After 7 years and 30,000 miles of vee ownership I finally can join the coil failure club.
As its coming up to a year since I sorned the car, I thought I had better drag it out, fit the new battery (old one went to the race team porta trolley!) give it a clean and pump the tyres. When I put the car away it felt a bit lumpy but thought it was due to having just started it after a few months of no use and once it was given a decent run it would be back to normal. It certainly did not sound "like a tractor" as some have descibed here. Today is still sounded off after a good warm up and rev so decided to check the coils. Being a ph1 the front 3 were easy and pulling the plug of each in turn did give the tractor symptom so no problem with those 3, typicaly!
So off with all the covers and attack the plenum, easy really, 6 bolts on top (2 of them longer than the others so make sure you note location) and 2 8mm nuts at the rear (ratchet spanner best for these) that just need loosening and then loosen the jubilee clip on the large hose from the air filter to the throttle. The plenum can then be carefully lifted aside to expose the 3 rear coils. Need to take care though that nothing drops into the inlet manifold and the the gaskets on the plenum have not dropped off.
Problem now being that you cannot run the engine with the plenum off so how to tell the faulty coil? I only had one spare on me so could not change all 3 which would have been the ideal solution. Did think about swapping them all with the 3 at the front of the engine and then dealing with the faulty one after re assembly but thought of another way.... Out with the spark plugs then, all three a bit dark looking (engine has still not been properly run so understandable) but the middle one far blacker and wet looking. Fitted the new coil to this one, reassemble and started up. Perfect! back to a lovely smooth running motor! [smilie=yay.gif]
As its coming up to a year since I sorned the car, I thought I had better drag it out, fit the new battery (old one went to the race team porta trolley!) give it a clean and pump the tyres. When I put the car away it felt a bit lumpy but thought it was due to having just started it after a few months of no use and once it was given a decent run it would be back to normal. It certainly did not sound "like a tractor" as some have descibed here. Today is still sounded off after a good warm up and rev so decided to check the coils. Being a ph1 the front 3 were easy and pulling the plug of each in turn did give the tractor symptom so no problem with those 3, typicaly!
So off with all the covers and attack the plenum, easy really, 6 bolts on top (2 of them longer than the others so make sure you note location) and 2 8mm nuts at the rear (ratchet spanner best for these) that just need loosening and then loosen the jubilee clip on the large hose from the air filter to the throttle. The plenum can then be carefully lifted aside to expose the 3 rear coils. Need to take care though that nothing drops into the inlet manifold and the the gaskets on the plenum have not dropped off.
Problem now being that you cannot run the engine with the plenum off so how to tell the faulty coil? I only had one spare on me so could not change all 3 which would have been the ideal solution. Did think about swapping them all with the 3 at the front of the engine and then dealing with the faulty one after re assembly but thought of another way.... Out with the spark plugs then, all three a bit dark looking (engine has still not been properly run so understandable) but the middle one far blacker and wet looking. Fitted the new coil to this one, reassemble and started up. Perfect! back to a lovely smooth running motor! [smilie=yay.gif]
