[pengee]

My wife has been having some troubles with her 2003 focus. Since we got it a bit less than a year ago, the dash lights have always flickered and more recently the cd player has been shutting off completely (however it's after market and I'm not sure how the previous owners wired it). Just a couple weeks ago it has started making a noise, which sounds to me like a vacuum leak but could be a bearing (alternator?).

Just today she was driving home and as she was getting off the freeway the car died. I took the car out shortly after and it died again on the freeway doing between 60 and 65. After I restarted it the CEL came on. I had the code checked and it came back with P0351, P0352, P0353 and P0354 which are all listed as ignition coil errors, A, B, C and D respectively.

Anyway, our budget is super tight and I no longer have most of my tools so I'm wondering what I should check first? I have read that it could be the coil, coil pigtail or maybe the alternator even though no batter light has come on. Any help would be appreciated. Also, anyone have the PN and picture for the coil pigtail?

 

[oddballish]

Welcome. The Focus is noted fore bad grounds, and a questionable charging system. You might start by fallowing the wiring for the coils looking for a common point of power or ground. And do a search here, a lot of people have similar problems. Good luck I’m sure someone that has had this happen will give you much better advice.

 

[focusbaja]

clear the codes, drive the car and see what happens, i have had one coil go bad and throw codes for all the other coils as well. if it happens REALLY consistently. One cylinder at a time, unplug the coil and injector, and see if it still happens. The coils can shoot a voltage spike back to the PCM and shut it down.