FocusCanada Forums

Spark plug wires? I had some hesitation when DPFE's went but your symptons sound more severe like I had a couple months back and it was the wires.

Like I already said....I had the same issues forever until they replaced my fuel pump. Check it out.

Took it to the dealer this morning (very slowly, in 2-cylinder shitbox mode).
The CEL came on (for the first time) when I started it up.

Described my symptoms and they said they could do a code-scan first ($90) instead of doing the fuel pump - I said no, go ahead & do the fuel pump first then if that doesn't fix it let's go from there.

Got a call from the dealer - they replaced the fuel-pump and the problem was still there. They did the code scan -- something showed up to do with an improper spark, I presume - as it lead them to the coilpack, and the connecting wires, which they said were terribly corroded.

Anyhow, they all the corrosion was likley due to an improperly done engine shampoo. Improper in that the residue wasn't cleaned off properly. Which is BS as I've *NEVER* done an engine shampoo. My car does sit outside unfortunately, but it's only got 45,000km on it and I don't do lots of winter driving in it.

Anyhow they said I need
- a new coil pack
- new spark plug wires (2 are 'bad')
- recommend new spark plugs
- recommend an 'induction service' for the fuel system (which I had done .. 15,000 ago?)
- final code scan & reset

Total??: over $800 .(inc taxes)
The thread here: http://www.focuscanada.net/forum/index.p...opic=10141
discusses Focus stalling out & hesitation problems -- and there is a link to a FocalJet thread about (prematurely) corroded coil pack harnesses. That is BINGO.. my problem.

Hopefully the harness solution they offer up will do the trick for me.. I have to find out how bad the coilpack damage is when I get to the dealer - I might need the pack & harness regardless. Knowing my luck the coil pack itself is toast. I don't have $800 to spend right now - the next thing I was planning to spend money on was new rubber (tires are getting close to the wear bars).

I was already pissed off with my Focus a long time ago, but with the recent discover of the paint flaking off in large sections - and now this - it's really too much.
Seriously my life would be TOTALLY DIFFERENT had I not bought a Focus. My airbags would not have needlessly deploy when I tapped a van from behind in a traffic jam, I wouldn't have got charged with careless (yes I was at fault, but had it not been for the airbags destroying the windowshield I would have just exchanged insurance info and phone #s). My insurance wouldn't have gone up as much (and then come down to a 'reasonable' $400/month), and I woudn't have had to change jobs to something local, which was good for a while, but in retrospect they treated me like s**t and I've now wasted 4 years of my life 'surviving' when I should have been enjoying myself.

I still owe over $4000 on the POS to Ford Credit. What a bad mistake it was. Shoulda leased or not gone near a Ford.

My best friend bought a Honda Civic DX 3 or 4 months before I bought my ZX3 in 2000. It was a shitty car with no options. He paid $15,500 for it, then wrote it off in accident (his fault). He didn't get charged, and his insurance company gave him a cheque for $13,500 (car was 2 years old at the time). Nobody was injured in his crash and he had insurance 1st-time claim protection so he was laughing all the way to the bank. A $8,000 down payment on a better (different make) sports car meant his monthly car payments remained about the same for twice the car! Goddam I hate Ford.

DanielB_ZX3,Apr 11 2005, 02:31 PM Wrote:Took it to the dealer this morning (very slowly, in 2-cylinder shitbox mode).
The CEL came on (for the first time) when I started it up.

Described my symptoms and they said they could do a code-scan first ($90) instead of doing the fuel pump - I said no, go ahead & do the fuel pump first then if that doesn't fix it let's go from there.

Got a call from the dealer - they replaced the fuel-pump and the problem was still there. They did the code scan -- something showed up to do with an improper spark, I presume - as it lead them to the coilpack, and the connecting wires, which they said were terribly corroded.

Anyhow, they all the corrosion was likley due to an improperly done engine shampoo. Improper in that the residue wasn't cleaned off properly. Which is BS as I've *NEVER* done an engine shampoo. My car does sit outside unfortunately, but it's only got 45,000km on it and I don't do lots of winter driving in it.

Anyhow they said I need
- a new coil pack
- new spark plug wires (2 are 'bad')
- recommend new spark plugs
- recommend an 'induction service' for the fuel system (which I had done .. 15,000 ago?)
- final code scan & reset

Total??: over $800 .(inc taxes)
The thread here: http://www.focuscanada.net/forum/index.p...opic=10141
discusses Focus stalling out & hesitation problems -- and there is a link to a FocalJet thread about (prematurely) corroded coil pack harnesses. That is BINGO.. my problem.

Hopefully the harness solution they offer up will do the trick for me.. I have to find out how bad the coilpack damage is when I get to the dealer - I might need the pack & harness regardless. Knowing my luck the coil pack itself is toast. I don't have $800 to spend right now - the next thing I was planning to spend money on was new rubber (tires are getting close to the wear bars).

