[s-cars] Coilpacks

[Calvin & Diana Craig]

What you guys have been describing is much more intermittent than what
happened in my case.  It was: car runs perfectly for 70 miles since startup,
two seconds later, car very hard to get up hills with lots of convulsing.
My mechanic "siliconed" the wires for some insulation last night and
repaired what he thought could have been another problem.  The problem with
my coil packs is that they simply have almost no good insulation still
intact on the wires right next to the coilpack itself.  I got the car back
tonight and so far about 60 miles with absolutely no problems.  I will be
buying 5 coil packs in the near future just to get this problem behind me.
--Calvin


-----Original Message-----
From: CLAG500 at aol.com [mailto:CLAG500 at aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 8:53 AM
To: gailus at mindspring.com; calvinlc at earthlink.net
Cc: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Coilpacks


In a message dated 10/22/2002 9:26:54 AM Eastern Standard Time,
s-car-list-request at audifans.com writes:

> Reply-To: "Paul  Gailus" <>
> From: "Paul  Gailus" <gailus at mindspring.com>
> To: "Calvin & Diana Craig" <calvinlc at earthlink.net>,
>    <s-car-list at audifans.com>
> Subject: Re: [s-cars] Coilpacks
> Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 07:21:04 -0500
>
> My read on this is that the spark plug failure was most likely
> due to preignition / detonation from another fault in the
> ignition system, and not the first failure that initiated the rest
> of the problems.
> Intermittent shorting to ground of the coil primary lead that
> is connected to the PSO could be causing the problem. The PSO
> itself is also a prime suspect (especially given its stellar history
> on this list).
> By the way, the melted coil could have been caused by a
> sustained short to ground in the PSO output, or somewhere on
> the wire from this output to the coil. It's very likely that these coils
> are not rated for continuous current on the primary. I believe
> another lister (Chad?) had a similar problem with a melted
> coil.
>
> Paul


Excellent memory Paul!  I did have the coil meltdown occur along with the
PSO failure exactly one year ago. AFAIK a contiuosly missing cylinder
usually points to the PSO. Also when it first starts missing it will be
somewhat intermitant and temperature related So you can change something and
have it appear to go away. I drove my car quite a way with it missing a
whole cylinder. Makes me think I should do that spark plug change that I've
been contemplating. I've also done the dielectric grease on the back of the
PSO that was suggested recently and is also suggested on Scott Mockry's site
now.

Chad Tobin