94 Jetta Ignit. Coil help

I have a 94 Jetta that isn't getting any Spark. I have power to the coil but no power out. Car sat for 2 months without starting, but ran fine before. Before I lay down the $160 I would like to make sure the old coil is bad. My crappy chiltons manual specifies resistance in primary and seconday circuits but not sure which pins to use to test? There are three input pins and of course the output to the distributor. Any help would be appreciated.

Dan.

I'm pretty sure my coil is good, resistance checks out in primary and secondary circuits(hope I am testing the right leads). Anyway, from reading past posts it looks like crank sensor or hall sensor are next likely culprits of not having spark. Any info on price of either of these sensors as well as loaction of the crank sensor and work involved in changing it out would be appreciated.

thanks,

Dan.

I don't think yopui have a grank position sensor. The cam sensor is built into the distributor. If you pull the distributor harness connector there should be 12 Volts betwen the outer two pins with the key on. If you connect the haress and backprobe the center wire with a LED test light hooked to battery + it should flash when the engine is cranked. Doed the fuel pump run for a couple of seconds when the key is turned to on?

Bmann,

thanks for the tips. From a few old posts I read about crank position sensors being bad in the 2.0 L Jetta engines, so I am assuming that is a possibility. I can hear the pump run for a few secs when the key is turned to on and removed the fuel rail plug and had fuel pressure. After determining I didn't have spark to my plugs, or out of the coil, but did have a hot into the coil, and it looks like my coil checks out, I am looking for other ideas. I'll test the cam sensor as you suggest. Is this cam sensor what is commonly refered to as the Hall sensor in other posts? If I pull the harness and don't get the 12 volts or my test light doesn't flash when back probing the center lead does this point to a bad cam sensor? Can it be swapped out without replacing the distributor?

thanks for the help!

Dan.

Well I think I may be on the right track. Called the dealer for a quote on a crankshaft position sensor, they said the correct term is an impulse sender and that if bad would result in a no spark condition. They also said there is no camshaft sensor (the distributor performs this) and that if the hall sennsor (also within the distributor) is bad than I would need to replace the entire distributor, $250. Any help with location of impulse sender, testing of it, and work involved replacing it would be appreciated! Looks like I might have to pick up a service manual, chiltons is pretty worthless at this point!

Dan.

Hall sender, cam sender it's all the same thing. It's integral to the distributor so you have to replace it all. Complete distributors are widely available at most auto part stores. Checking for Voltage at the outer two pins eliminates ground & hot problems to the Hall sensor. Backprobing the center wire shows whether the Hall sensor is doing it's job. There is an engine speed sensor that some may call a crank sensor (your dealer calls "impulse sender"). It is used like the knock sensor to modify ignition timing. It is located at the left rear of the engine (timing belt is front) near the oil filter housing. I don't know any definitive test for it, but the black wire to it should be ground & there should be resistance between the green & red wires on the sensor.

Bmann,
thanks for all your help. After talking to the dealer about distributor, Hall-cam sensors, impulse senders, etc, I called a few VW shops to get some prices to compare as well as to try and get some free info or advice. Most shops just said bring it in and get it hooked up to a scope. Well at $150 for a flatbed to get it there and another $70 to just hook it up, I just didn't want to go there quite yet. One shop, after quoting me some prices asked if my check engine light came on when trying to start the car, when I said no, they correctly guessed I had a bad computer relay. Now I had a spare fuel pump relay, and had checked all the fuses, but nowhere had I seen any mention of a cumputer ECU relay in my chiltons or mentioned by the dealer or any shop other than this one. $20 and a new relay problem solved!! When I got to the shop, the only thing that made me fill a little better about not being able to locate the problem myself were four other Jettas all towed to the shop with the same problem, all that day! I guess hot weather or a car being parked for a while doesn't sit well with these relays. Hope this helps someone else out. A good service manual is my next purchase as soon as I finished wiping my arss with the Chiltons or Chitons manual, since that is about all it is good for!

The ECU relay is also known as the power supply relay. If you did the first check I mentioned about having 12V on the outer two pins of the distributor harness connector you would not have had the 12V+ side from the ECU. That would tell you that the ECU was not getting/sending power & lead you to the power supply relay. I'm glad they thought of asking about the light, that's another good sign the relay is not sending power.