YAHOO,YIPPEE,YESSSSS! I'VE SORTED IT!!! .After weeks of stress,sleepless nights,hair pulling and money wasting,i got the car sorted.Main dealer didn't have clue,two seperate diagnostic testsaid "NO FAULTS".I swapped just about everything obvious,temp sender,relays,plugs,dizzy cap, rotor,etc,and no joy.Today i thought "one more try" sent my mate to the scrappy to get an ecu,he came back with a coil? by mistake,i obviously hadn't explained well enough.The coil looked like new (bosch) and he got it for nothing as his mates sister is the receptionist.I thought "well its free,i may as well try it".I was gobsmacked,the car ran and started like a new car.Yet i fitted a new coil from gsf,not long ago,so thought it couldn't possibly be the coil.Everything i seem to buy from gsf has a problem,am i just unlucky or are the parts just cheap and nasty?Surely a coil should last longer than a few months? I'm taking the coil back to gsf tomorrow,and i'm going to let them know,just how much money i've wasted trying to sort a car out,when all along it was a coil that was barely out the box,that was causing the problems. Thanks to everyone who offered me help and advice,it was very much appreciated,and i hope my tale of woe,might help someone else sort a similar prob without wasting money on parts that aren't needed.Thanks again all.
how odd is that... you were well lucky mate no chance that the coil wasnt connected properly? re tried the old one back on?
Yes mate old one on and back to the old prob.Weird but happy its sorted,but not happy about a nearly new coil packing up.
much oddness, the mk3 coils do have a reputation for being a bit weak! You can convert back to the MK2 type if it fails again
What is the actual problem with the mk3 coils? Is there something vw aren't telling everyone? Surely if its a model specific fault vw should have recalled the model and rectified the problem.Luckily my car has been faultless,but the wifes is on its fourth coil in 18 months!! and a mate of mine reckons his kills a coil every 2/5000 miles,and yet no other fault has been found with his car to suggest its contributing to premature coil failiure. I'm guessing there isn't an issue with the mk2 coil? and what would be involved in converting mk3 to mk2 coil?
They just seem to fail alot more often than the old MK2 cols is all, not sure why! If you want to fit a MK2 coil what you do is get a MK2 coil, TCI unit plus the loom between the TCI & coil, don't forget the brn/white wire to the battery -ve Ideally a MK2 8v digifant or 16v K-jet setup is what you want, but a carb or 8v k-jet one will also work. You'll just end up with some extra wires from the TCI to the dizzy which you wont need as the MK3 ECU is wired to the dizzy direct. What you do is chop the plug off the MK3 coil unit, match the black wires to the +ve on the MK2 coil, and the ECU wire to pin 6 on the TCI unit, this can be red/blk or green/red on the MK3 ECU side and is usually green on the MK2 TCI unit side. I think thats all there is to it on a MK3, I've done the same job on an MK3 ABF engine loom, but I fitted that to a MK2 using MK2 clocks etc...
i beleive that my mk3 is actually on the same coil it left the factory with (12years and 170k miles ago) but it is definately on its way out.
hey, anyone know what make GSF and VW's coils are? i think VW OEM items are BERU. AVS VW sell BERU coils for about 30. dunno which to go for. ECP seem to do two coils as well
Some pattern electrical parts are shockingly bad. Working in an independent garage we use alot of pattern parts, and have seen electrical stuff fail very quickly indeed. I would say there are a couple of probs with the mk3 coil. Firstly it's location. Almost directly above the exhaust manifold is not the best place to put an electrical device. Secondly, the amplifier is mounted onto the back of the coil and is sealed in. This gets hot in operation and the heat can't go anywhere except into the coil. Combined with the heat from the manifold it's a surprise they last as long as they do. I have found that the coil used in Seats is the best one to go for. Th amp is mounted on the back of the coil, but the plate it sits on is mounted to the coil via posts so the heat can get out (ie the amp is exposed).
