2002 Ford Escape #2 cylinder engine misfiring under wet con

ANDYBECK

MEMBER
2002 FORD ESCAPE
6 CYL
4WD
AUTOMATIC
110,000 MILES

I got my car washed the other day and the engine began misfiring immediately. The check engine light was flashing. After several hours the misfiring stopped but the check engine light remained on. After a few days the light went off. Today there has been heavy rain and the problem returned. I had the codes pulled at autozone and it said that there was an ignition problem with the #2 cylinder. It seems as though moisture is getting into the ignition system somewhere between the coil, plug cable, and spark plugs. My first plan is to replace all 6 cables and plugs and see if that works. Does this sound like a good plan? Should I go ahead and replace the coil on the #2 cylinder also? Thanks for the help!

Thursday, April 30th, 2009 AT 2:51 PM

2 Replies

RASMATAZ

MECHANIC
75,992 POSTS

2002 Ford Escape #2 cylinder engine misfiring under wet con

Should prompt you to check no.2 sparkplug/compression/injector

Engine misfiring can be caused by worn or fouled spark plugs, a weak spark (weak coil, bad spark plug wire), loss of compression, vacuum leaks, anything that causes an unusually lean fuel mixture (lean misfire), an EGR valve that is stuck open, dirty fuel injectors, low fuel pressure, or even bad fuel

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Thursday, April 30th, 2009 AT 5:01 PM

TECHMAN1

MEMBER
82 POSTS

I have 2 2002 Ford Escapes. The ignition coil on each spark plug are NOT water proof. On top, they look like they are sealed in epoxy. The plug in connector fins are not sealed. I pressure washed one of these engines and eventually all 6 coils failed. At $75 each.

This is what I do. These coils use a spring to make contact with the spark plug. It seems to me that these springs "shrink" or make loose contact to the plug.

I pull the coil/boot assembly. I pull the rubber boot off of the the coil. I push the spring out with a bic pen. I stretch the spring. I plug the spring tight onto the blade coming out of the coil. I feed the spring back through the boot and have about a half inch sticking out. I have forceful connection to the spark plug.

The 2 pin plugs to the coil get brittle. I wrap a tyrap around the whole plug and coil.

You can hose the 2 pin plug and coil connector with WD40 and plug them in wet.

I have shortcut tricks to get to each coil to replace all of the spark plugs. Use only Autolite Double Platinum plugs.

Good Luck,

Ken

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Thursday, May 21st, 2009 AT 9:31 PM