02 LS hesitation "HELP"

jagerme911

jagerme911

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Well my baby has 87k on her. The other weekend i was driving on the freeway & it all started! I was doing about 72mph when i hit the gas hard! Got to about 5 + rpms in D5 & she started hesitating & the motor light started flashing fast. Now @ any speed she is hesitating. WellI pulled over shut her off & started her back up. No problems anymore. Well my girl told me that she might of put regular unleded in her. So i put injection cleaner in her & filled up with 93. Seemed OK then! Well a week later on the freeway D5 doing about 80 & pushing the gas around 25 to 27 rpms she started hesitating again!!! Well pulled off & went back the other way. Getting on the freeway D4 39 to 46 rpms AGAIN the motor light rapidly flashing & lots of hesitating. Pulled over again shut her off & on probblems? What The Hell? Anyone relate? Plugs Wires? I dont know Bad Gas? Or somthing more serious? HELP
 
Bad coil due to either age or leaky valve cover gaskets allowing oil into the plug wells which shorts out the coils.

There is a tech article on how to change them located in the "tech articles" link at the top of the page.
 
Nyc Ls8

Thanks man Ive had this car two years & LOVE HER!! No problems up till now guess thats a good thing! I love this LvC!!! Technology is a beautiful thing!!! "NYC LS8"
 
+1 on Ignition coils. Trust us. Replace ALL of them at one time and get it over with. Couple of vendors on this forum sell cheaper than dealership. as mentioned above..good chance the valve cover gaskets require replacement as well.
 
Replace the valve cover gaskets.... expensive unless you do it yourself.
But this is essential. Don't skip it. The last time I did it I just changed the valve cover which had the gaskets already installed on it. More expensive but the gaskets do not slip off when locating over the head. Clean all the gasket mating surfaces perfectly before replacing the valve cover. Torque to the spec.
Replace all the coils. Try Team Ford Bill Jenkins in Las Vegas. Good prices.

Good Luck!
 
Well I called the dealer. 5 Star Max wasent there & they wanted $119.85 per coil. Havent tried team Ford yet! Advance Auto 48.95 per. Is there a differance other than price? If there is no leak from the gaskets should I replace anyways? Sounded like it? 87k on her? I forgot to mention when I was in D4 about 39 to 46 rpms motor light rapidly flashing & hesitation. I could of swore my AC stoped working? I did feel a climate change in the air!!! Maybe just High Blood Pressure. But stoped & shut her off. Started her again & no problems AC working fine!!!
 
Thanks Iseguy! Im going to do that. I like that price better!!! Hoping that & a tune up will do the trick!!! If thats my problem? No eng light on so? A little hesitation I dont want to just start throwing money around! But its killing me I want/need to do something! SHE is my BABY!!!
 
if you plan on just changing the one then you will have to take it to someone that has a scanner so you know which coil has gone bad. if you do plan on doing the VCG's and all coils then you need not worry about it
 
also, a failing/intermittent coil will not always trigger a CEL. This is what has caused techs issues, or rather, has allowed dealerships to make more money. How? You go in with a report of a misfire. CEL light is on and points to cylinder 2. Tech follows his procedure and replaces the coil on cylinder 1. He clears codes, test drives for 2 miles (if that), and all is well. You pay about $300, get the car back and drive for two days. Misfire returns but no CEL. You take back to dealership, they scan and find no codes. They test drive and during their short drive, detect no misfire. After charging you $90 for diagnostics, you get car back and go home. A day later, the misfire gets worse, and a CEL finally appears. YOu go BACK to the dealer, they read codes, and find that coil #4 and #7 are bad. They replace coils, charge you several hundred dollars more, and you go home. Repeat.

Sooo...to avoid this, many of us have found that its cheaper and much less hassle to have ALL of the coils replaced at one time, once the first misfire/CEL light appears.
 
For you guys who have the coil problem/misfire- how do you notice the misfire exactly? I've been having an interrmittent issue with mine, at first it would sometimes stall/go to ETC failsafe when accelerating somewhat quicly with the AC on. Now its randomly done it a couple of times with the AC off (most recently I turned it on, waited till the RPMs dropped, put in reverse and got about 3 feet before the failsafe). Turn car off and back on and its never any problems after for the rest of the day/week.

But each time it's gone into ETC failsafe I've never felt anything funny with the car or noticed anything at all, so I'm not sure if the car is misfiring and I'm just not noticing it because of the radio or wind noise or what. Any help?
 
my stateement above in my post should read "CEL light is on and points to cylinder 2. Tech follows his procedure and replaces the coil on cylinder 2".
 
pagluy said:
For you guys who have the coil problem/misfire- how do you notice the misfire exactly? I've been having an interrmittent issue with mine, at first it would sometimes stall/go to ETC failsafe when accelerating somewhat quicly with the AC on. Now its randomly done it a couple of times with the AC off (most recently I turned it on, waited till the RPMs dropped, put in reverse and got about 3 feet before the failsafe). Turn car off and back on and its never any problems after for the rest of the day/week.

But each time it's gone into ETC failsafe I've never felt anything funny with the car or noticed anything at all, so I'm not sure if the car is misfiring and I'm just not noticing it because of the radio or wind noise or what. Any help?
Click to expand...

My symptom was a stutter on acceleration. I'd floor it, RPM's would smoothly rise to 3k..4k..5k..then wham...rpms drop to 1k....then back up to 4k. Almost like the fuel flow was completely shutdown for 1 second. As it got worse, the symptoms were just like above, but in addition, the car would SURGE in cruise control. Going up I95 during a trip, cruise set to 70mph. Then a weird DROP in RPM's, then a massive SURGE/JERK in power. Almost dangerous like. Took about 4-6 weeks before I noticed the CEL flash for all of 1 second, then it went off. On a hunch, I checked for codes, and sure enough, I had a stored code of misfire on Cylinder #2. At that point, I replaced them all. That was about 6 or 7 months ago, and she's been running fine since then
 
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