2002 Ford Crown Victoria Ignition Coils

 

The 2002 Ford Crown Victoria, and Crown Vic CVPI and P71 police interceptors will need an ignition coil to be replaced at some point in their lifetimes. These ignition coils can cost $50 to $100 each at your local parts store. This is more than most people would like to spend, considering all 8 need to be changed if they are old. When these ignition coils are several years old and one fails, the others will not be far behind. Ignition coils tend to fail like headlight bulbs. Not too far apart from each other. Some owners have reported coils going out within just 1 day apart. While this is rare, it can happen during an extreme weather change. There is no expected lifetime for these ignition coils. The owner's manual doesn't mention replacing ignition coils, because it's hard to say when they will last. What we can say for sure however is that it depends heavily on the regional weather. If you live in a place like Texas or Florida, then you will be replacing the ignition coils a lot more often than someone who lives in the south west for example. Other factors that can cause a failure is a leaky valve cover gasket letting oil leak into the spark plug well. The rubber on the coil packs will swell up and can even tear. Once it tears, the spark will arch out, causing a misfire. The 4.6L V8 is used in both the regular Crown Victoria and the CVPI, and P71 Police interceptor Crown Vics as well. The DG508 ignition coils used in this 2002 Crown Victoria are used in the other 2 valve 4.6L V8 Ford of this generation

 

2002 Ford Crown Victoria Ignition Coil Diagnosis

 

To find out if you have a bad ignition coil on your 2002 Crown Victoria, we recommend owning one device: An OBDII scanner with Mode 6. These run about $50, but don't get too discouraged just yet. A diagnosis will cost a lot more, and this type of OBDII scanner will help you find misfire, even if there is no check engine light on. The 2002 Crown Victorias, and other Fords from this generation were notorious for misfiring without any check engine light showing. Remember that the PCM (Powertrain control module aka main computer) will record every misfire that occurs. You can view which cylinder is misfiring with your Mode 6 scanner. Of course if your 02' Crown Vic is misfiring, and you do have a check engine light on, then finding the misfire is a little easier as you will get a code P0301, though P0308 identifying the cylinder that the misfire is coming from. From here, you will want to swap the coil from the misfiring cylinder to another cylinder, and reset the PCM. Drive your Crown Vic around until the check engine light comes back on and then scan for codes. If the misfire followed the coil pack, then you have a bad coil pack for sure. If the misfire remains on the same exact cylinder, then there is something else wrong with your Crown Victoria.