Coil Issues?

[Chris89turbo]

Bought my first Esprit 3 months ago, and after multiple electrical issues, and a clutch change 10 days after I bought it, I can lick this!!! lol

I am missing spark on the front cylinder closest to the firewall, and I checked the plug wire from the coil to the plug, and there is no current flowing... What do I need to know about checking this coil? This happened in wet weather a few weeks ago, and have had ignition problems in the water before, so it could be corosion.. Each time it dried & ran fine, but this time, NO GO...

C

[trackmagic]

I would first pulled the distributor cap and make sure there isn't a crack. That is the only thing I would say would explain wet weather issues. Make sure the plug wires leading into the cap have good boots to seal to the cap.

Jeff

[Chris89turbo]

Cant do that on this car since there is no distributor that I can see.. It is a direct connections from the plugs directly to the coil(s)... I LOVE THIS CHALLENGE!! haha

[ozontour]

Hi Chris, have you got an after market setup?

Photos?

Justin

[Malc Holmes]

Chris,

Sure you have a turbo, and not an SE turbo? The turbo had a single coil with distributer, the SE turbo a coil pack with electronic control monted near the air filter box on the RH side of the engine bay.

If its an SE then if the coil is bad you will be loosing a spark to 2 cylinders, not just 1. Take the coil pack off the base and make sure the terminals on the base going into the coil are green with copper corrosion. If they are, clean them up and your problem will probably be solved. If the coil is realy duff you can get new coils alone easily on e-bay , just search for D555.

You have checked the plug wire itself by exchanging it for a known good one havent you?

Malc

[Vulcan Grey]

NOTE to British people

All USA 89 Turbos are GM fuel injected, GMP4 system.

They are very similar to the SE, except that they do not have the secondary injectors and they use a slightly older non-waterproof ECU.

Chris' car has the 2 GM coils, wasted spark, no distributor.

One coils fire both the 1&4 plugs at the same time, and the other fires the 2&3 plugs at the same time. Wasted spark...

So if the problem is with 2 plugs ie. 1&4 or 2&3, then it is most likely the coil pack. Though there is also the injector driver part of the ECU, which tells the coils to fire.

There is a section in the manual called Engine Management EMH which has a procedure for trouble shooting the injector driver and the coil packs.

Most likely you have bad wires, try swapping the wires to check spark.

[Artie]

Chris,

Where in Kansas are you? I'm out in Lee's Summit MO(KCMO). Check to see if cylinder 4 gets spark, if it is, then your number 1 ignition wire may just be shot. If number 4 isn't firing, get some MSD GM 2 post coils to replace the stockers, they bolt directly in place and provide better spark and are pretty cheap at $45 or so each from Jegs.com.

[jpspeedy]

I just put the MSD 8224 blaster coil packs on, after reading the above. Mine was idling rough I went out at night and started pull plug wires and noticed that two of them had low low spark jumping from the plug wire. Autozone stores stock the MSD 8224 coil packs $46.00 each, requires two. what a difference it made. Besides idle smoother and has alot more power now. jim

[andydclements]

I'm about to buy a pair of those MSD ones, around

[andydclements]

The new coils are on, and it appears the misfiring has been reduced dramatically.

I may have been able to achieve the same with standard new coils or even work on the old ones, but I'm hoping the new ones are better than OE, so may give slightly better spark anyway.

The problem with the old coil pack is clear (one appears OK, one not OK).

Here's the good pack.

And the not so good pack.

I think those pins could explain a weakened spark to two cylinders, and so a slight unevenness to the idling.