Every now and then my 2002 Lincoln LS will go into overheat mode, but the car isn’t really overheating, because if I shut it off and restart it in 5 minutes everything’s fine…for a week or two. I’ve had the water pump replaced. Someone told me replacing the coils above the spark plug helps this…is that true?
Either you have air trapped in the cooling system, or one of the head temperature sensors is shorting out. The LS experiences a lot of COP (Coil On Plug) failures, but I haven’t heard of one triggering an overheat condition.
Are you saying your LS went into “limp” mode and it isn’t overheating? Limp mode is designed to protect the motor and malfunctions other than overheating can cause "limp’ mode to kick in.
For it to be your COP’s failing the motor would have multiple misfires due to several COP’s failing at the same time. The motor would be running pretty badly and you’d have trouble maintaining speed going up hill before going into limp mode.
I’ve got the same motor in a '04 T’bird and I have been in limp mode twice and neither was for overheating. I know I overreved the motor on one occasion.