HOW TO Change sparkplug leads, plugs, & coil Pack

[Whoosha]

Well the ongoing sarga of #2 sons S3 SR with the oil leak fixed and the ball joint and brakes done It was time to chase down the "Stalling when Hot Syndrome" : So we assumed it was a coil /spark/electric problem, easy just replace the lot , First out was the plugs, the car has been running fine, a little heavy on fuel and apart from the stalling when hot no real problems, So needless to say I was surprised to fine this in #1 and #2 hole gees only 164989 ks on the factory iridiums


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So if you plan on replacing the lot this was how I went about it ..
things you will need '
1. set car ramps
2. small socket set
3, sparkplug socket
4.Blade/ phillips head screw driver
5. pair pliers
If you are doing the coil pack it is way easyer to get at from under the car than from the top
1. Run the car up on to the ramps ,secure and chock wheels. open bonnet and let cool. Best done when stone cold (the coil pack is along side heater pipe :
2. Remove plug leads 1 at a time, (Now the plug cups may be stuck on to the plugs and require some effort to remove as SMALL amout of grease on the new plug end should avoid this next time you have to remove them)
if they are not factory and numbered NUMBER them as you take them off (this is easy done with some masking tape just rite the number on it in texta)
3. Remove spark plugs ( if the plug starts off easy to remove then goes tight again it could have a carbon build up on the end of it just carefully wind the plug back and fowards in the hole still it frees up. alloy heads can strip threads very easy so dont give it the big heave ho)
I usually wipe a small bit of grease on the thread of the plug before replacing them as well. when tightening the plug it should be firm with out leaning on the rachet to hard.( if youe not sure run the car for a minute or so after your finished and retighten
That the easy bit now for the leads and coil pack you will notice the leads are in 2 lot 3 to the front and 3 to the rear

Unclip them from the retainers and allow to sit over the rocker cover loose
Now to axcess the coil pack remove the airbox to allow some sort of axcees to the coil and leads .this just requires the removal of 3 10mm bolts, the snorkle and the hose clamp from the aircleaner pipe remove, fom engine bay completey

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Now if you look under the manifold following the plug leads you will just be able to see the coil pack. this is retained by 2. 7mm bolts at the radiator end and 1 at the rear the top 2 can be undone from the top just remember that pipe is HOT just along side it : a wet rag wrapped around it will allow you to get your arm in there with only minor burns

Next get under the car and look up at the coilpack, to remove the last bolt,it may be nessasary to remove one of the coil leads to allow the socket to fit in there, this should have a small condenser thing on the same bolt, Remember to put it back when you refit the pack , on the outside edge of the coil pack you should be able to see the plug in loom this is easy to remove by squeezing the top in and pushing up at the same time.

All going well you should now be able to feed the coil and attached leads out through the bottom of the engine bay.

With the coil out on the ground it is just as easy to re fit the leads now rather than feed the back down from the top
The order of the pack is as follows
With the coil in its position Backrow / engine side front to rear 1...2...3..........
....................................Frontrow / gaurd side front to rear 6...5...4..........

Now this is ware is gets a bit tight to stuff all the leads back from ware they came so what I did was feed 2 bits of wire down from the top to each of the 2 groups 3 of leads
First problem was to get the horse from under the car wares she was helping






then feed them up as far as I could from the under side then gently pulled them up from the top the rest of the way
Now with the leads back up the top just refit the coil pack to it mounts including the condenser thinghy and refit the loom plug


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Back top side again take the feeder wire off and plug the leads back in to there respective plugs easy as (cause you number them rite) cliping them back into there retainers
Refit the airbox and hose all done It should take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours depending on how handy you are, Cost was about $200 all up the leads were genuine ford from fleabay. coil pack $100 deliverd Flebat again and $22 trade for the plugs .. The main point is DONT MIX UP THE PLUG LEADS there is nothing hard about the the job just time consuming and a bit fiddely.. Even to just change the leads I would probably take the coil pack out unless you have super small hands and steel capped knuckles ( there"s some sharp bits in there some ware : )
How this helps some one along the way
Cheers Whoosha

[LOWBA6]

Good write up! Will help a few people out, Those plugs look stuffed...... lol. I found when doin the leads on my fairmont it is possible to change them without removing the coil pack, its just annoying and i know all too well about the burns from the heater pipe :P

[au11futura]

good write up mate. as i just bought an au and am looking at changing my plugs and leads this is handy..

[JC]

Great write up Whoosha. Love your ramps!

[Firebell AU3SR]

Great write up.How is the SR running now?

[blueoval]

very handy tutorial

[Whoosha]

Originally Posted by Firebell AU3SR

Great write up.How is the SR running now?

Well #2 son left after he eat his mums cooking and drank my drink for home, with a smile on his face (sound like some you know.. dam young uns ) never to be heard from again. Know doubt I will hear if it stops again :togo:

[Foggy]

Great write up Whoosha. this would have been handy about 2 months ago.

[ronwest]

Nice write up, mate.

I had the same surprise when I changed my plugs at 150,000 kms.

My car had every scheduled service up to 120,000 and I must admit that I assumed the plugs would have been changed somewhere in there. Apparently not.

As luck would have it I rang Qld Ignition Leads last week as I plan to change my leads and coil in the next little while.

Your write up will help with that exercise but if poss would you send the dog up?

I'll stick to your howto but we don't have a mutt these days...

[Whoosha]

Originally Posted by ronwest

Your write up will help with that exercise but if poss would you send the dog up?

I'll stick to your howto but we don't have a mutt these days...

You have to allow another 3/4 of a hour with the dog Ron she likes leaning on you or just sticking her head under your armpit : make its fun anyway

Originally Posted by JC

Great write up Whoosha. Love your ramps!

