1998 Cont New Spark Plugs, maybe ignition coils?

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Krbballer

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I have a 1998 Continental with 164,000. A few problems have been occurring recently. Some of the problems I've seen posted here, but I've only seen how to fix one of them.

First, during long driving (3 or more hours) the check transmission light comes on. Just like someone else stated, I had run low on tran fluid, not empty, it only needed 1 quart. I filled it up, and it was fine. But then again on the next long trip, the light came on, but the fluid was fine. It doesn't have a problem with 1.5 hr long trips (my daily commute), only longer trips.

Second, I'm being totally honest here, I went to a cheap gas station, filled up with 92 (which I didn't know existed) because they didn't have 93, and made it about 1/4 mile before the car started severly hesitating. During excelleration at first. Kind of a sputtering, almost as if it was having problems switching gears, but its not the tranny, it does it at all speeds. At about 75 its still a little noticeable. Very little acceleration. Then yesterday, it had the same sputtering while stopped at traffic lights. Then the Service Engine Soon light came on. I took it to a Midas and they said the engine is misfiring and that I would need new spark plugs and an engine cleaning service. I told them I just got ripped off with that service 3 weeks ago by you, so he said maybe I don't need it then. But the estimate for new spark plugs was $480. I told him I have a reciept from Firestone which did it 3 years ago for only $150! I was told he can't fix the price, thats just the way the computer computes the price. So I walked out and now I'm going to try and tackle the spark plug change myself. While reading other threads I saw someone else had a similar problem and he changed the plugs and ignition coils and the problem was eliminated. Can anyone please provide a detailed description on how to change the spark plugs and ignition coils on 98 continental? As well as what tools I'll need? Any help would be greatly appreciated, it was great to find such a cool website.
 
Welcome aboard!
I have a Mark VIII and am not totally familiar what you have to work with. However, My two cents is that you may have gotten a tank of "bad gas". Water or other impurities may have been gotten in the fuel stations tank and was transferred to yours. Try a fuel system cleaner first, as it is an easy fix and fill up with a reputable fuel retailer and see if that helps right away. After that, perhaps a fuel filter replacement.
Should those not help, you’ll need some tools. Get a hold of an OBDII (On Board Diagnostics II) scanner. There are plenty out there for the discerning budget. Run a scan on the car and look for what cylinders were misfiring. Swap out the coil pack to another cylinder to see if the misfire follows. If it does, that coil pack is definitely suspect.
If not, the plugs need to changed. Pick up replacements and the sparkplug socket and a six inch or better extension to reach into the cam covers far enough. For a better description of what to do from there, run a search for Conti the specifics you are looking for.
 
Yeah, that is what I tried first. I ran the tank nearly empty, filled the tank up with 93 from an Exxon station and added fuel system cleaner. So far as of this mornings 70 mile drive, there is no noticible improvement. I've looked at replacing the fuel filter, I saw a few figures of where it was located and I saw a picture of where a relief valve was located, but I'm not sure how to use the relief valve. When I release the pressure, can I just take the old fuel filter off? Do I have to empty the tank? Is gas going to pour out of the line? Is there a procedure I must follow after installing the new filter or can I just start the car right after installing it?

Also, I'm looking for a good set of instructions on how to change out a coil pack. Has this already been addressed in another thread? If so, does anyone have the link?
 
1. I agree about about the bad gas. 91 or better is premium (alot of states only have 91) so the 92 you put it was fine. There is so many things that could cause this.

2. The spark plugs? maybe. depends on what kind they put in 3 years ago. If it was copper then, yeah, they need to be changed. If they are the specified double platinum then they should last a good 60K or more.

3. I'm gonna do the fuel filter change this weekend so if you can wait for pics I'll have em up :)

4. Like mentioned before, pull the codes, change fuel filter, run a few tanks of 93 through, pull the negative battery cable for 2 hours to reset the computer. These are just some of the things to try first.

The spark plugs and coil can be tested with a multimeter.
 
Pictures of the fuel filter change would be great. At about 80,000 miles (2004), the fuel filter, cabin filter, pcv valve, and plugs (platinum) were changed. It has 164,000 now, so they're probably all due again.

Any idea on the transmission light?

Any one have pdf or other electronic files of fuel filter/pcv valve/coil pack/spark plug changes? Again, pictures for the fuel filter change would be great. Thanks a lot!
 
The tranny light. Is it the O/D light blinking on and off? Or on the Conti, do you have a seperate (Malfunction Indicator Light) MIL that is lit?
 
No, the only light that comes on is the "Check Transmission" sign where things such as gas mileage/trip meter/Performance are displayed.
 
I had a "check Transmission " light popup in the message window too. This was about 2.5 hrs into a road trip. The shop that had replaced my fill tube dipstick O-ring, overfilled the tranny. I had removed some fluid and the light went away.
I had noticed that the Mercon-5 seems to expand quite abit as it gets hot. I had check my fluid after running errands about the city, the fluid was at the top of the mark and had no problems. In fact it was several days of city driving since that car was at the shop.
Just a thought, next time you get the check tranny warning, check the tranny fluid and see if it had expanded and is giving you that alarm. Since I have a '97 Mark, the control logic and monitoring maybe differrent.
?
 
