Ok so I have been having this issue with my car for a little while. It was idling rough and shaking really bad and having serious hesitation when accelerating so I changed the o2 sensors, spark plugs and spark plug wires and it helped a little but now my issue is I am seeing blue arcs around some areas of my coil packs and there is a ticking/knocking kind of sound coming from my engine. The rpms hesitate when I accelerate and it doesn't feel as strong or sound as good as it did a few months back. I am thinking that I need to replace my coil packs but I want to know if anyone else has this issue or something similar.

Another thing is my 'check guages' light flashes on and off rapidly and it seems to go along with the ticking and one of the arcs. My ses light has been on since i went ORY but now it flashes at times. Can anyone help

 

If your coil packs are arcing you should replace them. When they arc you get less of a spark which can cause misfires and poor engine performance. I wouldn't be surprised if you replaced them your problems would go away.

Also be sure you didn't accidentally switch 2 wires around, my bro did that on his truck and while it ran it ran bad and caused the check engine light to come on since it detected it as misfires.

 

Do the plugs and wires again. Sounds like you just did the work poorly. The parts may all be good. Have someone with experience help you.
IMHO

 

How can you do the plugs and wires poorly? I have done it before and not had issues....changing plugs and wires is pretty simple. If I still have arcing around the coilpacks with brand new msd plug wires, how would it be an issue of the plugs and wires?

 

Check the wires that run to the coilpacks. I had one that was bare causing it to arc.

 

be wary of people who state the obvious, take all the advice you can, and sift through the bs. Those msd's should have a thick rubber boot to prevent arcing. Recheck connections and try again.

 

i am actually having the exact same problem. it started on friday when i was on the highway cruising at about 75 the car bucks like crazy with no change in rpms. i can feel the car hesitate especially when trying to accelerate. i have the exact same "ticking" noise coming from my engine and the ses light was flashing when this happened. ever since the car has seemed to be fine but im not sure if its a plug and wire problem or someting else. i still have the original plugs and wires on the car and i have about 70k on the car. im going to try replacing them tomorrow. BTW the car is also running extremely rich, its actually so bad that its hard to stand next to the car. i have no idea if this has anything to do with the problem

 

I take it from this response that you are too good to have to check your work.

The usual reasons for arching:
bad connections...boots not seated, loose plugs
poor insulator condition
cuts in insulators
way down the list is the coil pack itself

 

I am not 'too good' to check my work....I looked everything over after I changed the plugs and wires and everything looks fine. Your initial response is that my problem came from me doing the work poorly and of course it can't be a problem with a part, how do you think I am going to respond?

 

what plugs did you use??

 

Is it running fine now?

 

um no......

 

I would check to make sure the coil packs are grounded good. You said that you saw the arcing? if it was coming out of the end of the boot that plugs into the coil pack then it is probably either a problem with the wires, which you already said were fine, or the coil pack could be bad. If it was arcing before you changed wires, it could have burnt through the side of the coil pack around the plug wire connection. Then it will keep doing it until it is replaced. I would also check all of the coils for cracks and/or burns around that area or anywhere you saw the spark. If you find any, most likely the coil pack is bad.
Good Luck.

 

Well to make things even more fantastic my car overheated today and I had to have it towed home.....I dont know what the hell is going on. This sucks

 

My car is doing the same and running rich. How did you correct the problem?

 

Sorry to bring this back from the dead. I'm seeing the same strange bucking problem as Torry and redz2002. Only happens with small throttle inputs, like giving it a little gas on the higway - bucks strangely. Anyone figure this problem out?

 

so i am having this issue, i have msd wires, nice new autolite iridum plugs, msd coils..
my o2s rear were giving me issues so i had them tuned out.. i feel the issues alot of us are having could be the cats if you still have them on. im gutting mine tommaorw. let you know.

