I think the cap you're referring to is for radio interference. It's strange that you've taken out two coils, and both sides of the coils. I think I would test the ecm output voltage to the coil on the bad car and on the good car and compare. Not sure if ford has a spec for this or not. I don't have my wiring diagram here so I can't tell you which pairs of the three wires to test right now. Seems like the coil would have to overheat from too much current or voltage and fry the internal primary windings. Also, I would test the resistance on the secondary side if the coil and see if that's cooked too. Plug 1 to plug 4 will probably be around 12K-15K ohms. Strange on the D/R issue verus park and neutral. Has to be a ecm control from the trans position sensor.

 

Are you using the factory recommended plugs and wires? If so, where are the plugs gapped?

I can't say that I've ever heard of non-factory plugs blowing a coil up, but what else is there? The coil is mounted firmly and grounded properly, right?

 

is the capacitor (condensor) shot.

 

the cap (aka capacitor??) might be bad.. i dont know? How do i test this? it grounds to the engine block off of a bolt that holds it to the bracket that the coil bolts too.. and it has one green wire that runs into it. im assuming this is power since it splices off the power wire for the coil (green, goes into the center of the plug.)

the coil is grounded off the 2 outer wires of the 3 prong connector.. not the bolts that hold it down. the bolts run through metal sleves that are in the plastic housing of the coil.. It is bolted down securely though.

the secondary side of the coil is what is cooked.. if i test resistance between plugs 1 and 4 i get a open circuit and the same between 2 and 3.


my understanding of the coil is that the center wire is power pretty constantly and the outer 2 wires provide ground to either the 1 and 4 pair or the 2-3 pair when it is supposed to fire.. so the computer decides to ground one side, therefore letting current flow and the coil fires.

if it was getting too much current woudn't it fry the primary circuit and not the secondary circuit?

also, i havent really checked the gap on the plugs.. but i did replace them about 15k ago? they appear fairly new and without issue.. I plan on putting new plugs and wires on, but its not worth the risk of blowing another coil to just do that and hope it fixes the problem...

the plugs and wires have been on the car for awhile none the less.. so why would they suddenly start blowing coils and not have done it before?

i did test the resistance through the plugs and wires, and all of them seemed about the same (through wire, through plug, and through wire and plug).. this car has less resistance then another car that works which i tested.


now im not at work, so i cant test the primary windings.. i think to test that i would test resistance between the center/left plug and the center/right plug. if the primarys are good i should get resistance, and if they are bad i should get a open circuit.. correct?

i will do this tomorrow (monday)... i also have to go junkyard hunting for a PCM, a automatic transmission, a e36 BMW PS pulley and some other misc shit..

 

this is my --- diagram --- of the connector.

maybe it helps.. maybe it doesnt?

 

did you check your plug wires on the coil pak end,,if there bad on that end i think they can actually jump spark (spark loop) shorting out a coil.each cell in the pak has a resistor between them and if you are getting a loop from a bad wire,it can short those resistors out,,and since it did it to two coils its a possibility also.

as far as testing that cap im not sure what youd do,use, or readings would be,but id say either of these two would be a big possibility.

 

uug cars goin to ford today.

 

bumpin this back up for more ideas

went to take the car to ford and my tow-dolly got stolen.. so it has sat since then.

still have no idea what the problem is.

 

you need to fix the frayed wire and it'll solve your misfire issue. the big one goin in supplies power to the coil, the smaller ones are trigers the fire the coil for the cylinders. you said that one was frayed? iths your problem. jsut replace that section of wire with some new using a soldering gun or a pair of crimp connectors. (the solder gun is a bettter solution but i used the crimp connectors) i believe i still have a pic of mine. i acutally had to extend the whole thing cuz it did it again to me. for some reason thats a failure prone part.... let me see if i can get a pic of what i did.

here it is the yellow wire went to an aftermarket tach that i removed..

this was done around 30,000 miles ago and its still like this, jsut hidden in the piece of loom so its safe. and ive raced and beat on the repair and it runs perfect everytime,lol.

 

so what you are saying is that that one frayed wire will cause a focus to make a brand new ford coil go bad after ~2 minutes of idling around a parking lot?

 

How about that capacator? What if it's value has changed for some reason, (moisture infiltration or something), and now it's charging way up then letting go with one hell of a blast into the primary, which might not hurt the primary because of its heavier windings. But that blast would then induce a virtual bolt of lightning in the secondary that blows it out. Yeah... I like it!

 

hey guys im in the same spot, no spark, 2nd coil pack , no start, just turn and the coil pack becomes hott, if i try to crank, i cheked the cables of the crank sensor, but no the sensor , i cheked the voltage on the plug of the coil pack,i got this reading, 12volts in the center to ground, and since the lateral links are signal with a multimeter, i check the frecuency of pulses to triger the coil and was the same, on both side to do this you need another person to start the engine from inside

 

What happened to Air anyway?

Hey Air- How'd you make out with this thing?

 

Where is the cap?