I was already pissed off with my Focus a long time ago, but with the recent discover of the paint flaking off in large sections - and now this - it's really too much.
Seriously my life would be TOTALLY DIFFERENT had I not bought a Focus. My airbags  would not have needlessly deploy when I tapped a van from behind in a traffic jam, I wouldn't have got charged with careless (yes I was at fault, but had it not been for the airbags destroying the windowshield I would have just exchanged insurance info and phone #s). My insurance wouldn't have gone up as much (and then come down to a 'reasonable' $400/month), and I woudn't have had to change jobs to something local, which was good for a while, but in retrospect they treated me like s**t and I've now wasted 4 years of my life 'surviving' when I should have been enjoying myself.

I still owe over $4000 on the POS to Ford Credit. What a bad mistake it was. Shoulda leased or not gone near a Ford.

My best friend bought a Honda Civic DX 3 or 4 months before I bought my ZX3 in 2000. It was a shitty car with no options. He paid $15,500 for it, then wrote it off in accident (his fault). He didn't get charged, and his insurance company gave him a cheque for $13,500 (car was 2 years old at the time). Nobody was injured in his crash and he had insurance 1st-time claim protection so he was laughing all the way to the bank. A $8,000 down payment on a better (different make) sports car meant his monthly car payments remained about the same for twice the car! Goddam I hate Ford.

[right][snapback]100426[/snapback][/right]

Welcome to the ownership woes of owning one of the shittiest cars on the road.


$800 bucks. What a joke!

Another Focus owner OwN3d by poor quality issues. :rolleyes: :lol:

Um Uh ............

You rear ended another car and the air bags went off and that's Ford's fault?

I don't think so.

I think you just want someone else to blame when YOU ARE TO BLAME.

The wires on any car need replacing at certain intervals. Cheap car---more intervals. More expensive car.........hopefully less intervals. Like every 120k.

I hate to jump all over you but the centre of your problem is not your Focus, not Ford, but you.

ANTHONYD,Apr 11 2005, 01:41 PM Wrote:Welcome to the ownership woes of owning one of the shittiest cars on the road.

$800 bucks.  What a joke!

Another Focus owner OwN3d by poor quality issues. :rolleyes:  :lol:
[right][snapback]100444[/snapback][/right]

I have to admit - I lied. $770 including tax, not $800.
I was feeling angry & rebellious..

meford4u,Apr 11 2005, 01:50 PM Wrote:Um Uh ............

You rear ended another car and the air bags went off and that's Ford's fault?
I don't think so.
I think you just want someone else to blame when YOU ARE TO BLAME.

No that was my fault. What I was not happy about was that it happened at ~10km/h. I literally went forward 5 feet from a stop in a traffic jam and bumped the van in front of me. $8000 worth of damage and an undriveable car. There have been other reports of Focus airbag sensors deploying unnecessarily, but not enough for them to do anything about it.

Quote:The wires on any car need replacing at certain intervals.  Cheap car---more intervals.  More expensive car.........hopefully less intervals.  Like every 120k.

No kidding - I'm at 45,000km.

DanielB_ZX3,Apr 11 2005, 03:02 PM Wrote:

ANTHONYD,Apr 11 2005, 01:41 PM Wrote:Welcome to the ownership woes of owning one of the shittiest cars on the road.

$800 bucks.  What a joke!

Another Focus owner OwN3d by poor quality issues. :rolleyes:  :lol:
[right][snapback]100444[/snapback][/right]

I have to admit - I lied. $770 including tax, not $800.
I was feeling angry & rebellious..

[right][snapback]100462[/snapback][/right]

Okay then I retract my comments. :rolleyes: :lol: :rolleyes: :lol: :rolleyes: :lol:

When Jay and I put in the Turbo, we noticed one contact on my coilpack was corroded also.

when I wash my engine bay, its with a spray bottle of water, then some degreaser. Always done on a cold engine, and the coilpack, wires, anything electrical really is covered with a plastic bag. Basically, Im sure driving in a really bad rainstorm would get more water from my engine cleaning techinques. I'll ask my dealership if it can be replaced under warranty.

I've check that plug and its fine, I did replace the wire tho. I have 3 mix matched sets of wires now. <_<

Ok, picked up the car (fuel pump only replaced, made no difference) - it is now of crouse running worse than when I took it in because everything has been apart..

The service advisor asked me again if I'd done an engine shampoo or if anyone who used my car might have done so. Nope - I'm the only one who drives my car! I told her about the coil pack harness problem I read about on FJ and the tech who'd been working on my car came over and said no no, it's not the harness, after all - it's the actual coil pack that is 'toast' - and when I asked what exactly gave him the idea that my car had been engine shampooed he said when they took the spark plug wires off there was corrosion under the boots and on the spark plugs and there was water found 'down inside' (pretty sure he meant in the block?!).

