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Hi, my girlfriend has an 05 Lupo 1.0 purchased from a main dealer a couple of years back. Every now and again over the past year the engine loses power/misfires and they diagnose that an ignition lead needs changing. She has had all four changed during the past year (at no little cost!) and now the same problem has occured yet again! Any ideas if this is symtom of some wider problem please? Also, is lead changing something easily done by an amateur without any particular tools, where could I get the leads and what should they be costing. Yours hopefully. Thanks. Steve
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When you say ignition leads, is this not a coil pack on top of the spark plug. Known issues with these on VW group engines. It helps if the spark plug gap is correct, and the recomended plug is used. If the gap is too wide or too much resistance in the plug more voltage is required and the coil (pack) starts to break down the insulation.
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Thanks for responding. Sorry, only going by what the dealer has said and they change the lead(s). But I'l put it to them. Thanks
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If it does use just HT leads, you can get sets from GSF or even Bosch from Lucas or Halfords. Sure to be cheaper than VW.
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When we had a misfire on my daughter's 1999 1.0litre Lupo 4 years ago, the AA guy reckoned it was probably the coil pack. These are £41 + drat at GSF at the moment and just Allen key bolted on the side of the engine. It turned out not to be them, but a faulty HT lead. Memory a bit hazy now, but I know I had to get the lead from a VW main agent (was £12 + vat); they are sold individually. To change a lead requires no tools. To find out which/if one is faulty, remove one at time from the plug (when the engine is stopped!); when you restart, if the engine runs worse, that lead was ok, whereas if there is no change, then that is the faulty lead.
If I remember correctly, I was subsequently told that the coil pack had 2, not 4, coils and worked on the 'wasted spark' principle, so if the coil pack was faulty, you'd lose 2 cylinders - the performance drop would be catastrophic on a 1 litre Lupo (whereas my daughter had driven some way the previous evening before mentioning it to me, in passing, the next morning...)
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Thanks John, I'll have a look when I next get a chance. Main dealer has charged her £80 in the past!
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Something else you may like to consider - my 1.0litre had no under bonnet soundproofing. The VW parts computer listed none for it, but my daughter's 2001 1.4litre Lupo has the same bonnet, so I ordered the underbonnet kit for that. It came with the clips and I fitted it in a couple of minutes max. no tools required. Worth the £25 or so, I reckon - it didn't make it as quiet as the 1.4 (which has bulkhead soundproofing also), but it makes a weekly 140 mile round trip commute on the M4 bearable...
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If I remember correctly, the single (shortest) lead was around £12 so a set would be say £50 ish. 15 mins labour to collect from stores, fit and check would be £20+, so £80 is not miles out...!
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