2.5L ('98-'01) Rough idle, ignition issue?

[Micahfriesen]

I'm planning on trying new spark wires. Oreilly's has multiple different brands, is this engine picky about what brand of spark wires it uses?

 

[rusty ol ranger]

I'm planning on trying new spark wires. Oreilly's has multiple different brands, is this engine picky about what brand of spark wires it uses?

Go with motorcrafts

 

[scotts90ranger]

They're not too picky, I would go with Motorcraft or Autolite for spark plugs though.

If it hesitates and such I would pick up a can of MAF cleaner too and clean the mass airflow sensor...

 

[bhgl]

I run iridium NGKs and have no issues.

Brands for wires is kind of a crapshoot, Motorcraft wires are OEM and are made well, but are usually a bit more expensive.

I would avoid the cheapest of the cheap wires since they typically have pretty high resistance, like Standard Motor products.

NGK makes a solid wire for less than OEM.

 

[Micahfriesen]

I don't know if hesitation is the right way to describe it, because it doesn't really. Anyways I bought spark plugs today, I will replace them and see where we are at. Spark wires will be next if that doesn't fix it.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Change out the 4 passenger side plugs first, it'll run on 4 of 8 spark plugs, the back two plugs on the drivers side pretty much require a 5 year old to do it or removal of the upper intake

 

[Micahfriesen]

Change out the 4 passenger side plugs first, it'll run on 4 of 8 spark plugs, the back two plugs on the drivers side pretty much require a 5 year old to do it or removal of the upper intake

Well it took my 17yr old hands 2.5hr to do all 8 plugs, without removing the upper intake.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Sweet! I looked at mine and just said screw it and pulled the upper intake, proceeded to break the PCV valve and missed a vacuum line and I think took longer than that with all of that

I hope it helps, on my '97 at like 175k when I did the plugs I think the drivers side were original, was getting a #2 misfire code where the plug wire had come off the coil pack and melted through the insulation on the coil... conveniently I'd just bought a coil for my V8 Explorer so I put it on there instead (the Explorer had a different problem turns out)

 

[Micahfriesen]

So one of the driver side spark boots broke when I pulled it out, and I just slipped it back together. I can hear it arcing though, so I just went ahead and ordered spark wires. I also ordered coils, because when I unplug the driver side coil, the passenger side is missing. So we shall see how this improves things.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Change out the 4 passenger side plugs first, it'll run on 4 of 8 spark plugs, the back two plugs on the drivers side pretty much require a 5 year old to do it or removal of the upper intake

So what youre saying is the other 4 are worthless?

 

[scotts90ranger]

No, they helped it to get to 170k without changing them

 

[Micahfriesen]

Seems to be idling fine with new ngk coils and motorcraft wires.