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Shudder -- ignition?

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Old Aug 24, 2009 | 10:06 AM
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Shudder -- ignition?

I am experiencing a shudder on my 98 4.6 expedition with 133K miles. Over the year, my gas mileage has dropped to 12-13mpg. Now I have the shudder. About a month ago, I had a check engine light on and found I had antifreeze in plug 6. I fixed that and the shudder is still here. The ignition has never been replaced.

Question. Should the plugs and wires be replaced? How about the coils? Do you use aftermarkets?

I was looking at FORD SOS Coils and it looks like the wires and coils are part of the same. Is that true? http://www.performancedistributors.com/soscoils.htm

How hard of a job is this?

Thanks!
 
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Old Aug 24, 2009 | 11:39 AM
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At 133K have the plugs ever been changed?

In 98, I thought the 4.6 still had coil packs and spark plug wires? The link you provided shows a COP which is on all 5.4 engines and later year 4.6 motors. Can you confirm if your's has spark plug wires or not?
 
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Old Aug 24, 2009 | 11:52 AM
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The plugs have not been changed and are the originals.

I pulled plug #6 and the tip looked gray. I believe it has just wires. When I pulled the wire, it had a 6" boot and I followed the wire to a pack.

How would I tell if it has coils?
 
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Old Aug 24, 2009 | 12:04 PM
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Originally Posted by ebraunusa
The plugs have not been changed and are the originals.
According to the maintenance schedule, the plugs are supposed to be changed at 100K miles, so you're overdue with those. I would first change the plugs and see if the problem goes away, before wasting money on others problems that might not exist.
 
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Old Aug 25, 2009 | 09:02 AM
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What brand of plugs?

Okay, will change the plugs. What brand of plugs? Motorcraft? Is there different lines and will one give me better performance and MPG?
 
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Old Aug 25, 2009 | 10:27 AM
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Just use the original Motorcraft plugs, nothing else works better or improves performance/gas mileage.
 
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Old Aug 26, 2009 | 08:32 AM
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I replaced the plugs last night with Motorcrafts. The plugs that were in there were AutoLites and they must have be in there before I bought it at 60,000.

Anyways, the truck ran very smooth.

Thanks for the advice on starting with the plugs and seeing what happens.
 
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Old Aug 26, 2009 | 02:08 PM
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[quote=ebraunusa;7862152]I am experiencing a shudder on my 98 4.6 expedition with 133K miles. Over the year, my gas mileage has dropped to 12-13mpg. Now I have the shudder. About a month ago, I had a check engine light on and found I had antifreeze in plug 6. I fixed that and the shudder is still here. The ignition has never been replaced.

Question. Should the plugs and wires be replaced? How about the coils? Do you use aftermarkets?

I was looking at FORD SOS Coils and it looks like the wires and coils are part of the same. Is that true? http://www.performancedistributors.com/soscoils.htm

How hard of a job is this?

We show that your model Expedition utilizes 2 coil packs-NOT COP's.

Please see what you need at:

http://www.performancedistributors.com/97f150.htm
 
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