How many Falures of Accel Coils. Anyone ?

chris2523 said:
time and mileage dude.
the motorcraft coils have lasted most of us 10 years or more. ours went to 130k or so, so that was about 14 years of use.

don't think anyone has had the accel coils for 13 or 14 years and 130k+ yet.
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Can't say much about the years yet. I've only got a little over 2 trouble free years on mine.

However, I did replace 4 out of 8 coils by 52K-mi, and another one started screwing up around 70K-mi about a week before I did the Accel conversion. I've got 110K-mi on my car now so in another two oil changes the Accel coils will have out lasted 4 OEM motorcraft coils that came in my '06. Technically they've already outlasted 3 since that's how many I went through by 38K-mi and 4 years. The fourth one was at 52K-mi and 5 years, and there would have been at least one more around 70K-mi at 7-years.

Money wise, as long as I get 50K-mi and/or 5 years out of these Accel coils I will be ahead of the game. No one on here EVER advises to find and replace the single failing coil. Standard operating procedure on this forum is to replace everything and pray it gets better. With that mindset, I can buy two sets of Accel coils every 50K-mi and get the same longevity as MC ones. And if that's 50K-miles with zero issues, even better.

Now if you want to go with years in service then all we can do is hurry up and wait. Cammer's 7 year run is a pretty good indicator though. I'm half way to 5 years, which again from a money standpoint in my COP failure scenario, still put me even with the MC ones.

This is the first time I've heard of anyone getting 10-years or 130K-miles out of OEM COPs though, or at least out of the original set that came from the factory. I believe people have SOME coils that lasted that long, but I am not sure I would consider it the expected norm. Hell, Ford had to roll out an extended factory warranty on JUST the COPs cause they were such a widespread problem.
 
Kumba said:
This is the first time I've heard of anyone getting 10-years or 130K-miles out of OEM COPs though, or at least out of the original set that came from the factory. I believe people have SOME coils that lasted that long, but I am not sure I would consider it the expected norm. Hell, Ford had to roll out an extended factory warranty on JUST the COPs cause they were such a widespread problem.
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Yep my math equals the same thing. The Ford coils were warrantied out for many well short of 10 years.
 
I mean I got 10+ years out of my original factory coils. I expect to get the same or better out of the updated Motorcraft coils..

The way I look at it, the Accels are the same or slightly less quality than oem. Slightly cheaper but requires modification, maybe some can justify the tradeoff.

Not an end all solution. Then again the car will only need one coil set replacement if you do it right. Not sure anyone plans to keep this car for more than a couple decades..
 
stugots said:
I mean I got 10+ years out of my original factory coils. I expect to get the same or better out of the updated Motorcraft coils.
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I would consider your experience the exception given the numerous posts on here. I would put money on it that if we were to take a poll of people who got 10+ years out of a complete set of 8 coils, whether OEM or the various updated MC replacements, there would be a small minority who did.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating that the Accel or MC are a superior coil, I'm saying that 10 years and 130K-mi is not what I would consider the norm. I base my opinion of that on my own experience and the numerous threads on this site where OEM and MC coils have failed well short of that mark. Going from my own experience, I would say you will be doing good to get 5-years or 50K-miles out of a set before they start to act up.

So for me the decision was to roll the dice on Accel coils, for half the price, in hope that I got at least the same longevity as the OEM and MC coils that I kept going through. Modding your car is a personal preference so if that's not a gamble you are willing to entertain then MC/OEM would be the way to go for sure.

Bottom line I don't think you can really go wrong with either option, but at this point I don't consider the Accel coils to be an inferior or substandard or lesser quality option.

So far in this thread there are 3 people (with a 4th on the way) who have done a complete Accel COP conversion with zero issues, and 3 people who have gotten 10+ years and 100K+ miles out of the OEM/MC COPs. Just for fun, the guys who have OEM/MC coils, was the 10 years on the original OEM set that came with the car (that you know of) or was that after a complete repalcement to the updated MC units?
 
Just for clarification I only made it 70k miles on the original coils. Checking records, was almost exactly 10 years from build date. Mine were 100% the originals that came from the factory.

I think a lot of it has to do with heat cycles or maybe just heat in general. Longevity seems to be affected by a lot of different variables. Same with the cooling system which I have yet to deal with at 9xK miles.

