How long should a Ford Focus coil pack last.......

[Justin Smith]

How long should a coil pack last ?

I bought my Focus in Jan 2013, it was about 6 years old and had done 53K.

Within 14 months (and less than 5K) the coil pack went. The replacement failed within two weeks but was replaced free.

Two years 2 months later the coil pack went again (10K).

Two years 6 months later it went again (18K).

As far as I can remember the coil packs being fitted are Bosch, made in Slovenia or somewhere

[stef123]

With a life span as short as that I’d be asking question regarding the spark plugs and leads, have they ever been changed? What are they gapped at? What brand are they? 

[Justin Smith]

2 hours ago, stef123 said:

With a life span as short as that I’d be asking question regarding the spark plugs and leads, have they ever been changed? What are they gapped at? What brand are they? 

The garage changes the spark pugs and leads at the same time as the coil pack as a matter of course. But why should the former affect the life of the coil pack anyway ? And the other thing I don`t understand is in all the cars I`ve ever had with a conventional coil I don`t think it ever went wrong, why do coild packs do so, and whilst we`re on eth subject, why has the engine got a coil pack (as opposed to a cheaper and more reliable conventional coil) ? I accept that I may have been unlucky with the number of coil packs my cars has needed but I thought it was accepted that the coil pack on this engine was a stock fault ?

The garage reckons the siting of the coil pack (where it has to operate under cold and hot conditions, and isn`t it also subject to engine vibration ? ) etc doesn`t help it`s lifespan. If this is the case have Ford relocated the coil packs in later models ?

[Ned_Mk2_1.8tdci]

Agree with Stef. If plugs and leads are not changed with the plugs and leads of the same characteristics, than coil pack is thermally overloaded and fails prematurely. Try one simple test; start the car in a dark spot, open the bonnet and check if there's any bluish sparks along the HT leads or around the coil. This would indicate leads insulation failure. Also make sure your leads have same Ohmic resistance as original ones (I'm not sure but I think 5-7 kilo Ohms is fine). 

[eddie eastwood]

Also check the spark plug gap, I set mine to 1.1mm, rather than 1.3mm, as it has been said that this eases the load on the coil pack. 

[JohnF]

Ours (original) failed at 125,000m  17yrs old.  Now on 134,000,  HT leads (original) were not replaced, and neither were plugs which were replaced at 103,000m

[Justin Smith]

On ‎11‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 2:42 PM, JohnF said:

Ours (original) failed at 125,000m  17yrs old.  Now on 134,000,  HT leads (original) were not replaced, and neither were plugs which were replaced at 103,000m

I`m jealous, no really.

On the other hand I never had a coil fail on any car I`ve owned, such is progress.

[Lenny]

30 minutes ago, Justin Smith said:

I`m jealous, no really.

On the other hand I never had a coil fail on any car I`ve owned, such is progress.

How close is the bonnet to the engine, 

For example; The 2009/10 Volkswagen Scirocco GTi has a common problem with the heat from the engine melting the circuitry inside the coil packs 

[rhyds]

I had a coil pack go on my old MK1 at about 110k (not sure if it had been replaced before). I swapped both the pack and the HT leads for a BBT coil and Electrospark HTs from GSF. About a year later the missfire came back, and for a giggle I replaced the new Electrospark HTs with the old OE Ford ones and the missfire went away. I'd try getting a set of original Ford HTs from a scrapper (don't order new as I bet they're an absolutely silly cost) and trying that.

[rhyds]

20 hours ago, Lenny said:

How close is the bonnet to the engine, 

For example; The 2009/10 Volkswagen Scirocco GTi has a common problem with the heat from the engine melting the circuitry inside the coil packs 

The problem with the 1.6 Zetec-SE engine is that the coil is bolted to the cylinder head and heat soaks in to them. On earlier cars the coil pack was bolted flat to the head with the expoxy-filled opening the coil was assembled through held on to to the head, so they cooked nicely. When I came to swap mine the coil design had changed so that the coil pack now sat on four small "legs" to raise it slightly off the head while the assembly opening was now on the top of the coil with longer screws supplied to retain it.