 

ok here is some good info. cars sputtering on load. seem lacking power..?
ok i first thought was bad coil.. nope.. late at night unplug hood light and let car run.. no lights.. an look down both sides.
.
now on mine. i saw sparks.. top an bottom side number 1 cylinder..

so .. what i did..
ohm checked my msd red wire.. perfect ohms out.. i also had already applied msd spark guard..
so i thought.. hmm. mabye heats hurt the boots.. so i went to oreilly/checker. got a new set or there cheapest plugs wires(mine have year warranty) and just swapped it out.... no fix.. so took the wires back in..

litte more thought.. some say. the msd coils are horrible an crack.. so i removed. . inspected... nothing wrong there
(about these coils.. i have been around with msd for years on the top fuel side) an talked about these:issues folks have: the number one issues is miss installation.. they give washers to space the coil up for a reason.. without them.. they will crack. and or over heat. along with over tightening the 10mm bolts>> don't uses power tools..

next the auto light iridium plugs(spec for this car).. pulled out plug looked on on firing point.. along the ceramic. few very very lil line cracks...
i will have a report on these soon an they get back to me. the rNd for honeywell/autolite in ohio is checking them out..

there specialist and my tuner both agreed that that plug in a western(phoenix heat) condition will be to hot of a plug.. now.. i know alot of folks dont even talk or hear about a hot or colder plug...
i now run the autolte 104's copper plug which are step colder than the iridium pro plugs. gaped at .050:"/

hope that helps

 

A couple of people mentioned bucking and power loss when accelerating. I recently had that problem -- Bucking and power loss when accelerating, no change in RPM's. In fact, the RPMs were 4,000 and would not change. Normal is about 2500. The truck bucked like a wild bronco. Though I, too, have been experiencing arcing, this problem was apparently not related to that. It seems to have been a transmission problem. I was a quart low on transmission fluid (thank God it wasn't the tranny itself).

The vehicle is a truck -- 2002 Ford Ranger XLT, 3.0 V6. The transmission was straining to shift into a higher gear or overdrive, I think (I was driving 70 to 80 mph on a highway). The arcing is a separate problem, most likely, since the truck has 170,000+ miles on it (mostly hwy miles) and several things are going bad. I changed the wires and still arcing. I think its the plugs, though they are almost new, because I cannot see the arcs but can hear the arcing. For the first time ever, I did not check the preset plug gap when I changed plugs. Will never do that again.

If new plugs don't help, I'll look at changing the coil. Have not checked codes on this, but last check showed a problem with cyl 2. I did not hear arcing at that time but was misfiring. However, the code did not show WHAT KIND of problem. Check Engine light has been ON for a year.

 

More about bucking and power loss when accelerating

See Also my other answer about this. My 2002 Ford Ranger XLT 3.0 V6 (auto-trans) was bucking wildly on acceleration and seemed to be losing power because I was rapidly losing speed, even with the accelerator pushed to the floor. I was driving at least 70mph to 75mph when it happened. In my case the RPMs were 4,000 (too high) and holding steady.

The bucking was severe. Worse than anything I had ever experienced. The bucking stopped only if I let up on the accelerator completely and let the truck slow down to 50mph or less, and then I was again able to apply gas, but had to do it very gradually. I stopped and added Seafoam to the gas, in case this was a fuel problem, but did not think to check the transmission flood.

I continued driving, but this re-occurred a few times so I had to drive less than 70mph on a 75mph Highway (this happened during a 200-mile trip). As long as I kept to a low speed and did not ever accelerate quickly, I had no further problems other than idiots almost running me over.

I suspected a problem with the fuel system or the transmission, and later a professional mechanic that I consult agreed that those things would be the most likely culprits. It turned out that I was a full quart low on transmission fluid (originally it seemed to need 2 Qts). I have not yet tested the truck at 70mph and above, but it seems that the transmission was probably what caused the bucking-etc. problem.

However, I also have some unknown engine part arcing (so far I have changed the plug wires and that did not help). I can hear the arcing but have not been able to see it -- it's hard to find a very dark place in which I might see the arcs. The mechanic knows about the arcing but does NOT think it caused the bucking/power loss problem -- he immediately suspected the transmission but did not rule out the fuel system, when I mentioned it.

I had also noticed hesitation on acceleration at lower speeds, at times, but due to the arcing and other problems, I never thought to check the transmission fluid or blame it on the transmission (it's an automatic transmission).

NOTE: Due to lack of money and love of DIY, I sometimes consult a mechanic but then do the repair myself. The person I consulted on this is very knowledgeable. So if you have this problem, you may need to rule out your transmission and possibly your fuel system as potential causes. If this continues to happen to my truck (so far it has NOT happened again), then I may wonder if the arcing has anything to do with it, but the mechanic did not seem to think it did.

A note to the person whose "Check Gage" light came on when this happened -- mine comes on only when the gas tank is almost empty. Maybe yours is a fuel filter, fuel pump, or other fuel system problem.