From Europe, where we have far more Zetecs and have had them for longer. The Coil is indded bombproof and there is no need to replace it.

NGK and Fords own Motercraft plugs are both good, but anyone who leaves plugs in for 100K would see an improvement even with crappy Champions. Most of us change our plugs every couple of years and feel a difference

Mondeo's eat HT leads. Fords own andtheir motorsports are both good, but many aftermarket leads cant take the juice and fail very quickly. Splitfires are popular here and seem to last for ages (Lifetime guarantee)

On my web site I copmpile a list of component failures and replacement and here is the lowdown

NGK plugs, no failures
Ford Plugs, no failure
Champion, 7 Failures

Ford leads, MTBF 50k miles (25 failures)
Bosch, MTBF 5K (15 failures)
Halfords Own, MTBF 7K (3 Failures)
Chamion, 10K (2 Failures)
Splitfires, No failures
Magnacores, 15K (1 report)

Ford Coil, no reported failures

We often set the spak plug gap a little smaller (1.0 to 1.2mm as apposed to the 1.3mmFord state) to take a little load off the leads and coil. Often the failing HT leads take out Spark plug 1 at the same time

As for the Statement that all Zetecs shake at idle. Come and feel mine. Smooth as a babies bum. If your's idles roughly then fix it!!!

Mad Mole
Visit Mad Moles Mondeo Madness
2L Zetec, Cams, Stage 2 head, Valve work, Powerflow, Unichip, AEM Ram, K&N, Ecotek, 75mm Lower etc.
192 BHP, Faster than a speeding Duratec!