Evening All,

This vehicle broke down today and my initial findings are that the two coils are not working.

Background: I first attended this vehicle about 6 weeks ago at a garage which had bought the vehicle as a non-runner. I diagnosed an immobiliser fault and the garage had the ECU converted to free run and the vehicle started and ran. A few days later, the vehicle broke down and I diagnosed that both coil packs were faulty. The vehicle was fuelling and the garage fitted a new crank sensor prior to my arrival. Diagnosis of faulty coil packs was by scoping the primary ignition which was good and ignition dwell which showed about 25 degrees under cranking conditions. New coils were fitted and the car started and ran. The EML was illuminated and diagnosed as camshaft sensor. A new sensor extinguished the light.

My initial quick look today showed that there was no spark to either coil and checking the ignition dwell on cranking it was approx 25 degrees again. Did not have time to scope nor check fuelling. So it appears that the two coil packs have failed yet again.

I thought it was most odd when the two coils failed together the first time and this is now beyond coincedence. Initially the spark plugs were replaced because they were well worn and I thought this may be a factor. The new coil packs are an after-market product and have no idea of make.

So what has caused the problem? On my visit today, I noticed a plug lead was too short and the connection was poor at a coil pack resulting in a big gap for the spark to jump. Could this have brought down the TWO coil packs? Could the ECU modification (free-run) cause the problem? Maybe a surge of amps down the coil positive feed?

Would welcome your thoughts.

Regards

Pete M