Our 2014 Town & Country has about 130k on it. We bought with 58k 3-years ago, in that time I’ve changed the air filter twice, oil changes whenever it told me, and front brakes. That’s it.
Its been running a bit rough for a week or more. I bought new plugs for it over a year ago, popped the hood...and promptly closed it. It looks like changing the plugs is a 1/2-day ordeal. Presuming the coils are original, should I drop $200 on a set while I’m in there?
We do not have any plans to get rid of the van presently, fwiw.
I don’t know if the newer generation is the same as the older one, but remove the wipers, upper cowl, and wiper module and you have lots of room to fix anything.
In reply to Ranger50 :
Sadly not at all. The whole upper intake needs removed to even see the coils on the Pentastar. Probably not difficult after you’ve done it a couple times, but after watching a vid I’ll be spending lots of time referencing back to it, searching for a fastener, then repeating the cycle.
That sounds like a chore compared to our simple ol' 4th gen van. Wasn't there another thread recently about the Pentastars having issues with coils? If your van is one of the problem years, $200 is cheap insurance to not worry about it again. Especially if you made it to 130k before needing plugs. That means you're looking at 200k+ before you revisit plugs again. A coil would fail by then on most cars.
I'd say go for it, but hold on to your old coils if you have the storage. Some manufacturers have had issues with defective replacement coils.
Opti
HalfDork
9/7/18 9:45 p.m.
If you aren't getting any misfire codes I wouldn't worry about replacing all the coils.
Removing the plenum isn't bad, and once you do it the second time is a breeze. I'd just slap some plugs in it a do your favorite seafoam type treatment, since they do have some carbon build up issues.
My buddy went through this a few weeks ago on his, he actually had a coil die, he was worried about pulling the plenum, having never done it, he didn't have any problems once he got down to wrenching. He said it ran fine after the plugs and one coil, but the seafoam made a surprising difference.
In reply to Opti :
Thanks! I read last night about buildup on the throttle body too, so I’ll check it out while I’m in there.
Ian F
MegaDork
9/8/18 6:39 a.m.
Plugs and coil on my '08 3.3L GC was about $300 at my local guy, parts and labor (including one broken plug). Done in a day while I was at work. I'll do some maintenance tasks on my van, but these days I just don't have time to risk something going wrong. We'll see if the '17 3.6L proves to be as cheap to have work done.
Based on milage and your long term plans I would just put all three coils in with the plugs. Nothing sucks more than replacing one coil and another coil checks out three weeks later.
I got the plugs changed this morning. I only found one coil pack in town, so I didn’t bother repacking them. They actually still looked really good anyway.
The plugs, however:
I don't know that I’ve ever changed iridium plugs before, but I was surprised that 1.) the electrode still looked ok, and 2.) that the ground on most plugs was worn at an angle, as (barely) seen above. Is this normal?
It took me a bit less than 3-hours. Thankfully having small hands made it easier.
In reply to Opti :
Good question. I’d never experienced the problem, though when SWMBO got home one evening last week it sounded like I could hear a slight miss in the exhaust.
I drove it twice this afternoon & it seemed fine, but with the herky-jerky transmission it’s difficult to tell.