The Great Coil Mystery
12-29-2005, 03:07 PM
#1
The Great Coil Mystery
After reading the 5 page thread concerning coil problems with the '99 Max, as well as others related to the same topic, I've rounded the circle and am back to where I started. There seem to be varying views on 1. how to tell if a coil is bad (methodology) 2. what makes the coil bad 3. what brand is best and 4. how to directly isolate the problem.
I've only had my max for six months, but in such time have had my share of issues in the coil problem department. First off, let me say that one month ago, my car received a minor "tune up" if you will. I changed the spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter, pcv valve, cleaned the throttle body + IAC, and ran techron engine treatment. When I bought the car, I switched to mobil syn + purolator pure1 filter treatment. Up until a few weeks ago, the car ran like new. It has 41K on it now (previous senior citizen trade in only driven to bingo & dinner) and drove like a new car up until recent. But the misfires at idle started the problems. I found that one of the coils was losing contact with boot, so I replaced it (boot got stuck if coil pulled). I bought the duralast (AutoZone coil for $64) and put it in. No problems until a few days later. Right back to the same misfires. I then bought 1 front and 1 rear coil and swapped until symptoms disappeared. I found that the bad coil was another rear, and tested both removed coils. Both of the coils I took out and replaced were bad. However, Resistance testing showed no difference. Also, I tried the coil cleaning practice mentioned on this board with the two bad ones, and had absolutely no positive results. Within the past week, I've started to get a bit of a rough idle again, along with a 5 or so minute "warm up" time needed for the car to idle decent at all. Today, I took out the coils, inspected, reseated them ever so carefully, and tightened back up. Noticed an improvement in performance immediately. So basically I'm assuming the problem is going to come back sooner or later. I just wish our cars had normal spark plug wires instead of these shi tty coils.
I've only had my max for six months, but in such time have had my share of issues in the coil problem department. First off, let me say that one month ago, my car received a minor "tune up" if you will. I changed the spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter, pcv valve, cleaned the throttle body + IAC, and ran techron engine treatment. When I bought the car, I switched to mobil syn + purolator pure1 filter treatment. Up until a few weeks ago, the car ran like new. It has 41K on it now (previous senior citizen trade in only driven to bingo & dinner) and drove like a new car up until recent. But the misfires at idle started the problems. I found that one of the coils was losing contact with boot, so I replaced it (boot got stuck if coil pulled). I bought the duralast (AutoZone coil for $64) and put it in. No problems until a few days later. Right back to the same misfires. I then bought 1 front and 1 rear coil and swapped until symptoms disappeared. I found that the bad coil was another rear, and tested both removed coils. Both of the coils I took out and replaced were bad. However, Resistance testing showed no difference. Also, I tried the coil cleaning practice mentioned on this board with the two bad ones, and had absolutely no positive results. Within the past week, I've started to get a bit of a rough idle again, along with a 5 or so minute "warm up" time needed for the car to idle decent at all. Today, I took out the coils, inspected, reseated them ever so carefully, and tightened back up. Noticed an improvement in performance immediately. So basically I'm assuming the problem is going to come back sooner or later. I just wish our cars had normal spark plug wires instead of these shi tty coils.
12-29-2005, 03:10 PM
#2
Cliff notes > * ...
Get a full set from www.pinnaclenissan.com and stop wasting time with the duralst pieces.
Get a full set from www.pinnaclenissan.com and stop wasting time with the duralst pieces.
12-29-2005, 05:12 PM
#5
Member who somehow became The President of The SE-L Club
iTrader: (19)
Join Date: Jun 2001
Posts: 16,033
Originally Posted by NmexMAX
Cliff notes > * ...
Get a full set from www.pinnaclenissan.com and stop wasting time with the duralst pieces.
Get a full set from www.pinnaclenissan.com and stop wasting time with the duralst pieces.
Had similar experiance with my 99. Don't waste time trying to figure out why they measure good but misfire, it's not worth it. All mine measured out good, but the misfires were horrable. A new set clears things up and restores power.
12-30-2005, 02:19 PM
#6
100% chingon
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 1,003
There is only one way to definitively tell if the HT insulation of a coil is good, and that is with a HV insulation tester, like the Comark one that I've got sitting in my testgear cupboard. Apply 25KV DC across the secondary and measure the insulation resistance. If you know an engineer who works on power circuits then he should have such an item. It is required for proving the safety of electrical machinery and so on. The old version of such a device is called a 'Megger'.
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