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Message: An experienced mechanic can or should be able to tell if the coil is bad. For one thing you have...
Changed By: MarcW
Change Date: June 07, 2011 10:50PM
An experienced mechanic can or should be able to tell if the coil is bad. For one thing you have...
Change Date: June 07, 2011 10:50PM
An experienced mechanic can or should be able to tell if the coil is bad. For one thing you have...
[quote="Bruce In Philly (175K+)"]
I restarted the car about 10 mnts after I got the shudder and light.... it shuddered and the light flashed with that restart. Tonight it seemed fine as I pulled it around for the flatbed. Great. It better light tomorrow at the repair shop. I will post what it is hopefully tomorrow. My mechanic is pretty sure it is a coil.
Other than the spray method, can the mechanic tell if a coil looks bad? In other words, can he identify any "going to fail" coils? A tow will pay for a few of them so it may be prudent to replace a few... but which ones?[/quote]
well, he has the error codes which tells you (him) which cylinders experienced misfires so those coils are suspect right now.
Before you have the car towed, if you want to go to the trouble, you can clear the error codes and resume driving the car again. If the misfires come back read the codes, note the cylinders and then any duplicates from the previous incident those are the coils you replace. Of course you don't take the car out on a long drive but hang around close to home, in cell phone coverage and you belong to a good auto club so the tow's free or at least low cost.
Or you can clear the codes and swap the coils from those cylinders that misfired with those coils from the cylinders that did not misfire and see if the misfires follow the coils. If they do, well, you have pretty good indication which coils to replace.
Or given some coils will prove to be in need of replacement, you can just replace all 6. That is if If the misfires were coming from one coil and upon inspection this coil was obviously showing signs of deterioation while the other coils looked ok (not as 'dry' looking, no signs of any cracking of the coil body, all the rubber on the coil still pliable and not cracked, etc.) then replacing this one coil makes some sense.
If you get two coils on one cylinder that prove to be suspect, bad, then I'd suggest you just replace all 3 coils on that bank. Chances are while the one lone coil would be ok for a while it would sooner rather than later cause misfires and you'd be back at the engine again.
If 3 coils are bad or you have coils on both sides of the engine that are bad this makes a case for replacing all 6 because as I mentioned above chances are the good coils would soon be misfiring and you'd be back at the engine again.
You can price one or 3 or 6 coils and see what the cost is. Labor to replace one or those on one back I believe would approach the cost to replace all 6. Of course, 3 coils cost less than 6 coils, but there's a good argument for renewing all 6 so each cylinder once again is on equal footing with every other cylinder.
Sincerely,
MarcW.
I restarted the car about 10 mnts after I got the shudder and light.... it shuddered and the light flashed with that restart. Tonight it seemed fine as I pulled it around for the flatbed. Great. It better light tomorrow at the repair shop. I will post what it is hopefully tomorrow. My mechanic is pretty sure it is a coil.
Other than the spray method, can the mechanic tell if a coil looks bad? In other words, can he identify any "going to fail" coils? A tow will pay for a few of them so it may be prudent to replace a few... but which ones?[/quote]
well, he has the error codes which tells you (him) which cylinders experienced misfires so those coils are suspect right now.
Before you have the car towed, if you want to go to the trouble, you can clear the error codes and resume driving the car again. If the misfires come back read the codes, note the cylinders and then any duplicates from the previous incident those are the coils you replace. Of course you don't take the car out on a long drive but hang around close to home, in cell phone coverage and you belong to a good auto club so the tow's free or at least low cost.
Or you can clear the codes and swap the coils from those cylinders that misfired with those coils from the cylinders that did not misfire and see if the misfires follow the coils. If they do, well, you have pretty good indication which coils to replace.
Or given some coils will prove to be in need of replacement, you can just replace all 6. That is if If the misfires were coming from one coil and upon inspection this coil was obviously showing signs of deterioation while the other coils looked ok (not as 'dry' looking, no signs of any cracking of the coil body, all the rubber on the coil still pliable and not cracked, etc.) then replacing this one coil makes some sense.
If you get two coils on one cylinder that prove to be suspect, bad, then I'd suggest you just replace all 3 coils on that bank. Chances are while the one lone coil would be ok for a while it would sooner rather than later cause misfires and you'd be back at the engine again.
