F250 sputtering
she sputters around 40-50 MPH..... Changed mass air flow- cleaned carb- checked for vacuum leaks-- Idles fine. Would this be a bad coil? it's a V10. It is not throwing any check engine light. Would a scanner uncover anything?
Forum Discussion
- I had similar symptoms with my V10. Here is a link to the complete diagnosis and solution. In a nut shell get a scan tool with mode 6. It will tell cylinder by cylinder if any have misfire counts.I am thinking you have a COP or boot breaking down.
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28808847.cfm - I agree with the COP or boot being bad. My 2000 V-10 had a miss under hard acceleration when I bought it. Had new plugs and coils put in and runs great now.
PUCampin wrote:
A blu tooth OBDII dongle and the Torque app on my tablet allowed me to see that 3 cylinders were missing badly, just not enough times in a given time frame to turn on the light.
How did you get the Torque app to show mis-fires? I had a mis-fire on my sons 02 F150 and tried everything I could to get torque pro to show it. I finally went to a buddy's shop and used his Snap-on scanner and it showed the mis-firein cyl right away.- My old 99 V10 did the same thing...especially evident while at lower RPM at Highway speed...any little hill in 4th gear would cause this hard hitting 'sputtering'...I likened it to a gremlin under the hood with a hammer hitting the motor...
Really thought something was bad wrong....
No code....
Then I pulled the COP's and found six of them had cracked bodies. Here is a pic
I replaced all 10 coils after this was found...and the problem went away.
As far as the plug wires...while true that these things do not have plug wires in the classic sense...there are two wires per COP coming off the wiring harness with a plastic connector...these wires can go bad (mice, fraying, etc...) hence the recommendation above to look at the motor in the dark to see if you see arching.
Thank and good luck!
Jeremiah - sounds like its around the speed where the torque converter locks up, and is slipping , causing a misfire type feeling
shepstone wrote:
Did the V10 have carbs?
No, the 6.8 Triton never had carbs.
Never had plug wires either so there wouldn't be anything to see after dark as suggested earlier.
I agree with the others that it's most likely a bad COP. But it could also be a bad boot. If you can scan it you may determine which cylinder is misfiring. Then swap COP's around and see if the misfire moves with the COP. Then you know which COP and/or boot to change.- Did the V10 have carbs?
huskyfan68 wrote:
Yes, absolutely, all 4 of the ones I have changed on my V10 never coded, but the scan indicated misfires in the affected cylinders. Change the plug and coil and good to go.
will that show up on a scanner without throwing a check engine light?- A generic OBD code scanner which can read "Pending" codes will likely see it. The readers which only scan "Active" codes may not.
That said... A bad coild doesn't normally produce "sputtering". Some mild vibration, and maybe hesitation when accelerating maybe. Sputtering usually makes be suspect fuel delivery. - Bad plugs or COP can definitely cause a problem without throwing a code. My Expedition was almost undrivable it was missing so bad, but it did not throw a code. A blu tooth OBDII dongle and the Torque app on my tablet allowed me to see that 3 cylinders were missing badly, just not enough times in a given time frame to turn on the light. In my case, new plugs solved the problem. You can check the strength of the coils with a HEI (High Energy Ignition) tester. It has a huge air gap inside that stresses the coil, so if you see a spark the coil is good.
