Any recommendations? I'm getting spurious ignition problems, the leads are what came with the car, they are the Ford part (motorcraft) but are of an uncertain age. Should I stick with the Ford part, or go for something more exotic?
ford ones without a doubt are the best all round
As Mr C has said, stick with Ford. They are considered a service item, and should be changed with the Motorcraft plugs at 40K. Gap the plugs to
1mm, not to the earlier 1.3mm setting.A set of plugs and leads will be in excess of 70UKP BTW...
Chris
Definitely, used to get all sorts of problems with aged Ford ones (intermittent/random/false RPM pickup on the test gear) were almost always solved by replacing with genuine parts, rarely with 'aftermarket' parts.
Phhtt. I just bought a Ford set of leads for £30 from the local main dealer.
NGK Platinum PTR5A-10 plugs can be had for about £15 a set off EBay, and are the same thing as the Motorcraft plugs - Ford just rebadge them and double the price.
Note the -10 as the gap is officially 1.0mm now, not 1.3mm as originally specced, and which kills coil packs and leads.
I know that they have been known to fail quite early but most of them will last to 80k or more. I personally wouldn't change them every 40k unless they were actually playing up.
As soon as you get any spluttering when hot at ~18-2000rpm under load, its time to replace the leads.
My previous Focus reached 65k when I sold it, and the leads were original, but had i kept the car I would have replaced them. Preventitive maintanance etc.......
Tim.
That was my symptoms - fine when cold, started sputtering at lowish revs and light load after I'd done a couple of miles and it started to warm up..
I do not know the technical explanation, but it seems that ht leads go electrically porous when hot. I had a rover 200 in a while ago, it was fine for a few miles, you would swear there was no fault, but when fully hot it coughed and farted, almost undrivable. I eventually tracked (sic) it down to the king lead from the coil being misrouted and passing a sharp edged metal bracket, there was no chafing, just close. When hot, sparks crackled across, when cold nothing.
I can only vouch for Endura-E leads, but most people had the spluttering, hesitation, loss of power between the 50,000 and 60,000 mile services. Sure enough, a few hundred miles from the 60,000 mile service, Kermy started showing a few symptoms of the leads breaking down...
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