Check Engine Light

[securespark]

Started coming on a few months ago intermittently, followed by weird readings on the tacho, or a dead tacho.

Recently the fuel consumption has been dreadful.

Garage bloke plugged into the port and said it was reporting an intermittent misfire and could be plugs, coils or leads.

He will start by replacing the plugs and coils.

He says there are two coils which confused me as it's a 4 cyl unit but he must mean there are two that are suspect. However, he can't have narrowed it down as he suggested firing the parts cannon at it.

Sadly, I wasn't there at the time.

I guess there is one coil for each plug?

 

[martygturner]

You can have a coil pack that serves 2,4,6 or 8

my mondeo has a 4 pack...

 

[Mottie]

I guess there is one coil for each plug?

What car/engine?

 

[securespark]

Sorry, Mitsubishi SpaceStar 1.3. 2002.

 

[Mottie]

If it’s individual pencil coils, they should have narrowed it down to just one of them.

 

[Burnerman]

I think this one does have individual coils, with a one hole screw fixing on the top of the rocker cover.
As above, it should be possible to identify which coil it is, but I'd still replace them all.
This will interfere with the tacho and will put the malfunction light on.
John

 

[securespark]

Thanks, John.

I wonder how sure he is that it's just two coils affected?

Unless the machine says.....

 

[martygturner]

If its been going on for months...bet the plugs are nasty and the coil packs have been frying them to get a bang...

 

[securespark]

Been this morning to have it checked out.

There are two coil packs, one for each pair.

He swapped to new plugs and swapped the two coil packs.
The engine would not start. He swapped the nearside coil pack for the old one and it started. Then he thought one of the new ones was faulty out of the box, so he swapped the new one he took off the nearside pair for the new one on the offside pair. The engine started.

Weird.

So he left the car with the original coil pack on the nearside pair, a new one on the offside pair and a set of new plugs.

£94.

As of tonight, the check engine light has not re-illuminated and the tacho works fine.

He's going to do some research into why the car doesn't like two new coil packs.

I suggested there may be two different part numbers for each side, but that does not hold water, as they both worked on the offside pair.

Very odd!

 

[carmanmemoranda]

Probably cheap aftermarket coils ?

Anything electric or electronic wants OE or top quality aftermarket parts

 

[Burnerman]

My thoughts too......either dealer parts or Beru for me -avoiding Intermotor like the plague if they still exist.
John