Renault Clio - What is a coil?

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
View Threaded
Wed 16 Mar 2005 18:12
Renault Clio - What is a coil? - pmbw
Dear all,

I have a 3 year old Renault Clio 1.4i dynamique+ (new shape) which has just decided to play a practical joke on me in that it has broken down 15 days out of warranty. Renault garage say that one of the four coils in my engine was at fault and that all four had to be consequently replaced at a total cost of £200.00.

Although I say joke, I was lucky in that Renault replaced the part for free which I find admirable, what is a coil and what function does it play in the engine? Is it normal for a car of only 3 years old to have this and will this cause any further cost in my part in future. The car has only done 16,000 miles on the clock.

Please kindly advise me.

Thanks

Paul


Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 16 Mar 2005 18:31
Renault Clio - What is a coil? - mfarrow
A "coil pack" consists of two coils, one for "low tension" and one "high tension". They are different lengths and act as a sort of transformer to increase the battery voltage (12v) to produce the sparks that ignite the fuel. If the coil wires break then no spark, hence no ignition, and no power out the cylinder.

It was good of Renault to replace the coil FOC. A friend's parents have a Clio on a 51 plate from new. It has always had an intermittant fault, in that the engine would sometimes not turn over when they tried to start it. Renault subsequently checked all over for faults with immobiliser etc and found there were none. Only out of warranty did they finally diagnose a faulty starter motor solenoid and wanted full whack for it. The parents managed to get Renault to pay half in the end but still not pleased.

--------------
Mike Farrow
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 16 Mar 2005 18:33
Renault Clio - What is a coil? - Pugugly {P}
A coil is an anagram of Clio.......!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 16 Mar 2005 19:01
Renault Clio - What is a coil? - Altea Ego
The coil is the thing that generates the spark to the spark plug. Renault have used a coil pack (block with 4 HT leads to plugs) or a coil on each plug.

There was a huge batch of faulty coils sent out to manufacturers (Volkswagen had huge problems with this)

Renault have changed the coil free because its a known fault (as Volkswagen did) and they are right to change all because the others would fail later. Now it has new improved coils it wont happen again.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Wed 16 Mar 2005 19:23
Renault Clio - What is a coil? - Bill Payer
Kudos to Renault, especially for paying for all 4. I seem to recall VW group would only replace them 1 at a time, even under w'tee.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link