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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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| 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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| You might even have a "G" model from that period, like the pic that linked for jpvwaudi (the first shot). Hope you feel better. I'm fighting a cold myself, our 20 month old has one, and now I think we're about set to pass them around to each other. | |
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I am seriously confused about the FUD being spread about how inferior US gasoline causes coil packs to fail. that sounds like "an answer for every question within 5 seconds, no matter what it is," not anything that can be secured with data. you can put steam in the cylinders instead of gas and it ain't gonna stress the coil packs. the computer tells 'em when to fire. if the spark plug sparks and sinks the current, which depends on the ignition wire set and the plugs being in good shape, the job is done. you can crank a dead engine until the starter melts down and it isn't going to hurt the coil packs that there is no explosion in the cylinders. I repeat, under the present laws of physics on the third planet from the sun, there is nothing in a fuel/air mix that is going to affect the ignition coil. the argument has the gestalt of science only if you look at it with your glasses off and through a hangover. |
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Thought all of you might want to know that when my dealer called me yesterday to let me know that my car was "ready", I started asking a lot of questions. I want to thank you all for helping to educate me on what questions to really ask. He told me with certainty that the parts put into production cars all last year are the same as in mine (purchased in July '02), Until VW finally went to different part as of--get this--January 1, 2003. So, all of us who are driving a 1.8T have these defective parts. I asked if any of the cars with the new Ignition coils would have reached the US market yet, and he said there would be no way that they are here yet. So, my ignition coils that were replaced in October and November(twice!), that we were told were the new coils, were in fact not the new coils, because those did not come available until 1/1/03. So, until he told me this yesterday, I thought I was done with the coils problem, since 4 would have been replaced by now. Four have in fact been replaced, but three were replaced with faulty coils. UNBELIEVABLE. But, I guess it explains why my car had to sit for two weeks at the dealer to get the part. I t only took them about 17 seconds to install the damn thing, but they couldn't get thier hands on it for TWO weeks. Can't wait to see what the attorney specializing in lemon law has to say about it. And if not, I'd like to see what Carmax has to offer....Do I hear any offers? |
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at least we now know about the alleged repaired coils. wonder what the identification is on the good ones.... the ones that probably aren't on anybody's shelves yet. be nice of VW to run a recall when they are sorta sure these coils have insulation on them. |
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