What damage does a bad ignition coil cause to your car. And can you still drive with a bad one?

Thanks

 

i've been driving with bad coil/coils for almost 2 months now. I would love to find out aswell.

 

(i've been driving with bad coil/coils for almost 2 months now. I would love to find out aswell.)

How do you know you have bad coils?

Also, how do you quote a previous message in a reply?

 

I doubt it does any damage, except for the "pinging" that is associated with it... excessive pinging can damage it. But I'm not sure if the pinging from coil failure is really bad or not...

Oh, and if any cylinders run without ignition for a while, the excessive fuel spewn out the exhaust can overheat the catalytic converter I think... you'd tell due to the "rotten eggs" smell though.

 

I drove my Maxima with a "known" bad coil until i figured out what the problem was and purchased coils; it was very annoying and embarassing to drive a $30,000 car that shakes and sound like crap. Gas mileage sucks also.

 

A 2000 was never even remotely worth 30k... And the mileage, eh, it's not prime, but good enough.

 

Thanks for your info

 

"A 2000 was never even remotely worth 30k"

What do you mean by that? The sticker price on mine was over $30k, although I paid $25,800.