 

The capacator?- it's that little cylinder with a single wire comming out that's mounted under one of the coil pack mounting bolts.

What happened to Air? Surely by now he figured it out for us...

 

The capacitor is not a likely point of failure for the problems you are experiencing. The cap is only there to filter out switching noise caused by the ECU switching the coil on and off. That being said, it wouldn't hurt to check it to see if it is still there.

Unfortunately you can't easily check the signal coming from the ECU using a multi-meter because what the ECU does is ground the ends of the coils which creates a current in the primary of the coil. When the ECU releases the ground the current must stop instantly which induces a very large voltage across the secondary which of course creates the spark. Without an oscilliscope it is impossible to check for the correct signal out of the ECU.

That being said... looking at the schematic I don't see anything other then the coil, cap, and ECU. Seeing as you have changed the coil and it is still blowing I would bet on the ECU not triggering properly resulting in excessively large currents in the coil causing it to overheat.

 

men i tow my car to the dealer and said the pcm is bad , no pulse to the inyectors and coil pack, new here they want more than 1000$ for a brand new, tomorow i will go to the dealer and make it turn on with another pcm

 

men i tow my car to the dealer and said the pcm is bad , no pulse to the inyectors and coil pack, new here they want more than 1000$ for a brand new, tomorow i will go to the dealer and make it turn on with another pcm

 

I know this is an old thread - I had a problem with the coil so I ordered a replacement. After installing the new coil it was also damaged after a couple minutes of driving and car would barely run. Looked at the wires leading to the coil and found they were rubbing and shorting against the metal pipe right by the coil. Repaired the wire and replaced the coil again and its ok. The wire that was touching bare metal in my case was one of the two coil ground wires. When this wire is grounded it completes one of the two primary coil circuits and charges the coil for too long and damages the coil. If others have this wiring issue it may cause the 12v wire to short, or one of the two coil ground wires, or a combination.

 

The metal pipe is for EGR supply and it gets HOT, why the insulation melts. Common coil failure mode on those. The wiring harness is too short and tight to save pennies on copper cost.

 

The interior as stated on this website is kinda bland and and boring however it is very durable and easy to clean.

 

Sir, you are obviously lost.

 

Hi to all.I am new here and really at my wits end.I am from South Africa and own a 2003 Focus 2.0 Zetec.6 weeks ago the car started misfiring,after changing plugs,I found that cylinder 3 was misfiring and that the one port on coil pack was not giving spark,I bought a new coil pack and all was fine.3 weeks later the same happened,went and exchanged the coil pack and all was good again for 3 weeks.Yesterday the same happened again,I mean what are the chances of the same port failing 3 times in 6 weeks.I started talking to some people and was told to check the plug leads as that could cause the volts to run back to the coil pack and then damage it.Today I went and changed the coil pack again and also bought new leads,tested all for resistance and all semmed fine.Installed everything,but had a misfire from the moment it started up,checked again and guess what,its the same port as before.All the others fire as they should.Now Im thinking ecu,but was also told that it cant be the ecu as the ecu gives power to 2 coils at the same time,so in other words if 3 is dead then 2 should be dead too.What am I missing and where do I go from here?Someone else told me that he thinks its a bad plug,so I have changed the plug now,but can only get another coil pack tomorrow,but I am scared that I put in another coil pack and the same happens.I even thought of the possibility of the part supplier giving me back the first coil pack I axchanged,but not sure.I really hope someone can give me some advice

Sorry for the long post
Regards

 

I have a similar problem:

My 2002 Ford Focus SE with the Zetec engine had been running perfectly (fantastically) for the past ten months. But after changing the ignition coil (to address another problem), the car started running rough and using tons of gas. The car often smells like gas. This should not have happened after simply changing the coil. I tried a second new coil (a Motorcraft coil this time around) with no change. I then spliced in a new connector (to the coil) with no change. I also replaced the plugs and plug wires with no change. No error codes are being thrown, but I’ve tried resetting the ECM with the trick of disconnecting the battery and attaching a lead between the positive and negative cables. No change. Can anyone shine some light on my problem. I cannot continue to replace parts that were working fine up until the coil replacement. This is strangely related to the coil replacement but I admittedly do not know what’s going on. Any thoughts will be appreciated.

NOTE: The reason I replaced the coil when the car was running perfectly was to remedy a cold start issue. I now park the car outside, and when the temperature drops below, say, 20 degrees, the car will start, run for five seconds, then stop. I can start it again and it will run for five more seconds and then stop. Sometimes, if I keep the RPMs high and keep the engine running until it gets hot, it will then run on its own, but I usually have to wait for the outside temp to warm, then the car runs fine. But this is not the issue I want to focus on (since warm weather has arrived). I mention it only to explain why I replaced the coil to begin with.

 

Did anyone actually solve this problem? my So ‘s 2003 Escort ZX2 has been going through the same problem. No plugs, new injectors, new coil, etc. #1 plug does seem to have seem fuel (only carbon/pcv oil. The other three plugs appear to be fuel soaked.