Also at 70k miles I had no CEL or noticeable misfires. I brought it in shortly before the 10 year 100k mile warranty was up. They replaced 2 marginal coils. I brought it back a few days later and they replaced the remaining along with the VCGs on Ford's dime.
 
Kumba said:
...So far in this thread there are 3 people (with a 4th on the way) who have done a complete Accel COP conversion with zero issues, and 3 people who have gotten 10+ years and 100K+ miles out of the OEM/MC COPs. Just for fun, the guys who have OEM/MC coils, was the 10 years on the original OEM set that came with the car (that you know of) or was that after a complete repalcement to the updated MC units?
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This is all going by memory, so it is probably a little wrong...

On my 04, the first one or two coil issues were at about 70K miles. Those were replaced under warranty, and the rest remained. The next marginal coil was at a little over 100K miles, so I replaced them all (as well as the plugs). The 04 is now over 170K, and no more marginal coils so far. Sorry, I don't recall the years for this.

On my 06, the first coil problem was at about 90K miles. It was different than most. The plastic mounting ear on #8 was broken. (The plug was fully screwed in.). Any way, I replaced all the coils and plugs. The 06 is now at over 130K miles.

So, I've had some that went over 100K miles, and many that came close. I haven't had any of the replacements fail yet, but none of those are at 100K miles yet. Also, I haven't done much to verify that the plugs were not the problem instead of the coils, beyond verifying that they weren't fouled and that the gaps were in spec (or nearly in spec).
 
I live in Florida where it's going to have an average high in the 90's for 4-6 months out of the year. It's also above 80 for around 9 months out of the year where I live. Given that maybe coils fail faster down here then they do somewhere else like Maine where it's not hot like that for more then a month or two. Heat is the universal culprit in COP failures. It is what breaks down the epoxy and insulation.
 
I do believe that heat is likely to be a factor. Here on the Mississippi gulf coast, it is probably just about as hot as Florida, we usually break 100 once or twice a year, most years. The max last year at my house was 100.4, so not one of the hottest.
 
You know what's really sad about the COP failures? The ones on my Silverado have about 370,000 miles on them, and are original to the truck, and this is the norm for these trucks. Even in the days of HEI the factory coil would last over 100K miles and that was firing 8 times more often than the individual coils fire. Since they appear to be pretty much the same coil, these things could theoretically make it 800K miles before failure. Ford could have done better with theirs and if I were keeping my LS I'd look into a way to use the Chevy coils on the Lincoln. The coil part on the Chevy trucks is also about twice as large as the ones on the LS too though, and they are not mounted under a cover that keeps engine heat in.

It occurs to me that anyone here who has one of those new 3D printers (or even one who has access to a CNC machine who can do some aluminum ones) might try building a new valve cover for the LS, perhaps one that is vented to let heat out with the vents designed to keep water out. Some sort of louvered cover that stands about an inch taller than the factory cover, perhaps with a stylized Lincoln symbol in the middle. What little water that does make it in would be evaporated in short order, and the extra inch over the coils would let heat rise enough to make it out of the louvers without allowing it to pool around the coils. And yes, I know, COPs, but the COP does have a coil inside the top and that is the part I am speaking about. Might make a nice little sideline for someone. Course, so might figuring out a way to print cooling system parts if the plastic used in the 3D printers is able to handle making a part that's subjected to repeated heat and pressure cycles.
 
Ok, so lets keep getting the Acell COP users post also please. If you have Accel's post your time and miles as close as you can. Fail/Or Not Failed. Thank
 
joegr said:
I do believe that heat is likely to be a factor. Here on the Mississippi gulf coast, it is probably just about as hot as Florida, we usually break 100 once or twice a year, most years. The max last year at my house was 100.4, so not one of the hottest.
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I'm sure you are aware of this, but another factor, and even Ford had this in a service bulletin was that failure could possibly be just the rubber Boot, Not the Coil Pack itself. But that throws another monkey wrench in the equation.

But I would again like to keep the post coming of Accel users failures. Thanks!
 
I know Pektel had Accels and I cant remember him ever mentioning a failure. I know of several other members who did the conversion. Mechanicboy had Accels too.
 
