Vauxhall Astra 1.6 - Spark Plugs And Coil Pack

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
View Threaded
Wed 30 Oct 2024 07:32
Vauxhall Astra 1.6 - Spark Plugs And Coil Pack - RogerOut
Hello everyone,

Just had a £300 bill and I’m hoping it wasn’t all wasted !

On our way to Devon on Monday ( a 250 mile trip) for a family break. In the wife’s car , a 2015 Vauxhall Astra Estate. Car was brought 6 months ago and came with a Spoticar 12 month warranty.

Driving along the dual carriageway at 6am and suddenly the yellow engine management warning light comes on , along with the traction light and the ESP service light. My wife who was driving said it stated losing its top speed,

Brilliant ,that’s all we need ! Especially with two young kids in the car. We know there’s a retail park just a few miles up the road , a safer and more convenient place to wait for assistance.

We call the AA and after two hours the guy turns up. He puts on the diagnostic machine but no codes come up, just says misfire apparently. The technician says probably the spark plugs and maybe the coil pack too but changed the spark plugs to see if that’s the problem. He didn’t want to initially change parts that don’t need changing. He took the car off and went to collect the spark plugs , he came back about 20 mins later. No warnings light and the car drove fine.

After changing the park plugs , he told us to drive around the car park whilst he kept his diagnostic machine in and his laptop. Car seems fine and we’re about to go after paying him £50 for the spark plugs when all of a sudden the ESP light comes on again. He then has another look, changed the coil pack which cost us another £240 quid ! Car seems fine and we make it to Devon with no further problems. So spent just under £300.

I call Spoticar warranty phone line , to ask if these parts were covered. However, the kicker is , and I didnt realise this, was that under the warranty, we also got break down assistance and were supposed to call that number in the event of breakdown. And because I went straight through to the AA using my own policy, they won’t cover any works done by them.

My fault entirely I guess but you don’t always remember these things at 6am on a dark car journey with limited internet access and stress!

My question is , does anyone think the coil pack and spark plugs would have been covered by the warranty or is it likely they wouldn’t have been? An expensive lesson learned!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 30 Oct 2024 07:53
Vauxhall Astra 1.6 - Spark Plugs And Coil Pack - Topdude

Probably would have been covered but would it have been dealt with as efficiently as the AA ?

Sounds like the AA man gave you a good and honest service and got you back on the road.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 30 Oct 2024 08:10
Vauxhall Astra 1.6 - Spark Plugs And Coil Pack - edlithgow

Seems cheap for a problem with one of those modern car things.

I'm once again struck though, by how, despite all the diagnostic info, kit and probable technical competence deployed, it still seems to come down to guessing and throwing parts at it.

Serially, already.

It might have been the plugs (probably not)

It might have been the coil pack

I'd bet it wasn't both.

Edited by edlithgow on 30/10/2024 at 08:19

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 30 Oct 2024 08:44
Vauxhall Astra 1.6 - Spark Plugs And Coil Pack - elekie&a/c doctor
I would say that neither the spark plugs or the coil pack were the cause of the issue. It’s a common problem on these that the connector to the coil becomes insecure and causes bad connections. Replacing the coil pack has probably fixed the problem, but not for the right reason.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 30 Oct 2024 09:35
Vauxhall Astra 1.6 - Spark Plugs And Coil Pack - Andrew-T

That is all the OP wants to hear :-)

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 30 Oct 2024 14:16
Vauxhall Astra 1.6 - Spark Plugs And Coil Pack - RogerOut
Wouldn’t the AA guy have checked the connections? Or am I asking a dumb question? Unless AA technicians have been told to make more money for the AA and replace parts that don’t need doing. However the guy initially didn’t want to replace the coil pack ( to save us money) so presumably he wasn’t trying to rip us off when he could have done that to begin with.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 30 Oct 2024 16:06
Vauxhall Astra 1.6 - Spark Plugs And Coil Pack - elekie&a/c doctor
I’m surprised the AA guy didn’t refer to his database of known issues with this car . I’m sure this would have highlighted the problem.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 30 Oct 2024 22:10
Vauxhall Astra 1.6 - Spark Plugs And Coil Pack - Big John
Wouldn’t the AA guy have checked the connections?

Presuming it's the coil pack module over the plugs which I think it is on a Vauxhall, the connector would have been disconnected to replace the plugs etc. Therefore I think the fault was probably the coil pack - and these are known to fail. It's not a massive bill re the joys of motoring and you have a working car now with nice new shiny plugs.

Edited by Big John on 30/10/2024 at 22:11

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 30 Oct 2024 23:37
Vauxhall Astra 1.6 - Spark Plugs And Coil Pack - edlithgow

If you kept the parts you've got nice old shiny plugs too, and perhaps a coilpack, which you could investigate at your leisure.

Could form the basis of a swaptronics starter kit for next time.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Thu 31 Oct 2024 06:30
Vauxhall Astra 1.6 - Spark Plugs And Coil Pack - paul 1963

My two penny's worth....I would say the plugs were worn causing the coil to fail, seen that a couple of times.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link