Trying to hold on :(

A

adamcorki

Forum user
Jul 30, 2013
28
2
Stockport, Ches
Hello all


Bought my auto v6 cougar 2 in silver, 50k mileage back in August and have been sad ever since. Not because of the the car being bad, love her but it's history that's now becoming apparent. It's like a dog that's been kicked around all it's life. Needed a complete service straight away, all spark plugs were still there from when it was born, both door catches were gone, basically I put £600 into it as I thought it deserves a good life. Its a looker! After that work, the garage I use said it was a good runner now and should last well.

Only three months later and now I have the engine light on again and this time blinking. Engine runs terrible on idling and hesitates badly in low revs in each gear (this was the problem in the first place which the garage said was due to spark plugs which they fixed and the problem went then). Garage say its the coil pack, £250 new fitted. I find one in Sheffield (I'm in Manchester) I head over there today to be told they had the wrong one (he said mine was German and they are hard to find? Said I could get it off a mondeo mk3 if I could find) But then he said that he doesn't think that's the prob anyway-the coil pack is rather working or not, it wouldn't appear how this is. God now I'm confused and thinking of sending her to the car site in the sky, 3 months of problems, I only have 3 years of driving experience and don't know enough about cars to know if I'm being ripped off by everyone.

Any help would be really appreciated.
 
£250? Are they smoking weed? You need a c2 coil pack if his first diagnosis is right. My used spare one has been borrowed.

I will text the lad who has it, see if we can sort something.

If he doesn't need it, I won't be asking £250, something a lot more reasonable
 
Browse ebay for a coil pack mate, alternatively im located near manchester (glossop at the end of m67) and you can try the coil pack on my car to see if it is the issue or not
 
250 is daylight robbery imo! Were the leads changed at all or just the plugs? I recently changed my plugs and leads when having similar issues and the problems were resolved. I bought my leads through a motor factors and they work fine, wasnt paying the money the genuine ones go for.
 
Ive just looked on flea bay and you can get one (c2 specific) new to your door for less than 50 notes....so £200 labour for a 15 minute job seems a tad excessive!
 
Thanks for replies guys. I went to see the today in Sheffield today to have this fitted -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=251360718747&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:GB:1123

But as soon as he took the bonnet up he said 'this is a german model coil pack, must have been changed'

He loaded up his laptop and found this which would fit-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Coug...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item5af3afb97c

But like I say, I could get it but not even sure it'll work anymore. He unplugged one of the spark plugs and it made the car idle awful, so he said 'proves that's fine then' I just agree, no idea what to think. When I leave his garage it was nice weather and the engine light goes off, I head into Meadowhall shopping centre, when I come out its p*ssing it down and the light comes on and starts blinking and like I say jerking all over the place.

Chris-the garage said the plugs were changed, no word on the leads. Assume they are originals too if they are still in there.
 
A couple of things

adamcorki said:
'this is a german model coil pack, must have been changed'
Click to expand...

no. your guys probably just isn't familiar with the later model which has three bolts and different HT lead fittings, as per posts 2, 6 & 8 above ;)

adamcorki said:
When I leave his garage it was nice weather and the engine light goes off, I head into Meadowhall shopping centre, when I come out its p*ssing it down and the light comes on and starts blinking and like I say jerking all over the place.
Click to expand...

is this not just a simple case of water ingress? have you tried blasting the leads/coil pack with WD40 or a similar water dispersant?
 
spjmorris said:
A couple of things



no. your guys probably just isn't familiar with the later model which has three bolts and different HT lead fittings, as per posts 2, 6 & 8 above ;)



is this not just a simple case of water ingress? have you tried blasting the leads/coil pack with WD40 or a similar water dispersant?
Click to expand...

No but I'll try if you think it'll work? Just obviously scary with a blinking check engine light, makes me think she's gonna blow up :S Even though he was a ford 'specialist' he didn't click when I said it was a cougar 2.....
 
If your not busy tomorrow come over and I can plug in my bluetooth code reader to see if it throws anything up? You will have to come to me though as I will be spending most of the day lay under another members cougar!
 
localloon said:
If your not busy tomorrow come over and I can plug in my bluetooth code reader to see if it throws anything up? You will have to come to me though as I will be spending most of the day lay under another members cougar!
Click to expand...

Appreciated mate, I was gonna give her the day off tomorrow to dry out, I'm sure driving her all that way today wasn't good :S I'm in Stockport so pretty close, can I keep your details and let you know this week?
 
I always put silicone grease from a tube around the white ceramic part of new plugs and just inside ht leads. Keeps water/moisture at bay apparently but also stops any tracking too
 
adamcorki said:
Even though he was a ford 'specialist' he didn't click when I said it was a cougar 2.....
Click to expand...
I'm not franchise trained, but I'd consider myself a Ford specialist to an extent, and I didn't know (nor care really) that there were two slightly different versions of the Cougar.

A good friend of mine who is a franchise master-tech' also doesn't know there are two Cougars, so I wouldn't worry about it that much. The differences between them are so slight, coupled with the supposed 'rarity' of the 'Cougar2' it's not impossible an otherwise upstanding member of the automotive society may not be aware.

Bit like the fabled mk4.75 Fiesta.....

If you have a faulty coil-pack, theoretically at least it's failed for a reason (they shouldn't spontaneously fail) so now is the time to systematically examine the rest of the ignition system carefully. Multi-plugs, leads, spark-plugs, even engine earth straps etc. These bipolar DIS systems are very 'fussy', and what might seem inconsequential to an older style ignition system may really upset a system like this.


Regards,
Andy
 
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