[s-cars] APIKOL - performance report

[tom at tomwintermedia.com]

Last fall I swapped out my stock coil setup due to a failing coil and
opted to try the plug and play set up from Apikol. Results from other
listers had been mixed (yeah, I was warned), but the fact that they are
somewhat local to me (in Denver) and that I needed my car immediately
versus waiting for a replacement OEM coil made me take the leap. When I
did this, I promised I'd give the list some feedback.

Well, I just had a coil fail. I don't know exactly how long it lasted.
Probably about 6 months or so. I didn't write down the miles upon
replacement, so I can't report on how many I logged with the kit until the
first failure. But it is worth noting that I was in Europe for 6 weeks
this winter while my car sat at home undriven.

The car has an MTM stage 1 chip, RS2 exhaust manifold and a few other
tweaks. I use it a bit around town, but mostly for highway cruising. I do
hammer on it from time to time but I don't track it.

I'm not unhappy with the Apikol kit, it works well when the coils are
happy. And swapping a coil is easy. But I wish the coils lasted longer. I
know there has been some discussion regarding coils on the list lately,
and since I just replaced my first coil with the new setup, I thought I'd
give a report. As far as I know, my original setup was, well, original,
and held on to the tune of 150k or so. I kept everything and am
considering swapping back to stock, but will probably wait and see for
now. Unless, of course, someone wants to sell me some used OEM coils for
cheap!

Tom '95 S6 Avant