tranny or engine sometimes studders slightly, not sure what ..

[turbot4]

ok , this is very minor, but sometimes either the trans or the engine will get a slight stutter....it's not often, if you just give it more gas or let off, it will go away...i also noticed at a stop when it's hot, it feels like the car don't want to go at first , but then it's fine when it gets moving...to me it feels like a bad coil messing things up, sound right?

 

[NebraskaSHO]

Yes start buying coils. But by the time you replace all of them you could have also had your cams welded.

 

[turbot4]

if you have'nt looked , the cams have been welded...i should've done all the coils at that time, car never dies or stalls , but it seems to be the coils acting up when it is warm..

 

[SuperHO]

sounds like the same thing my 98 does. does it seem like it does it worst when it's trying to find the next gear, usually between 3rd and 4th gear around 45mph?

 

[turbot4]

yes, actully it does, then if you let of the gas or give it more it goes away...
also i noticed when it's hot out and the car has been running a bit, when pulling out, it seems like it don't want to go until you give it more gas, it's seldom and never dies or anything, but it feels like a coil causing a miss or something..

 

[SuperHO]

my friend, welcome to the wonderful world of Ford transmissions. your torque converter is no longer your friend.

 

[turbot4]

it's does'nt seem like that ...it shifts hard when i gun and don't act up, only from pulling out sometimes when the car is hot, it feels like i am missing a cyl...
i really think it's a bad coil, and think i'm going to just buy all new coils, for my last 97, a guy on ebay sells them for 220.00.. when i put them in , my surging idle, and weird stalling vanished...

 

[SuperHO]

take it to advance auto and have em check the codes. if you got a bad coil, that'll tell you.

 

[ThatShoGuy]

take it to advance auto and have em check the codes. if you got a bad coil, that'll tell you.

coils dont always pull codes so that aint always true....

 

[SuperHO]

everything you've described sounds to me like a failing trans component...cuz it's doing exactly the same thing my 98's doing, which has been diagnosed as a dying torque converter.

 

[turbot4]

i'm still voting coils.....it searches slightly at idle, and no it don't thro any codes, coils will normally not..

i'm going to pick up a set soon..my other white 97 did this too, and coild resolved the issue..

 

[Funmart6]

I have had coil misfires and never had a code come up. I also have experienced the dreaded TC shudder and had to have my tranny rebuilt a couple of years ago.

You can go ahead and change out the coils and if the problem is resolved, then great, you didn't have to rebuild the trans. If the problem remains after the coil change, then prepare to have the tranny looked at. Nurse it along for a while and save up the money for the rebuild, have them put a shift kit in there while it is apart. If the trans is on the way out, then at least you will have already changed the coils and you will have a smooth firing engine to go with a fresh rebuilt transmission.

 

[rubydist]

My Expy is making me crazy right now w/ random misfires that seem to be coil related, but its not setting codes. Once, at the very beginning of this, it had a little rough idle and when i checked codes it complained of #2 and #4 misfires. I reset the codes and went on with life. Then it got so it wouldn't idle worth a crap and my wife actually got so she didn't like driving it because she thought it would leave her stranded somewhere, but no more misfire codes, even though it had a way worse miss than when it did throw the codes. Finally, I changed #4 (since it was the hardest to get to, I figured that would be the one...) and it got much better, for a while. Then I changed #2 also, and its mostly okay but still has a random stretch where it will idle rough for a while and then be okay for quite a while. But, no more misfire codes, so I'm in the dark about which one to change next..... and at the price, I'm not going to just change them all....

The point of my long story is that the pcm is crappy at reporting which cylinder is misfiring, so don't assume that the coils are okay just because there are no misfire codes. And, if you spend some time searching other forums, you will find a number of guys who say that Ford pcm's don't always report the correct cylinder as the problem even when they do set a code....

 

[turbot4]

the tranny thing is ver rare, so makes me believe i have 1 or more bad coils.....i'll post up when i get new ones in..
they appear to be orginal so we'll see.

 

[Funmart6]

Ummm, tranny rebuilds are common with these cars.

 

[turbot4]

no, i mean it rarely happens when i'm driving it....it seems to start when the idle starts to minutely search after the car is hot...which makes me think a bad coild is kicking on and off at times..

 

[Funmart6]

gotcha, that does sound like a misfire.