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5 Coil Pack Went At Once?


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Can you believe that after turning my car off when running probably the best it ever has been and getting back into it 5 mins later 5 coil packs all blew??

WTF is that about??? I was slightly annoyed about having to pay nearly 100 quid for one only to find out 5 have gone!!!

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Thats exactly what I thought! I spoke to a friend of mine who works for Lexus and he said he's never heard of 5 going like at once!

The mechanic attached a computer to it and it bascially gave him loads of errors. I explained that I was told by a previous mechanic that coil pack 4 was gone. When i tried to change coil 4 with the new one the problem persisted. So I tried to change 3 instead. That didnt fix it so I tried changing all of them. That was what caused all of the errors.. He cleared them all and tried it again to get a clearer reading and he said 3 of them had gone!

When I got there he had changed not 3 but 4 AND all 6 spark plugs! He changed 2,3,4 and 5! He said that it was all running ok now but number 1 wasnt great!??? I tured the car on and the problem was still there???? Now he has ordered the 5th coil pack to replace 1. I've got a funny feeling thaty he'll replace that and it still wont get rid of the problem. You can clearly feel the car misfiring so its gotta be that....right?

I havent done any cleaning or anything in the engine.

Should I ask the guy for what codes he is getting then?? Surely he should know? So far I've paid £461 with no result?

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Shame you don't live by me as i have an OBDII reader connected to my IS200 all the time, simple plug n play swop to yours. I'll be able to give you the error codes. The only other reason they are actually all gone is that it's been left running misfiring for a number of yrs with one coil going one at a time!

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Shame you don't live by me as i have an OBDII reader connected to my IS200 all the time, simple plug n play swop to yours. I'll be able to give you the error codes. The only other reason they are actually all gone is that it's been left running misfiring for a number of yrs with one coil going one at a time!

I actually live in Waltham Abbey, Essex. Thanks for the offer.. I may take you up on that if i still dont get any joy. Where about in Kent are you?

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It would be worth you buying an OBDII reader to read the codes yourself, they cost less than £30 on eBay (e.g. like this one for a standalone reader), or even less if you've got a laptop. If you post the codes up then folks here can help you try and figure out what the problem is.

If replacing those coil packs hasn't sorted the problem, then he shouldn't be charging you for those parts, since you don't need them (and he can put the old ones back in).

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ok, found out what the problem was and I have got a distinct feeling that not a single coil pack needed to be changed!

This stupid mechanic after changing 4 coils found a large semi circle shaped object in the tray under the engine. Not knowing what it was he decided to put it on my front seat. When I went back to see him he said that he thought it had come off another car and landed on my tray. I said that that was hardly possible as this object was bloody big and not to mention quite heavy. Anyway..............5 coils later, £461 I've found out that the semi circle thing was actually my crank pulley torsioner. It split in half leaving on half on the tray that caught it and the other still on the crank causing the car to seriously vibrate when the accelerator was pushed due it being unbalanced. This mechanic has just removed the other half telling me that my car is now ok! After quite a while talking to him he still wont budge on the price i've paid for him to actually do nothing at all. He said that he cant get the money back on the coils (which is not my fault at all) and even if he did it would have cost me roughly the same amount in labour as it took him ages to find out what the actualy problem was (still not my fault)!

So, if anyone had a spare crank pulley torsioner (I know people usually have loads of them lying around lol) please let me know as I'm in serious need of one.

Also, does anyone know what the implications of not having one are as my car seems to run ok without one?

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I would stand your ground and get the money back from him, if it comes to it, contact the police, should this go to court. Why should you pay for something that didn't need replacing because the mechanic doesn't know what he's doing? Have you signed anything to say that you are liable to pay for the parts he replaced that didn't need to be?

Another point, has your mechanic explained to you what he was going to do and you have given him oral permission to change parts and that you agree to pay for the parts and labour even if it doesn't fix the problem? But this is his word against yours and end of the day it's whats on paper that really counts. Another thing, don't pay him anymore and leave your car at the garage, because the minute you take the car, it bascially means you accept the work he's done and getting back the money will be alot more difficult.

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I would be on the phone to the local Trading Standards office straight away. He is obviously highly incompetent and has ripped you off.

Check this website link for a phone number and links to useful info. There's even a specific bit on problems with cars, which (in the section on repairs/servicing) says that you are "entitled to expect that the work be carried out with reasonable care and skill", something that seems highly lacking in your case.

I wouldn't hang about in sorting out a tensioner, who knows what will happen without one on there, it might be fine at the moment but who is to say that the belt won't jump off and wreck your engine ?!

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I agree with the others, this guy is ripping you off.

I had a Corrado with a missfire, my uncle is a mechanic and checked out what the small things would be with no joy, it then went to my local garage and they couldnt find the problem, they suggested an auto electrician that i went to see again with no joy...up till now had to pay NO money as no realy work was done.

final piece of advise was go to VW which i did they had it a whole day with all there computers on it and a couple of techies and sorted missfire...turned out to be crank sensor and another sensor somewhere.

as I have gone on a bit the point is I only payed VW the others said because they couldnt do the work they didnt charge.

I feel for you...You could but your old coil packs back on and sell your new ones on eBay...make a bit of £ back.

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I agree with the others, this guy is ripping you off.

I had a Corrado with a missfire, my uncle is a mechanic and checked out what the small things would be with no joy, it then went to my local garage and they couldnt find the problem, they suggested an auto electrician that i went to see again with no joy...up till now had to pay NO money as no realy work was done.

final piece of advise was go to VW which i did they had it a whole day with all there computers on it and a couple of techies and sorted missfire...turned out to be crank sensor and another sensor somewhere.

as I have gone on a bit the point is I only payed VW the others said because they couldnt do the work they didnt charge.

I feel for you...You could but your old coil packs back on and sell your new ones on ebay...make a bit of £ back.

Thanks mate. I was thinking about putting the coils on eBay.. Knowing my luck, i'll sell them and then one of my old ones WILL actually go :winky:

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