Anyone know the numbers I should be getting when I measure the resistance for my ingition coils on a 2000 Maxima SE? Also, which cyclinders #1-6 correspond to their location on the block? (i.e. left to right, front to back).

 

Between terminals 2 and 3:
0-ohms is bad, anything greater than 0-ohms is good.

Cylinder #1 is front side closest to passenger side, cylinder #6 is back side closest to passenger side

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You'll be lucky if you have coil shorted so badly that it can be measured by ohmmeter. More accurate test would be measuring inductance because that's what makes sparks. Even one shorted turn brings it almost to zero while ohmmeter won't show any problems. So if you can get hold on inductance meter you could compare your coils and find failed one by low inductance value. Don't know exact range, though.

Mike.

 

True! You cannot use an ohmmeter alone to do it. If you wanna do it, you'll need a resistor and a wave generator.

go here if you're really interested:
http://et.nmsu.edu/~etti/fall96/elec...ct/induct.html

SHIFT_woosh

 

On second thought, just hold the meter for approx 5 secs for a stabilized reading against a good one or all of them. The different reading should be the bad coil.

SHIFT_woosh

 

That's what I meant "lucky" - usually ohmmeter on high voltage transformers doesn't help much because it can't see single/small group of shortened turns. Even one such turn is enough to kill sparks but may be not enough to burn coil down to be noticed by ohmmeter. I also think coils normally do have some difference in resistance due to technological variation. The curcuit from the link can be used only if you have access to variable frequency sine generator which is hard to imagine . More realistic approach would be to rent multimeter with ability to measure inductance: failed coil will have inductance in tens times less than the rest of the pack. One can also purchase an extra coil and use it as substitute until failed one found. Time consuming procedure, though. If someone can confirm that failed coils CAN BE detected by ohmmeter because ignition system is powerful enough to burn it completely it would bring some peace to my heart .

Mike.