Dreaded ignition coils!

[tandlehill]

Driving along the M60 near Stockport on the way to work, pulled out to overtake and as I accelerated the engine "popped" and seemed to run rough but without any dramatic loss of speed. This got progressively worse and as I arrived at work the car sounded more like a beetle than an Octavia!!

Did a quick search on here and narrowed it down to the ignition coils; when I came out to the car to go home I thought I'd check it first by removing the coils in sequence to identify the culprit, unfortunately this seemed to make it worse and I think I actually killed another coil whilst doing this! :no: Tried to drive it round the corner just to see how it was running and decided to abandon this and get the breakdown guys out..........arrived home on the back of a flatbed!

Now I have bought two shiny, new coils and put them in the engine, started the car and...............sounds like a beetle!!

Having checked all four cylinders by moving the new coils around I've obviously lost three, so I wondered if anybody had had a similar experience and if so did you buy four new coils?

My thinking is that if three have failed at the same time the fourth must be close to failing, or will do when the new ones start firing at a higher rate than it can, putting more stress on it until it does eventually fail.

Should I just bite the bullett and get another two new ones?? Just seems that they're quite expensive to replace all four (but if that's whats required then so be it).

Brakes and window regulator next!

[David 8]

I'd just get another two tbh, if three have gone in succsesion then you might as well replace all four.

[mikey vrs]

I had one fail not long ago & i just replaced the faulty one,i however did buy another one & keep it in the glovebox incase another one fails! (i cant afford to replace all four). if i was you i would change all four,its seems silly not to if you have 3 faulty ones! i would put a set of new spark plugs in too if they havent recently been replaced.

[Browny_37]

A boost pipe hasn't popped out has it?

[tandlehill]

Well fitted the two other coils last night and all seems well, must have been struggling before this though as the engine feels like it's been remapped!!

On the drive to work this morning, and after driving fairly enthusiastically , as I pulled up at the traffic lights it still felt as if it was running a little odd, not missing as such but pinking (sorry if that's the wrong spelling!); now is this usual after driving at motorway speeds for awhile and then having the engine sit there idling at the lights? it seemed to pull away from the lights with no lag or problem so maybe it's just due to the hot running it's had after not very much use over the past few weeks? :wonder:

Browny_37: I took the opportunity to check the pipes when I was in the engine bay and all seemed well, no splits or popped pipes.......yet!! I will be going back in there though this weekend as the washer bottle pipe has popped off after my OH drove it during the cold snap!! :no:

Edited 4 February, 2010 by tandlehill

[Browny_37]

You could try removing the plugs and giving them a good clean up and put them back in first.

The car could have tried to alter the settings drastically to compensate and could well settle down.

Or you could try removing the battery lead for 30mins or so, and then put it back on. Which obviously will loose any stored radio stations, and any codes used for the stereo. Unless like the Mk2 Octy the radio is coded to the car.

Removing the battery lead should give the ecu a chance to reset.

This would put the map back to the standard tolerances, of the map already on there (be it a remap or a standard map).

The car will then adapt to suit your driving style, and hopefully right its self of the funny idling.

I use to find my Astra Coupe Turbo, felt as though it had been remapped until it settled back down when I took the battery cable off for 30mins.

[tandlehill]

Thanks for that, I'll keep it in mind. It seemed to run really well this morning so maybe it's sorted itself. I'll still have a poke around under the bonnet this weekend, probably clean the TB too, can't hurt and will be interesting to see how clean (or dirty!) it is.

I'm assuming that because it wasn't firing on all cylinders it would have been running a little rich and made the ECU etc work even harder, constantly adjusting as you said can't have done it any good really.

Just wondering though, if, as I mentioned previously, the coils were obviously on the way out before this and were probably the cause of the "pinking" it surely must have been affecting my MPG???? it certainly affected the performance having felt how well it pulled this morning all the way through the gears!!!!

Cheers for the help!!