Ignition problem?

[gosso1]

I have a 2002 V8 XLT, 240 000km on the clock with a small problem. It starts fine but soon as it warms up it misses and splutters, specially when I go light on the throttle or use cruise control. The car had a major service at Ford, including new spark plugs, all filters etc 15 000km ago. I took it back to them and they ran diagnostics which showed nothing as the check engine light has not come on as yet.

I am thinking down the line of spark plug wires maybe? Any help would be appreciated, specially where I could purchase spare parts. Is it a easy job to replace these, I am pretty handy, or would this job require experts?

Many thanks
Gosso1

 

[skeeter123]

My 2002 V8 XLT doesn't have traditional spark plug wires, it has "coil-over-plug", individual coil on top of each plug. there's a pair of wires going to a connector on each plug. Careful with those connectors, by the time I figured out where/how to press on the plastic release-latch, I had broken two of them off. After so much time/miles, they were brittle. You could check them all to see if they're installed OK, and put some dielectric grease on them.
Does it idle OK? I was thinking that it could be your IAC needing cleaning. But if it idles OK and just misses under cruise, you may have to wait till some codes comes up to tell you if it's a specific cylinder/plug.

 

[gosso1]

yep it has coil-over-plug. It idles ok. Will try the grease first

Thanks

 

[fusseli]

yep it has coil-over-plug. It idles ok. Will try the grease first

Thanks

Clean the metal contacts with alcohol and make sure they get a strong connection before applying the grease. Dielectric grease is an INSULATOR intended to seal out moisture and oxygen from the metal-on-metal contact of electrical connections.