I have a 2004 Full size econoline van.
Last spring for no reason I picked up a miss and the check engine light came on.

I called mechanic and he checked and said we had a bad plug wire. SO he replaced it. Said it was one with a coil.

A few weeks later this happened again. So I went to a different mechanic same thing.

We have had this van in to garage 4 times. All plug wires have been placed. Fuel filters have been replaced.

It is doing it again. Any idea what it might be or what could be causing plug wire after plug wire to go bad?
please help. I'd like to go to mechanic with at least an idea.

Thanks!

 

What engine,, 4.6, 5.4, 6.8 and whats the mileage?

When it went if for the misfire, did they get/retrieve a DTC (trouble code)during adiagnostic scanfor 'which' cylinder/s were misfiring prior to the work? and did it repeat for the same cylinder/s after the first repair? The ignition system are COP (coil on plug) and don't 'really' have plug wires.. They use a spark plug/coil boot with a spring to make contact with the coil mounted above each plug.. They can and dofail at times.. If you have a re occuring misfire, I'd suspect an ignition coil/s as the fault, especially if they've replaced all boots ect.. But if they moved the coils positions, meaning installed them on different locations/plugs, the misfire would follow the failing coil/s which might explain the 'chase' or continuing problems...

 

it is 4.6 engine with 110k miles. I mistyped earlier the year is 2002.

We have maintained the van well with frequent oil changes and other maintenance as suggested.

the code was retrieved and they did replace the coil on that code.

each time there was a different code. Finally all the wires/coils and plugs were replaced. The mechanic said he did move the coils. The second mechanic did not replace the two wires/coils that the first guy did.

So we should test the each coil to see where the bad one is?

This problem is intermittent. It will be fine for a few days and then miss so bad you can't hardly drive.

I am going back up there next week to let him look at it again and see what is coding now.

One thing since the second mechanic worked on the van the check engine light does not come on now when this happens. I hate to be dumb but...if the light doesnt come on is there a diagnostic code?

I had thought maybe it was a fuel injection problem so we even had that checked and they cleaned the injectors twice.

I am tired and getting broke trying to figure out what is going with this.

THanks for the help!

 

I 'd check whatever circuit board or computer or other rigging that acts as the distributor and tells the coils when to fire. Misfires don't travel without mechanics or the computer helping them to.

 

If you want some one to try to help you. You need to give them as much imformationas you can. There are so maney things that could be causing your problem.A weak fuel pump, bad connection, bad ecm and so on. Some times knowing different codes in combination can help some one pin point the problem.