Ever bought/changed a coil pack?

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Of all the vehicles I have owned I have never had to buy or change one. Am I lucky or are some vehicles just prone to having them fail?
 
You're lucky... or you haven't put enough miles on your cars. I've had to change them on nearly every car I've had. Some needed replacing yet again.
 
As spark plugs wear and the "gap" increases and the load on the coil pack increases accordingly, ultimately accelerating their failure. The coil pack increases power to the spark plug to always keep it firing, and that gets harder as the gap increases.

Replace your plugs at regular intervals, don't try to squeeze every mile you can out of them and you'll likely increase the lifespan of your coils. I set of spark plugs is a lot cheaper than coil packs.

Ed
 
I had 3 of them gone bad in my M3. I could have changed it myself but it was in the middle of winter so I couldn't bother. They changed all 6 of them.
 
Dad and I changed the single coil on his 69 Galaxy 500 , 302 cid engine , maybe in the 1970's ?

I may have changed one on one of my cars . Can not remember clearly enough to say for sure .

Truth is , cars , now a days , are running more miles than in my youth . Maybe that has something to do with it ?
 
In the old days of carbs it was common for the coils to last maybe 50-60k miles before needing to replace it. Those were just cheap cylinder oil filled styles...we would always upgrade a chrome unit lol. Nowadays, I have only noticed that GM 4.2 inlines and 3.6L motors go thru coils often.
 
Dodge Caliber, had one fail, RockAuto'ed one. Easy to swap out.
RamPromaster company ride, CEL came on, bad miss, failed coil pack. Car was in the shop for a week, excuse was the Fiat coil pack came from Italy.
Chrysler T&C, failed coil on the rear bank gave a CEL. Had all plugs and pack replaced, repair shop said all other coils tested fine. I don't know how coils are tested, took their word on it. And I wasn't going to be the one digging into the rear bank. A man needs to know his limits.
As I'm thinking, all were FCA products that had coils go boink.
 
My uncle's 2001 F150 4.6 liter would kill the furthest forward one (on the passenger side) with regularity....

We never could figure out why.


My 2008 F150 4.6 has never had one fail with 192,000 miles on it.
 
When I worked at the Ford dealer mid 2000s we replaced them constantly on the trucks. One employee in our body shop had to replace all of his over a period of a year on a 2003 f150.

I've never seen one fail on a gm truck from the 2000s, or any of the hei coils in my old 1980s cars (knocks on wood).

Some vehicles seem prone to them failing more than others. Change spark plugs more often to prevent failure, is good advice.
 
"coil pack" is a misnomer when used to refer to a coil-on-plug module.


I had bad coils on a Mazda MPV (Duratec 3.0) and had to replace several.
 
I have done them all on my Jeep. When I bought it it still had the original coils. The little springs that make contact with the plugs were rusted out. When I went to change the plugs they fell apart.
 
Originally Posted by Linctex
My uncle's 2001 F150 4.6 liter would kill the furthest forward one (on the passenger side) with regularity....

We never could figure out why.

Least cooling, ran the hottest? Vibration?
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Myself, I don't think I've ever replaced one. Never owned a gasser long enough I guess.
 
Originally Posted by supton
Originally Posted by Linctex
My uncle's 2001 F150 4.6 liter would kill the furthest forward one (on the passenger side) with regularity....

We never could figure out why.

Least cooling, ran the hottest? Vibration?
21.gif


Myself, I don't think I've ever replaced one. Never owned a gasser long enough I guess.


The cowl drains on top of them so whenever it rains they get soaked.
 
I've changed the coil pack on my daughters 2012 Cruze 1.4 twice now. According to my friend that works at a chevy parts counter, he keeps extra in stock.
 
Originally Posted by ZZman
Of all the vehicles I have owned I have never had to buy or change one. Am I lucky or are some vehicles just prone to having them fail?


Lots and lots of them over the years. Saab cassette box is notorious as is some VW, Ford COP and many others.
 
I've been lucky. Ive never had a coil go bad since 1980 ( in 76 Buick regal 350). I do under gap my plugs by about .005.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by ZZman
Of all the vehicles I have owned I have never had to buy or change one. Am I lucky or are some vehicles just prone to having them fail?

Changed all 6 last year. These two were the worst, everything was fine until I took a drive in the rain.
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