Hey guys, it's been a while since I've been on the forum. What with the press of biz and life, I really kind of miss having the time to read all the good stuff regarding our MMs.
Now on to the good stuff...
First - my '04 just turned 178k miles.
Next - here's the problem I've run into recently...
I know it's not uncommon to have replace ignition coils that go bad on our cars. Mine still has 2 or 3 OEM coils in it, believe it or not. I always keep a spare around for replacement. It's never IF it will fail, but when. The first 3 failed around 75k miles. Ever since then, I get a bad one about 15k or so miles.
Just 2 weeks ago, I had another one go (Cyl 1), and it was already a replacement coil. Lucky for Limited Lifetime Warranty on this version.
Then, just last week, another OEM (Cyl 7) went out.
This was followed the next day by another engine miss indicated by a Cyl 8 coil - or so I thought. When I took the cover off, I found an inordinate amount of condensate under the coil cover - mostly congregated towards the back...#8. Looking carefully at the old coil when I removed it (which happened to be a replacement version already), I found that the condensate had accumulated around where the bottom of the coil meets the rubber cover. I didn't find any water down the long rubber tube, but I decided to take a shot at cleaning and drying the whole assembly instead of just slapping in a new coil.
Which I did. Put the coil back in, and viola!, worked like a champ,
Now, when removing the coil cover for the opposite side 2 weeks ago, I remember seeing a bit of condensate under there too - but not as much as the left side. I can fully understand that, if condensate is going to occur, due to engine angle as well as acceleration, I can see how the stuff will wind up near the back cylinders of the engine.
Naturally, I did some on line searching, and seemed to find this is much more a of problem than I realized, occurring mostly in Fords from the 2000's on upward, depending upon the engine version.
What I found on this forum seems to fall into four categories:
1. That is happens.
2. Put some silicone grease on both the cover gaskets and around the wire loom entry point near the back of the head.
3. Replace the coil cover gaskets.
4. Be careful putting the coil cover back on. (This one isn't a problem - I've done it hundreds of times not only for myself, but helping others)
But doing a search here didn't really produce a whole lot on the subject matter - just a few things here and there, mostly stretching wayyy back in time.
Here's my real point and question: I haven't had this problem until very recently. Why all of sudden? I know that gaskets shrink with time...and maybe that is the real problem.
What I really want to know is how many of you, that care to respond, have run into this problem as your MM's have aged, and what have you done to prevent it from happening - item 2 or 3 above?
And of course, with the car sitting about 2 days, I went out today. Things were fine until I let the car sit about 2 hours or so. After that, I could feel that something was amiss (sorry, pun intended) again. Not real bad, but worthy of taking the covers off again and checking the condensate level.
Again - thank you guys for any replies and guidance!