Well, after a year of driving my 1.8t coil pack conversion experiment, I finally (inevitably?) had a coil pack fail. Its been coming on for awhile, i.e. some missing/ hesitation under boost (26 psi plus) but nothing in "normal" driving. Just like a "real" OE coil failure mode.
Like the OE system and a POS failure, you can't easily find the offending cylinder until you get a total failure, i.e. a failure at idle. As a result, diagnosing which cylinder is the problem is the same as tracking down a OE POS channel failure:
1) Remove the injector cover
2) Start the engine (in neutral with the hand brake on)
3) Pull the injector connectors one at a time.
Since you will be going from a 4 out of 5 cylinder mode to a 3 out 5 mode, it is very clear which cylinder has the problem. In my case, based on other failures, I was willing to bet it would be no. 5. Wrong: No. 3.
Solution:
1. Disconnect the coil pack from the harness,
2. Pull coil pack,
3. Remove rubber "seal" ring from dead coil pack,
4. Add seal ring to new coil pack,
5. Check torque on spark plug (tighten only) 22 lb-ft- it was fine.
6. Insert new coil pack (to engage the hex part of the plug),
7. Reconnect to harness,
8. Start car.
9. Enjoy engine Purrrr.....
Total time from removing injector cover to finish: 10 minutes (and some of that was wiping stray dirt off the fuel rail).
Now to find out whether the 115 R coil packs are really any better. And put another spare 115 L in the trunk, er, I mean, boot. ;>)
Dave F.
Like the OE system and a POS failure, you can't easily find the offending cylinder until you get a total failure, i.e. a failure at idle. As a result, diagnosing which cylinder is the problem is the same as tracking down a OE POS channel failure:
1) Remove the injector cover
2) Start the engine (in neutral with the hand brake on)
3) Pull the injector connectors one at a time.
Since you will be going from a 4 out of 5 cylinder mode to a 3 out 5 mode, it is very clear which cylinder has the problem. In my case, based on other failures, I was willing to bet it would be no. 5. Wrong: No. 3.
Solution:
1. Disconnect the coil pack from the harness,
2. Pull coil pack,
3. Remove rubber "seal" ring from dead coil pack,
4. Add seal ring to new coil pack,
5. Check torque on spark plug (tighten only) 22 lb-ft- it was fine.
6. Insert new coil pack (to engage the hex part of the plug),
7. Reconnect to harness,
8. Start car.
9. Enjoy engine Purrrr.....
Total time from removing injector cover to finish: 10 minutes (and some of that was wiping stray dirt off the fuel rail).
Now to find out whether the 115 R coil packs are really any better. And put another spare 115 L in the trunk, er, I mean, boot. ;>)
Dave F.
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