If 3 coils are bad or you have coils on both sides of the engine that are bad this makes a case for replacing all 6 because as I mentioned above chances are the good coils would soon be misfiring and you'd be back at the engine again.
You can price one or 3 or 6 coils and see what the cost is. Labor to replace one or those on one back I believe would approach the cost to replace all 6. Of course, 3 coils cost less than 6 coils, but there's a good argument for renewing all 6 so each cylinder once again is on equal footing with every other cylinder.
Sincerely,
MarcW.
Original Message
Author: MarcWDate: June 07, 2011 10:46PM
An experienced mechanic can or should be able to tell if the coil is bad. For one thing you have...
[quote="Bruce In Philly (175K+)"]
I restarted the car about 10 mnts after I got the shudder and light.... it shuddered and the light flashed with that restart. Tonight it seemed fine as I pulled it around for the flatbed. Great. It better light tomorrow at the repair shop. I will post what it is hopefully tomorrow. My mechanic is pretty sure it is a coil.
Other than the spray method, can the mechanic tell if a coil looks bad? In other words, can he identify any "going to fail" coils? A tow will pay for a few of them so it may be prudent to replace a few... but which ones?[/quote]
well, he has the error codes which tells you (him) which cylinders experienced misfires so those coils are suspect right now.
Before you have the car towed, if you want to go to the trouble, you can clear the error codes and resume driving the car again. If the misfires come back read the codes, note the cylinders and then any duplicates from the previous incident those are the coils you replace. Of course you don't take the car out on a long drive but hang around close to home, in cell phone coverage and you belong to a good auto club so the tow's free or at least low cost.
Or you can clear the codes and swap the coils from those cylinders that misfired with those coils from the cylinders that did not misfire and see if the misfires follow the coils. If they do, well, you have pretty good indication which coils to replace.
Or given some coils will prove to be in need of replacement, you can just replace all 6. That is if the misfires were coming from one coil and upon inspection this coil was obviously showing signs of deterioation while the other coils looked ok (not as 'dry' looking, no signs of any cracking of the coil body, all the rubber on the coil still pliable and not cracked, etc.) then replacing this one coil makes some sense.
If you get two coils on one cylinder that prove to be suspect, bad, then I'd suggest you just replace all 3 coils on that bank. Chances are while the one lone coil would be ok for a while it would sooner rather than later cause misfires and you'd be back at the engine again.
Sincerely,
MarcW.
I restarted the car about 10 mnts after I got the shudder and light.... it shuddered and the light flashed with that restart. Tonight it seemed fine as I pulled it around for the flatbed. Great. It better light tomorrow at the repair shop. I will post what it is hopefully tomorrow. My mechanic is pretty sure it is a coil.
Other than the spray method, can the mechanic tell if a coil looks bad? In other words, can he identify any "going to fail" coils? A tow will pay for a few of them so it may be prudent to replace a few... but which ones?[/quote]
well, he has the error codes which tells you (him) which cylinders experienced misfires so those coils are suspect right now.
Before you have the car towed, if you want to go to the trouble, you can clear the error codes and resume driving the car again. If the misfires come back read the codes, note the cylinders and then any duplicates from the previous incident those are the coils you replace. Of course you don't take the car out on a long drive but hang around close to home, in cell phone coverage and you belong to a good auto club so the tow's free or at least low cost.
Or you can clear the codes and swap the coils from those cylinders that misfired with those coils from the cylinders that did not misfire and see if the misfires follow the coils. If they do, well, you have pretty good indication which coils to replace.
Or given some coils will prove to be in need of replacement, you can just replace all 6. That is if the misfires were coming from one coil and upon inspection this coil was obviously showing signs of deterioation while the other coils looked ok (not as 'dry' looking, no signs of any cracking of the coil body, all the rubber on the coil still pliable and not cracked, etc.) then replacing this one coil makes some sense.
If you get two coils on one cylinder that prove to be suspect, bad, then I'd suggest you just replace all 3 coils on that bank. Chances are while the one lone coil would be ok for a while it would sooner rather than later cause misfires and you'd be back at the engine again.
Sincerely,
MarcW.