3 stage to a height of just over 2 1/2 feet great for sitting under and contenplating They were left overs from a car carryer I used to have :

[Mr Hardware]

As luck would have it I rang Qld Ignition Leads last week as I plan to change my leads and coil in the next little while.

Yep, Greg'll sort you out. Damn good leads, damn good bloke.

[bellamy]

hypothetically if i was to mix lead 1 and lead 3 up what could potentially happen? if the car was run for under 1/2 hour

[Whoosha]

Originally Posted by bellamy

hypothetically if i was to mix lead 1 and lead 3 up what could potentially happen? if the car was run for under 1/2 hour

Just a miss and maybe a pop or bang or 2 Providing you didnt rev it it up to much should be ok Hypothectically of course

[bellamy]

lol cheers mate.

fixed my hypothetical problem.

[grandpa_spec_F6]

Originally Posted by ronwest

Nice write up, mate.

I had the same surprise when I changed my plugs at 150,000 kms.

Funny that, likewise, I pulled out my plugs at around 155k and BOY did I get a shock, they looked almost identical to the ones above

[Hords]

Thanks Whoosha. Changed all that crap yesterday on my daily. AU1 slightly different in that the coil carries on from the E series ie. 4 bolts and they're all 8mm.

[grandpa_spec_F6]

God you have to have small hands to get to the coil pack though.... thats the only reason the cab company kept Mr Hardware on =P

[Tymadman]

Hi guys,

I changed the coil pack on my AUII this morning by following this post by Whoosha. I found it very helpful - thanks Whoosha!

The AUII had an intermittent miss which was almost un-noticeable on some days yet on other days the car would run extremely roughly. I had changed the ignition leads and spark plugs previously (and cleaned the throttle body and ICS), but changing the coil pack today has (fingers crossed!) cured the problem - so far there's no sign of a miss and it feels like a new(ish) car again.

Thanks again Whoosha!

[FRDGAL]

Here's an easier way to do it:

Drop Fairmont off at Whoosha's
Pick up couple hours later

[brad`]

dont forget to eat and drink before u leave tho :P

[Whoosha]

Originally Posted by FRDGAL

Here's an easier way to do it:

Drop Fairmont off at Whoosha's
Pick up couple hours later

Originally Posted by brad`

dont forget to eat and drink before u leave tho :P

Whoosha has moved, with no forwarding address, :

[FRDGAL]

Originally Posted by Whoosha

Whoosha has moved, with no forwarding address, :

I know where you work :

Jokes aside, good write up Whoosh.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Whoosha

Whoosha has moved, with no forwarding address, :

However his phone number is available (for a large fee!)..

[scrivens]

Another method for those without ramps or a hoist. If you remove the entire air intake system back to the throttle body (only another 2 bolts) you can drop a 30cm 10mm extension (or T-bar) straight down onto the single 7mm bolt on the back of the pack. Standing in front of the car, reach under the manifold with your right hand and push the leads off then twist the pack 90 degrees and pull it out between the bottom of the manifold and the heater hose. If you mark the top of the new leads with the plug number either on a white sticker or with one of those silver paint "texta" style pens then you can put the new pack in the same way, get a nice bright light shining in the right place and peer down between the edge of the rocker cover and the manifold and push the leads home in the proper order. Bit fiddly the first time you do it, but quick after that as you know where your hands need to go. Takes about 20-30 minutes all up. Wear a long shirt though as otherwise you'll rip the skin on your arms to shreds...

(You can also just push the old pack out onto the ground and drop some heavy string down the gap you used to undo the rear bolt, tie it around the new pack and pull it up, then cut the string once you've got the pack into the general position. Have done it both ways but my AUII may have a bit more slack in the heater hose and it will come out via the top.)

[stepheninqld]

This is a gr8 article but I think that I need more - Changed leads, plugs and coil pack and still have no spark in number 5. Is there anything else that I should look at before paying body parts to someone with the ford computer?

[POELWYK]

check to see if the Leads are on right sometimes thay look like there on but there not thats my bet

[Navycso]

Mate, thanks. I was about to pull off the intake manifold just to change my leads. I am glad I found this before I got too far into it. Saved me alot of time and trouble.

I managed to change them without pulling out the coil, just removing the air box and then getting my hands in there.

All in all it took me about an hour to change the leads, but the first 25 mins of that was working out how the ..... to go about it. The ute has done
107 000km, so it will be a while before I have to do it again.

Ford wanted to charge (now I suggest you sit down before reading the rest of this) $220 to supply and change the leads. They also want $300 to supply and change 6 spark plugs!!!

AUiii Ute. (the other car)

Paul

[GoldwagonXR6kit]

So thought i would give this a go changing leads and plugs on my 98' au wagon, hopefully i chose the right leads installing top gun max leads and NGK plugs.

diffinatley needed doing as i started to remove leads from the plugs and they crumbled,.
Long nose pliers came in real handy.
Managed to get to the coil easy from the top after removing air intake, changed 1 by 1 with a few minor burns top gun lead numbering system helped.
Thanks for the picture run through looks harder than it is.
Took all of 25mins to do!!!

Need to get sum info on cams and what i can do to a straight 6 by myself so if there is any info that would help it would be much appreciated.
cheers.

[SSD-85]

Is this the same procedure as an EF? As I may be finding myself changing a coil pack shortly.

[Whoosha]

Originally Posted by GoldwagonXR6kit

Need to get sum info on cams and what i can do to a straight 6 by myself so if there is any info that would help it would be much appreciated.
cheers.

Just type CAMS in to the search box and you should get a few threads up as some of the I6 gang have change theres

Originally Posted by Scotty85

Is this the same procedure as an EF? As I may be finding myself changing a coil pack shortly.

Would think it should be fairly similar