to fix), but its low down torque didn't destroy 4R100's like the PSD did.

 

Which goes to show how much people really don't remember about this issue.

The "gray" FORD ones were the ones that went in very short order.

Go to the local large-trucks dealers who carry real IHC parts, put a "black" one in, and they last forever.

 

I have 2 IHC cam sensors and they are both gray. These are spares I keep in the glove boxes.

 

Damn, I got it wrong

Either way, it was the IHC sensors that last, the Ford ones didn't.

 

What about a high quality aftermarket part like the BWD?
They are my preference for COPs.

 

Bill i believe he is talking about the cps on the 7.3 powerstroke

 

I know, so am I.

 

I bought them 2 years ago. Who knows, they might be black now!!! Presently, I have the gray Ford CPS in both of my trucks, and they have been fine.