It is indeed true that No3 coils fail more regularly - I can give no feasible explanation of this -- they just do.

It is also true that heat has an effect on the failure - although it's more to do with heat cycle -- constantly warming up & cooling down,leads to fractures in insulation around plug connector -- this then allows moisture in and causes missfire -- in extreme cases we have seen the coils actually break in two ie. the top section breaks away from the plug connector - in this type of case - it would probably not be possible to replace at side of road - certainly not till engine cooled.

I don't think removing the engine cover would really help -- as the area that is effected would not gain any additional ventilation.

Audi's rules for replacement are these : 1 coil fail = 1 coil replaced 2 or more coil fail(at same time)=all 4 replaced.

i was going to pay for the rerplacement of all 4 before any break

Mine went in the following order and at the approx mileages listed below

1 36k

3 49k

2 58k

4 68k

2 79k

None gone since then, still mainly on H (3H 1J), the 2 spares in the car are J

So they've gone from damp to heat? Truth is they don't know. Got told in January it was heat and in July that it was damp

do u think i should pay my dealer to change my coils to the new type?

Why don't you just buy a spare? Then, unless you are really unlucky and two go at once, you know you can get back on the road in a short time. Why pay to fix something that isn't broken?

If you have breakdown or roadside assistance cover, just buy one as a spare for peace of mind. At the height of the coil pack failure problem many (if not most) dealers didn't have any in stock to get cars back on the road. That has changed completely now and no dealer worth their salt will be short of coil packs.

Originally posted by DGW in this post

If you have breakdown or roadside assistance cover, just buy one as a spare for peace of mind. At the height of the coil pack failure problem many (if not most) dealers didn't have any in stock to get cars back on the road. That has changed completely now and no dealer worth their salt will be short of coil packs.

Exactly - I think most dealers will be increasing their stock levels anyway as we get towards the colder weather -- the peek of the last failure was during December, so no-one want's to go there again......

I don't think there is much point in paying to replace all 4 at this stage - purchase 1 or 2 spares.

Eventually(hopefully) the UK will get a full recall as in the states - although the date for this seams to slip further and further away....