I really have no idea what caused this - as I have hand-washed the car for the last 2 years (and a few times this winter sprayed outside of the car in a coin-op bay.. NEVER under the hood). In fact, when we had that nice warm weekend 2 or 3 weeks back, I hand washed the car and used a damp (*not* dripping) sponge inside the engine bay and wiped off all the surfaces. Never put a drip of water near anything. Never took the spark plugs out (last time they were out as far as I remember was shortly after I got the car when I checked the plug type & gap).

What is strange is that until a couple of weeks ago (yes shortly after I cleaned the car) the car was running perfectly. If there is so much corrosion where did it come from and how did it 'happen' so fast?!

I'll take it all apart later and see what I can see..

I cleaned up all the corrosion & moisture around the spark plugs (see http://www.focuscanada.net/forum/index.p...opic=10199 ) and it was worse then even - car would hardly start. Today I took a look at the coil & harness.

BINGO - a DISCONNECTED WIRE IN THE HARNESS.
There are 3 wires in the harness that go into the plug that goes into the coil - and one of them is not connected: it's either burned through, corroded or just plain snapped. Either way, there it was, hanging.
*exactly the same as this: http://www.focaljet.com/ubbthreads/showfla...ge=0#2416158119 )

I was going to remove the coil, but am having problems - 3 of the 4 bolt-heads are refusing to budge! I've got the correct bit & everything, the metal is too soft and they're stripping. I put some liquid wrench on them and will try again..

Looks like I'll have to strip the wire & do some soldering to fix the harness..

Photo:

Ok, I phoned the dealer - 3u2z-14s411-tna wiring pigtail kit (the harness): $40.00 (FJ guys say $15US)
Spark plugs : $11 each x 4 = $44.00
Ford Racing 9mm Wires : $55.00 (FR is actually cheaper than stock at $62!)
Coilpack: $132
= $271+tax

When my car was in for service the other day they quoted me $420 for coil & wires(stock, not FR), and $126 for plugs. (They didn't even notice the broken wire on the harness, so didn't quote for the harness).

F-Ford!!

That's was $82 labour quoted to install spark plugs: Took me all of 5 minutes to remove them & reinstall mine. Wires take all of 2 minutes.. coil a little tougher (~10 mins). $546 - parts = $308CDN labour for 20 minutes work!

CROOKS!

Anyhow, the pigtail kit & the FR wires are not in stock and I'm not going to order everything else before I fix that first.

Anyone got a link for a Canadian online Ford-parts source?
I need this part: 3u2z14s411tna WAY cheaper than $40, otherwise I'll just order it from the States.

Thanks!

I got the part from the dealer in the end.. couldn't find a cheap enough online US price for (when you include shipping and GST at the border).. so I paid the $37CDN+tax - it took a few days as none of the dealers in the area had it in stock.

While I was waiting, I played around with the original harness - that thing is a M.F. to repair (get the original broken wire out of, and then the repaired wire back in).. don't even bother, chuck it and buy a new one 'cos you'll end up doing it anyway.

New harness kit comes with heatshrink tubing(x3) and butt-connectors(x3).
It was a bit of a PITA as the 3 original wires are different gauges and the instructions say to strip the wire and then fold the wire over (x number of times, depending on the thickness of that particular wire) before its inserted in the butt connector. Not difficult, just frustrating because you have to get the stripped length right otherwise you have too much exposed wire left over.

Anyhow, got it all connected, started the engine.. PERFECT.
Heat-shrunk the tubing over the repairs and discovered that the protective tubing that the harness wires originally were crammed into is not big enough for the repaired wires. I shoved them in as much as I could and wrapped the thing in tape - it'll have to do until I get a protective tube(split) to put around it.

Ford said I needed a new coil (nope), new plugs (I suppose they wouldn't hurt but mine aren't in bad shape, so they can wait), and said I need new sparkplug wires. I decided to test that out by using a water spray bottle on 'mist' setting and misting the wires with the engine running. If the rubber casing on the wires is breaking down, current will escape (path of least resistance-> out) and you will see arcing as the water droplets get zapped. Of course, my wires were perfect!! damn Ford techs trying to rip me off.

Went for a test-drive. Runs nicely. And the check-engine light is off now, of course because it was the broken harness wire all along.

What pisses me off is that I *specifically* mentioned this to the tech working on the car and he said it was fine - it was the coilpack that was "toast". I'm going to go back and tell the tech to get his eyes checked cos that 1 harness wire was just hanging..

I'm glad I pulled the car after having only spent $90 for the scan (which is outrageous) + an oil change. I'm going to complain but nothing will come of it other than an apology because they didn't do any work. The point is, I *could* have walked out of there $600+ lighter if I'd trusted them.

fuckers..

I still think you should follow up with this. It;s true that we already exist in a "replaceable" society. Gone are the days where mechanics actually fixed things....

But in your case, I think you should take up the faxct that they were going to let you sink 700 bux into a part and labour that was repairable by doing a little bit of digging.

TakE it to Ford.