Arghhh!!! Coil Pack

Hey guys, I've been having a bunch of symptoms lately - but to jump to the point, anyways, I believe one of my problems is being caused by a bad coil pack. My question is about testing the coil pack.

AutoZone can't test the 3.4 coil packs. But I think I might be able to. I have a voltage reader thing (where it has 2 wires and a digital readout, and you can touch the ends on either end of a wire or something to see if current is getting through). There are 3 coil packs in the 3.4. On each one, there is a negative lead at the base, and then 2 up on top that send spark to the wires. My question is, wouldn't I be able to test the packs using my voltage meter? Couldn't I just pull each one at a time, put one probe on the bottom thing, and the other probe on each top one at a time, and be able to figuire out which has the lowest readout compared to the others? I'm going to tackle this in a day or two (I have already bought a new pack), and am wondering if it's going to work. Let me know what you guys think. THanks

Ridenour

Hey Ride, sounds like it would work, you could also un-plug the wires from each one at a time to find out which onw you unplug and it makes no difference as to how the engine runs.

Hope you track it down,
Dan

Ok thanks Dan. I'm gonna give it a go tommorow - I"ll let you know how things turn out.

What are the symptoms you have been having Ride? As far as testing them with a DVM, you should perform a resistance test. To do this set your meter to resistance. Before you begin the test always check your zero on the meter when performing this test by touching both probes together, you should see a readout of "0" or close to it. Then remove all three coils for each coil read the resistance between both sprk plug wire terminals and record the value. Next, test the resistance between both terminals on the ignition module side of the coil (NOTE: Not the ignition module itself, just the flip side of the coil where it would plug into the ign. module) and record the value. Do this for all three coils and compare the values between each. Any coil that gives you a "zero" reading or very low reading most likely has a short in it. And if the reading is very high (higher than the rest of them) or no reading at all, it most likely has an open connection or has been burnt out real good. HTH

Marc

Thanks Mark. Shit I wish I would've seen your reply before I just went out and tested it :(. I went out there and tried to do it with my own technique, which was between each base terminal / spark cap as pairs, but it didn't work, so I just took the pack with the crappiest looking connections out :(. It also happened to be the pack for cyls. 1 & 4, which I happened to have a misfire on 1 a while back. I took it for a drive - still runs like shit. Oh, by the way, the "symptoms" that I was talking about are really choppy idle, and hesitating a shitload when accelerating. It's weird, cause sometimes it doesn't do it at all - and it seems to be irrelevant of engine temp / air temp. But tommorow or sometime I'll go out and try that new technique. Thanks Mark & Dan.

I am not sure if this will help you or not....... but I drive a 93... and have been having all kinds of trouble too, but I really think that the resolution to my problem is going to be my crank position sensor. I am getting a very erratic spark in the coil packs. My car will hardly start, but it started out losing power and all the fun stuff. I will be putting the sensor on the car over the weekend... I will let you know if it works.

I am not sure if this will help you or not....... but I drive a 93... and have been having all kinds of trouble too, but I really think that the resolution to my problem is going to be my crank position sensor. I am getting a very erratic spark in the coil packs. My car will hardly start, but it started out losing power and all the fun stuff. I will be putting the sensor on the car over the weekend... I will let you know if it works.


How hard was it to change the crank sensor ?
did it fix erratic spark ??