Change the fuel filter:

It's best if you let the car sit overnight so the fuel pressure will be down as low as possible. Next open up the fuel cap to relieve further pressure.
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Supposedly there is another way to relieve fuel pressure in addition to the fuel cap. Take the cover off the shrader valve on the intake manifold.
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Its on the end of the fuel rail in the picture. It looks kinda like a valve stem.

The fuel filter itself is located on the frame rail right behind the jack stand in the picture. I had to raise my car to get to it more easily. If you do, make sure to turn the air suspension off in the trunk.
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Once you get the car up and can see the filter. Undo the strap that is holding it there. This requires a phillips head srewdriver.

Now, you will see little white clips holding the filter on both in front and back. What you want to do is, using a straight slot screwdriver, gently put the head of the screwdriver under the top of the white clip and lift directly up. This essentially pulls the clamp up and out of the way.
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Here is a closeup of the white tab things
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Once you got the white tabs off you can pull the filter off. The new filter ought to have two new white clips in the box. Put the new filter in, making sure the arrow is pointing in the right direction. Once in, put the new white clips in by reversing the removal procedure. In other words, put the filter in then from the top put the white clips down into the teeth openings. Then make sure the fuel tubes on both sides are pushed into the filter as much/tight as possible. Start the car and check for leaks.
 
Thanks a lot, it sounds real easy. I probably do it tomorrow! I'm also looking to change the PCV valve if anyone has detailed instructions. Thanks again!
 
Thanks again guys! Huge help. It looks like I can now change the fuel filter and pcv valve by myself for under $12 total.

I've been reading tons of other threads about coils being the cause of engine stuttering. Anyone have any good links/info/pictures of coils being changed?

Thanks again, this forum is a huge help.
 
nah, this time I have no write up for the coil. :) However, it's not bad. Does your car have the individual coils on each cylinder or the two main coils at the front of the engine? That's the way mine is. Just study it for a minute. You can see that a few bolts and a plug are basically the only thing holding it in. Should be pretty easy to swap out.

Make sure you disconnect the battery and apply diaelectric grease on the inside of each spark plug wire boot. Both on the spark plug end and the coil end.
 
K, things got worse. I changed the fuel filter and I changed the pcv valve and the problem was not fixed. Same stuttering during acceleration. Then I changed the plugs and the stuttering got worse. Even at idle the car is stuttering. When turning the wheel or when switching gears I can even hear a spark plug misfiring. Kind of a quick clicking noise? Also, I only kind of think I hear it during wheel turning or gear switching because I only drove it for about 2 mins.

Things I might have f'ed up..... Let me know how important they are...

I didn't guage the spacing of the sparkplug, i just took them out of the box, applied a little dieletric grease and put them in.

I only had one small 99 cent package of the dilectic grease, so the last couple of plugs only got a small amount. Do the plugs need a lot of grease?

How do I make sure the wire coupling sits properly on the spark plug? They were a little difficult coming off the old plug, but went on easily on the new ones, then would also come off the new ones easily.

What other things should I be looking at or looking for?
 
The individual coils aren't hard to change. Remove that 32 Valve Intech V8 Plate from the valve cover and behold, You get view of the first 4 coils. Just unclip the wire connector from each coil and just pull the coil out. All what holds them down is that cover. The back is the same thing only theres less space, light, and that bar is in the way, which really becomes uncomfortable to pull the spark plug and the coils out. But it can be done. Just be gentle pulling the coils out since most of it is rubber, your car may have original coils which are old and have many years of taking intence heat, they sometime break in half. I lost a couple of good coils because of that. Really, the hardest part of this job is removing the back 4 spark plugs because of the angle & space.
 
Thanks for all the help guys! I successfuly changed the fuel filter, pcv valve, spark plugs and one ignition coil. The car ran pretty well afterwards. I also ran some seafoam through the pcv valve. There wasn't the big white smoke cloud like everyone was saying though. There was smoke, just not a lot. But now everything is fine and the car runs well.

Here's what I did to find out the ignition coil that didn't work. I took the black metal covers covering the spark plugs/coils and started the car. Then I lifted one coil about 1-2 inches and heard a sparking noise (crackling noise). I continued to lift one at a time until one did not make the sparking noise. Then I turned off the car, disconnected the non-crackling coil, installed the new one, reattached the black metal covers and started the car. Everything aok. Thanks everyone for the tips!
 
Krbballer said:
Thanks for all the help guys! I successfuly changed the fuel filter, pcv valve, spark plugs and one ignition coil. The car ran pretty well afterwards. I also ran some seafoam through the pcv valve. There wasn't the big white smoke cloud like everyone was saying though. There was smoke, just not a lot. But now everything is fine and the car runs well.

Here's what I did to find out the ignition coil that didn't work. I took the black metal covers covering the spark plugs/coils and started the car. Then I lifted one coil about 1-2 inches and heard a sparking noise (crackling noise). I continued to lift one at a time until one did not make the sparking noise. Then I turned off the car, disconnected the non-crackling coil, installed the new one, reattached the black metal covers and started the car. Everything aok. Thanks everyone for the tips!
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Good Fix!!:cool:
 
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