I have heard that there is a problem with the coils affecting all VAG cars. The problem has got so bad that VAG can not give a delivery date for these parts. This has caused one dealer to have to hire in cars for all the customers affected having already raided its sales stock. Can anyone confirm this?
I posted this message earlier into cyber space so I appologise if it has already appeared.
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Problems with coil packs on VAG 1.8T engines are well known, leading to hoarding of the things by some people who are affected since VAG will only replace the faulty one, not the whole lot. This is despite the fact that if one goes, they all will over time.
Redesigned coil packs are problem free I think.
Lots of threads on this at www.briskoda.net
Matthew Kelly
No, not that one.
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Ha
Our Audi went back to dealer on Saturday. Ex engine management system.
On Tuesday dealer confirmed coil pack dead and that Audi was having a problem.
They had had a delivery of cps at begining of week but all coils were prebooked.
Therefore 7-10 day wait. Which is why we currently have an Omega from a rental company.
Now who is going to be a nice bunny and explain to me what on earth a coil pack is????
regards
Vercin
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In days of yore (OK until about 5 years ago) cars had one big coil to generate the spark. This was fed to the distributor, which in turn distributed the spark to correct spark plug at the required time, the time being originally controlled by mechanical points, then electronic modules, and finally ECU (Electronic (or engine) contol units). As the systems got more and more powerful, the HT (High Tension) leads had trouble keeping the spark inside, and the mechanical distributor became redundant as the ECU was controlling everything, so coil packs became widely used. This is effectively a coil for each spark plug, located directly on the plug. The time this creates a spark is controlled by the ECU, and with no HT leads to lose the spark down, the power output at the plug is higher - leading apparently to better reliabililty and combustion performance. Of course if the coil packs start failing.....
Richard
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A few questions for those in the know. There are a lot of desirable second hand motors that have this engine and I was wondering..
How common is this problem?
Are all VAG product 20valve engines affected?
How much does it cost to replace each coil pack? (If one goes then I guess they will all gradually fail and you'll have to replace all four?)
when was the redesigned coil pack introduced.
Thanks in advance
CavV6 and cavWeb fan.
www.cavweb.co.uk
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I think each coil pack is about £54 + labour + VAT. I believe that all cars pre-2002 model year have the old style coil pack. Certainly anything without variable valve timing (the power outputs didn't change though) will have the old one. Also, I believe that it is particularly common for the number 3 pack to fail, although why this should be I have no idea.
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Saab introduced this system in the late eighties, and it is still a known problem that the DI (direct ignition) unit often needs replacing on older cars. The bad news is that they are around £150, as it is not possible to replace individual units, the good news is that the corollary is that this is for a set of 4....thus being cheaper than the Audi units apparently. Fitting should be all of 5 minutes.
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threads in the american vw usenet group (rec.autos.makers.vw.watercooled) suggest that the problem is not yet solved !
Stories abound of coil packs being rationed and dealers taking coils off unsold new cars to put on customer cars.
Given their consumer laws, I suspect any new coil packs will be diverted straight to that market rather than europe
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