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Maintenance & Repair Maintenance & Repair - Archived Discussions VW Ignition Coil Problems? 
243 messages, Last post on Aug 11, 2003 at 7:24 PM
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Still can't find any number (I did see the Audi rings on the block though!). I'll ask my neighbor to look. Anyway, mine is a 2001.5 Passat manufactured in 2001 - the first run of the soon to be 2002. I hope that this means no problem. Oh well. OK. I found a number 088 D. Is that it? |
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you can put six or eight coil packs in environmental ovens and pulse 'em for a half year and they may well all test OK. things are a little different when you get into production... the coil winder machines are cranked up in speed, you use larger spools of wire and may get twist in the coils, coils are bumped along in transport cartons from one work station to another, rubbing all the way, where you used hand labor to move the prototypes around on the production stations, now machines clamp 'em around the middle, squeeze, and rotate... lots of changes. anything wrong in the entire process that nicks a wire, scratches insulation, or puts kinks in the windings, you are set up for part failure in a HV impulse coil. and that's what happens. you have to be in production and testing on the buyers to find these issues. |
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Well it happened! One coil went out on my 2002 1.8T Passat built in March 2002. I've been singing the praises of this car, and I still love it, but I've had 2 Infinitis with no problems, just routine maintainance, and this is my first German car since my Porsche that I owned 20 years ago. The dealer has been very good about it. they towed my car in and gave me a rental car, however they will not replace all 4 coils because of the demand for the part. I don't like driving the car knowing that the other 3 coils could go out at any time. Hopefully when they get caught up on production, they'll have a recall and replace all of the faulty coils I'm still very impressed with the car but I hope this is not an indication of things to come. If VW had not extended the warantee to 4 years, I probably would not have bought a Passat. |
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| Seems like the people who are having problems with coil packs have the turbo engine. Are the V6 engines at risk of coil pack problems? | |
| All of the VW and Audi engines have had problems including the new W8, which means you have 8 chances to return to your friendly service department. | |
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As I am reading all of these posts, I am wondering, has anyone researched federal lemon law, or state lemon law. I have just had it with our '02 Passat Wagon. It's had repeated coil problems, digital dash readout sometimes conks out, dealer can't find what's wrong, radio went dead and has been replaced. All before 6,000 miles. I'd drive it through the dealer's front window, but it's been sitting on their backlot, waiting for another bum coil for two weeks now. I get the great pleasure of paying to drive German engineering, but the loaner is an Intrepid. I am hot as lava about this junker. I hope that anyone who is considering buying a Passat reads this and decides to buy a Honda or a Toyota like we should have. I really hope that Consumer Reports reconsiders naming Passat a "recommended buy". And worse yet "top rated family sedan." I really will wonder how fast I can get rid of this car, as soon as the dealer can get this faulty part to replace the old faulty part. Thanks for letting me vent. All of you who have had this problem surely understand. |
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| Is more than likely due to the gasoline we get at a discount here in the good ole US of A. We, those of us who depend on VWoA to make a living, are now being told that the coil pack problem is due to certain chemicals added to US Spec gasoline. Apparently these chemicals are causing the ignition to spark too early creating the kind of problem we are experiencing. Remember, this exactly the reason (chemicals in our fuel) that we don't have the luxury of choosing a Passat TDI or a Touareg V-10. Bear with us, and write your Congressman. | |
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I'm having a hard time following the logic behind the statement that you are getting from the Head Office (VWoA). Are they saying that US premium fuel is causing this issue? They "recommend" premium and that's still igniting too soon? Crikey, if that's the case, then everyone running less than premium ought to be peeing their pants right about now! Maybe I don't understand the exact nature of the fault in these bad coils...but I'm under the impression that the insulation in the coil burns through, shorting the coil and causing it to no longer deliver spark to its spark plug. Is this not correct? If it is, then this has every telltale of a manufacturing error. The coil itself is not exposed within the combustion chamber, it's sitting on top of the spark plug. My "BS" detector just went off! And don't get me wrong, I'm not referring to you, I'm referring to what you have been told by VW. Without a much better explanation, I'm not buying it. Why don't the G models fail? You're in the business, how long has VW been using Coil Packs on their US exports? Specifically, what additive are we talking about? BTW, I got a '03 with the 1.8T with a June, '02 build date and have not had a failure yet, but I've got very low miles. |
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You've just been misdirected. The number is not actually visible, unless you remove the ignition wire from the coil pack. See this link for where the code is: http://members.cox.net/~bergs/passat/coil_pack.jpg However, there is another telltale. Pull the engine shroud. While standing in front of the car, look at the coil pack from the rear or windshield side. Then compare it to the first photo in this thread on Clubb5: http://clubb5.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=33587&page=1 If yours looks like the one on the left (H), you have the style that seems to be failing at an abnormally high rate. If you have the one on the right, you have the new style (J). The styling is slightly different on the ribbing near the top. Hope this helps. |
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altair4, Thanks for the info. I'll check in the morning, I'm home with a cold and don't feel like doing it. I should add that my Passat is a 2001.5 built in April of that year. I have 18,000 trouble-free miles so far. |
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