No not THOSE Brazillians Shannon.

A Lesson in emergency troubleshooting.

It was a nice day today so rolled the car out . I was out for over 2 hours and the car ran flawlessly. I decided to head home as it was getting dark and right around the corner of my house about 200 yards , the car dies ..

I just can't belive it , what a great ride , I was totally pumped .. I wanted to jump out and do the Nigel Mansell and just push it the rest of the way ... naw ...

Hoped out, popped the engine lid .. and was surprised my belt was intact .. . but that's another story .. any way i have 15 minutes to total darkness and a car to fix.

Okay it is fuel or spark. turn on the ignition walk around back , here the whine . ignition box probably okay, whip the air filter cover off, lift the plate , hear the pump, pump is okay. Fairly confident relay is okay also , but there is an aditional component of the relay that provides power until the car is started and sensor plate takes over so I swap it with another relay to make sure.

Still no start. absolutely nothing.

Go around back , whip off distributor cap, cap and rotor are in one piece, go to front, turn it over , run around back again, the rotor is in a different spot. The distributor is probably okay and is turning the rotor.

I am 90 % confident of the cause now ..

Run home , grab my original 30 year old coil from my spares draw and a few tools. Sprint back to the car as it is almost totally dark . Whip off that NEW silver Brazillian Bosch coil that has been in there about 6 months, throw in the original and voila , car fires.. runs perfect ...

total down time .. 12 minutes .. I think I am ready for the Le Mans pit crew ..

 

Wow !

That was a quick diagnosis and repair

 

yeah ... it is amazing what sheer panic will do .. :-)

 

Is your neighbourhood that dangerous?

 

Nicely done!!!!

I would do what I've done and both call & e-mail the people at Bosch about what utter pieces of sh*t these Brazilian coils are. Further, I told them that if this problem persisted, I would no longer buy them.

Perhaps if enough people did just that by recounting their experiences, they might find another venue where to make them. I've voted with my feet and use other coils such as MSD.

 

Steve W.: Amen!

ice: Now aren't you glad that you saved your old coil? The original is still on my '82 (203K miles), and it doesn't even leak yet!

 

First of all, I am jealous that you went for a ride today. I am so paranoid of salt that I never even consider such a thing until the sping after some good rain and road clean up.

Secondly, I am totally impressed by your story. To have that much knowledge of your car and to be able to diahnose the problem and fix the car on the spot is amazing.

 

Great job...I just replaced my coil..........dohhh with a bosch...I think I saved the old one....I hope I DID.

 

You are very lucky it happened so close to your house. Imagine if it had happened on the 401 with all the transports blasting by.

 

Well guys I was basically VERY lucky today ... Steve if you know an email address i would be more than happy to email bomb them.

Pete, I have troubleshot long enough to know that unless something is proven dead , you don't throw it out. Actually when I got that coil as an emergency spare i hated it because it was silver. I am kind of glad it is dead so I can pitch it, it looks down right tacky on my car.

MAtt and Justin. I was at the G2G this morning and the weather was well above zero all day. With all the rain we have had the salet is well gone ( notice all the white gone off everyones tyres ? ) It was a great day for a run so I was out in North Burlington and Cambridge for a couple of hours.

Frank it is not that dangerous but I would not want to leave my 911 where it was over night. the road right into the neighbourhood in plain site of everyone.

I was very releaved to have it fire up , but as I was running back with the coil I was fairly confident as I have heard Steve talk about these coils before, and I am prrof to his pudding , this thing died immediately and without warning. Mat is right , if it had been on the 401 ( Canadas busiest highway right by my house ) I would have been in real trouble as I did not have my cell phone.

 

2 things I always bring with my when driving the P-car, in fact any car. A credit card and a cell phone. With my luck the one time I forget one of those is the one time I will need them.

Cheers!

 

yep .. my luck exactly

 

Don't get rid of that old silver coil as Bosch might want that back. I would hope they are interested in forensics to find the source of the failures.

LOL,..I can envision everyone in North America sending their silver defective coils to Bosch USA as that would certainly get their attention.

Robert Bosch LLC
38000 Hills Tech Dr.
Farmington Hills, MI 48331
Tel 248-876-1000

E-mail links can be found at:
http://www.bosch.us/content/language1/html/index.htm

 

Does Bosch having a manufacturing plant in China?

John

 

Is Ice the man or what!!!

well done