Coil pack problem

[Audi Parts Guru]

have you checked the insulation on the wires to the coils ??? They have a bad dentency to crack because of the heat after years of driving. I have that problem on my car so im going to have a friend solder on some new wires on the coils for me.

Yep, I've taken all the coils off and sure enough, the wiring was fooked subsequently I've covered all of the wiring with heat shrink.

I've got a couple of used spare coil packs that I'll try over the next couple of days. However If I don't manage to sort the problem then I'll just bite the bullet and get some nice new Bosch units

[S2 Ant]

Was gonna say that its hard to test at idle as the problem isnt that apparent, it only really shows up when on boost as it cant maintain the spark as this is the problem i had, i ended up just replacing all 5 with OEM Beru units from ECP.

The wiring on mine were shagged as well, all very very brittle, insulation broke and the wires just crumbled when i had them off the car.

If you want to replace would be well worth following the 1.8T coilpack installation to save a fortune.

[Audi Parts Guru]

If you want to replace would be well worth following the 1.8T coilpack installation to save a fortune.

True, however I can get nice new Bosch units which work out much less that the original Beru units

[Markus]

This is one test I've found to be quite useful:

Remove the coilpack cover (leave everything connected) and put some sparkplugs in the rubber boots (old sparkplugs will do nicely). Lay the assembly on a piece of plywood or some other kind of insulating material on top of the valve cover.

Now take a strip of metal (bar plate or something similar) that's at least as long as the distance from the first to the fifth spark plug. Connect the metal strip to the engine's earth using some heavy wire (jumpstart cables work well). It's a good idea to remove any oxidation or rust from the metal.

Start out with the metal strip quite close (but not touching) to the spark plug tips. Have someone crank the engine and watch how the sparks jump from the plugs to the metal strip. Slowly slide the metal strip further away from the plugs (across the plywood, keeping it paralell with the plug tips). As the gap increases you will be able to see which coil has the weakest spark.

Before cranking the engine be sure to remove the fuel pump fuse and disconnect the injectors in order to prevent fuel from flooding the cylinders.

[merlin's S4]

Another way is to get an adjustable spark tester (about £4 from a motor factor), unplug the injectors and test the coilpacks one by one by turning the engine over. You can gradually increase the load on the coilpacks by increasing the spark gap (simulating high boost/load conditions) and you can check to see which coil's spark gets weak first. Remember to ensure that the other 4 coils have plugs in them and that they're grounded on the cam cover, otherwise you can damage all the coils! This can be a bit time consuming and it's not always very conclusive, but it's worth a try!!

[Audi Parts Guru]

Thanks for all your help guys. Looks like I'm gonna be busy this weekend

I have actually got a pukka adjustable spark gap tester coming to me from the USA in about 3 weeks time courtesy of my sister. The company she got it from wouldn't ship outside of the US, w4nkers