FWIW, I put in the Accels not because of a failure in the originals but because I was going to spray a mix of methanol and nitrous oxide in addition to putting C16 in the tank while racing in E/F CC at Maxton. The combo worked flawlessly and I set four records in one day. The fastest one still stands these years later.

I intend to go to faster class and part of the plan is to use the sort of aftermarket individual coils that require a small pigtail of plug wire and the sort of termination that's been used on plugs that reside in a tube in the middle of a cam cover. Look at a Ford FE SOHC engine for a picture. I'm exploring with Accel in furtherance of this. More soon.

KS
 
Kumba said:
Since when do you have to leave the coil cover off to put on Accel coils? :)

I had less then stellar experience with MC coils, and Visteon wasn't an option when I was looking. I figured if I went with Accel and just had to replace them twice as much as MC I would be doing just fine. So far no problems so here's to hoping they remain problem free.
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So do you have the engine covers on with the Accel coils? How? Do you use some special bracket?
 
I use the 140032.

Search kumbas threads. He cut the Accels and modified the connector to fit under the coil covers.
 
jgscott said:
Ok, so lets keep getting the Acell COP users post also please. If you have Accel's post your time and miles as close as you can. Fail/Or Not Failed. Thank
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Hasn't been long for me, about 3 months maybe 2,000 miles. For posterity's sake though I'm happy to report no issues yet.
 
I guess I need to go dig up the pictures and post them somewhere else for that thread. That original server crashed and I lost it all.
 
Kumba said:
I guess I need to go dig up the pictures and post them somewhere else for that thread. That original server crashed and I lost it all.
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I found the thread, someone else posted them, and the pic's are still viewable.
 
ahhh, cool. Good enough then :)

It was easier then it sounds. Just have to go slow when cutting the connector on the coils.
 
Update on jumpers to reverse polarity on Accel COPs

As those of you who've been following the various posts on Accel COPs will be aware, I was one of the first to install the Mustang units. There was, for a long period of time no suggestion that the polarity was not all it should have been.

There have been a number of suggested repairs for this problem. Some have 'excavated' within the terminals at the connection points on the factory wiring harness. The problem seems to be that the plastic is brittle and trying to take the terminals apart simply results in significant breakage.

Others have found that it's possible to buy new terminals and so make jumpers to fit into the harness ends and reverse the polarity by the way the ends are wired together. The drawback to this very neat approach is that the sources for the ends are VERY proud of their wares. Depending on just where you acquire them the handful of terminations will cost from a low of about $60 to as much as $90 when the shipping is included in the cost. Since they undoubtedly cost about fifty cents to manufacture, the thousand percent or so markup is a little difficult to swallow.

As stated above, I'm in process of using a different sort of coil. This means that any approach I use at present is only for use over the next few weeks. Therefore, I decided to see what could be accomplished using items that're already part of my 'stash'. Although all my stuff is piled into a storage unit, I do have some hand tools available.

I looked at what seems to be available and then at what was in my storage. Both the coils and the connectors have contacts that're best described as 'pins' and sockets to receive them. The crimp-on terminations available are better described as blades than pins.

Commercial female ends---Philmore brand---work just fine to push onto the pins on the coils once they're opened slightly by using the sort of small screwdriver that is used to do repairs on a pair of glasses. The other end of the jumper---the blade---is a bit more complex to modify. The smallest blade is package-marked as being .110 wide. This is slightly too wide to easily press into the sockets on the harness.

I modified one jumper successfully by angle-clipping the blades with a pair of 'dykes'. but finding myself not satisfied with the somewhat ragged edge that results, I've dreamed-up an alternate process. I'll narrow the blades by the use of a cut-off wheel in my Dremel. Now all I have to do is figure out which box in the storage has the Dremel and the tools.

More later.

KS

A day later---
The little blades are either tinned copper or, more likely, aluminum. In any case they're soft enough to be cleanly cut by using a hefty pair of scissors. I just tried it on a spare crimp-on end I had laying here on my desk.

It's getting too close to dark here in Detroit by the time I roll in from work so I won't finish the job until next weekend. More later.
 
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My spare backup set of the V8 Visteons sitting on the shelf smiling away, right beside the Hite Performance custom hold down brackets for the Accels.
 
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