Coil Pack Failure Rate?

Recently one of the coil packs on my 2003 Tacoma 4 cylinder died. Once I diagnosed the problem it was a fairly simple fix. It appears that coil packs run between $50.00 and $90.00 depending on the source.
I'm not thrilled about spending a couple of hundred dollars to replace the remaining three coils that may (or may not) last the life of the truck.
So my options are:
1. Do nothing and wait for the failure that may never occur.
2. Buy a single coil pack and keep it as a spare
3. Replace the remaining 3 coil packs
4. Buy one more coil pack and put the two new coils packs on the #2 and #3 cylinders (the most difficult ones to access) and keep the one good "old" coil pack as a spare.


How often do coil packs fail?

 

I've never heard of them being common to fail, at least not like the early ford coil packs. I would go with option #1.

 

Thanks for your response.
If I had posted something important..... like what big wheels look the coolest or asked a question about how much lift did you install and what color plasti-dip did you use on the grill after you installed a cool set of speakers; I would have received a thousand replies.
I'm glad this forum isn't choked up with trivial stuff like how do you keep the engine running.

 

Haven't had to replace any yet from our other tacomas or 4runner. I've seen them go over 200K miles so it's not common. I have seen misfire codes that turns out to be just needing dialectric grease. Are you sure it's the coil pack?

 

And people say I'm sarcastic LOL

 

Yea, it was the coil pack. The engine was missing and throwing the code for the #1 cylinder. I swapped the # 1 coil for the # 4 and it was still missing but the code changed to the # 4 cylinder. (the problem followed the bad coil) I replaced the bad coil and all was fine.

 

Sorry, but this forum is predominantly populated by immature shallow twits. It's actually refreshing to get some advice based on experience and reality for a change. I was a 17yr old idiot once, but that was a long time ago and I grew out of it.

 

There are thousands of threads covering all kinds of subjects you just have to choose which ones you want to follow. In all honesty I am surprised at the play some of them get.

 

Deal with it man.


Some ignition coils are hundreds of dollars. Anything under $75 is damn cheap. And you only have 4!

 

you're right, now let's have a deep and insightful discussion centered on the color of those coil packs and how the red ones aren't just cool but make the truck bigger, faster and stronger

 

Red coils and Trd stickers net you 35hp, No problem. Worth every penny.

 

I knew it! The guy that sold me the bright blue ones said they where hand made during thunderstorms and the presence of lighting during the construction process made better sparks. Of course the blue ones cost more but you just know they're better.

 

No need to replace them all. Just go buy some dielectric grease and grease up all the connection to prevent moisture from building up. Doing this made my misfire code go away. I thought it was a coil as well with my issue but decide to try the $5 fix first.

 

This is excellent and outstanding ! I just hope I remember the $5 solution B 4 I go 4 the $70 solution.

 

Unfortunately for me it WAS the $80 solution. The coil pack really was bad. The good news is it sounds like a rare failure.

 

"rare failure" a good thing.

 

My 09 is just about to hit 200k and one of the coil packs crapped out (they are the original)and there's all six codes.for all six coil packs. So imjust replacing them all. Hopefully good for another 100k !

 

Replacing all of my coils at around 100k as part of my preventative maintenance schedule along with fuel injectors, transmission filter/fluid, front/rear def and transfer case gear oil. Also, changing over to 100% synthetic Amsoil 0w20 engine oil.

 

My #1 coil failed at 261,000 miles. (They don't make things like they used to.) It was starting to misfire at start-up time and the error code indicated the #1 cylinder. After replacing the coil it runs better at start-up but is still not quite right. 'Check Engine' hasn't come on again, at least not yet. I guess I'll try the grease on the connections to the other 3 coils...